How Much Software Engineers ACTUALLY Make

[@330DKNY]

No, the median is not that high. The data is from level which is only large FANG companies. All the engineers working at a banking, retail, manufacturing, etc. companies are not included

[@hextech687]

This is accurate

[@TorqueKMA]

Thank God. This had me sweating about how bad my negotiating skills must be.

[@pookiepats]

My org is 300 employees, total comp is 173k lol, 2 years in - stop comparing yourself to others. Just pursue what you feel you’re worth and continuously improve. Never heard of anybody improving watching KZbin videos, it’s just entertainment - you have to remember how detached these people are from the real world.

[@pookiepats]

I like this guy btw not trying to be crass

[@wawo9193]

I make 95k total comp 2 1/2 years into my first job. I know there are interns making more than me… but hoping I get a big jump when I get my next job. Oh well… I live a simple life lol

[@JasonTaylor-po5xc]

Working for a FAANG is not the norm - basically like ivy league for colleges but they do impact the averages. Also, salary or comp is only one part of the benefits package. Some companies have great benefits that should not be overlooked. For example, I worked for a niche IT consulting firm that paid 100% of health care premiums for family coverage on a decent HMO plan on a major network - basically a $20k+ yearly benefit (yes, good health care is expensive). When they were acquired by a major consulting firm and had to adopt their benefits plans, a similar coverage cost me over $800 per month (nearly $10k per year) as the employee. This is important to keep in mind when comparing similar offers.

[@TheRussianGenius]

When you said "at least give it a like" The like button glowed up. Never had that happen before on YT

[@Misteribel]

It has been a new feature since beginning this year, I believe, but creators need to switch it on, I assume, and not everyone goes to the trouble.

[@deletedchanneI]

it will react to "subscribe" too

[@neomangeo7822]

Remember guys, this is data just mainly from the most high end tech companies. The vast, vast, majority of companies don't fall under this bracket. Also yes, the reason the comp is so high in some of those really big companies like google etc is the stocks, but the base salary isn't hugely impressive really (not that I wouldn't mind it!).

[@Auto-Minute]

I could use a bump in salary lol As someone living in the bay area, seeing these salaries gives me some fomo. In any case, happy for you folks who are racking in the dough 😅

[@yelnatsch517]

But are you really a SWE if you aren’t working at those big companies? 🤔 jk 😅

[@Auto-Minute]

@@yelnatsch517 Savage lol

[@Wong-Jack-Man]

And don’t forget if you’re working for these big fang type companies you’re likely working and living in some metropolitan area with skyrocketing cost of living expense especially housing unless you were gifted full time remote which are rarer and rarer these days as companies are colluding to put a stop to it to bring back return to office and have engineers jump ship to other competitors.

[@crypticsailor]

Yes also the ones who were most likely to get laid off recently. So it's being "normalized" now.

[@dalagamble3164]

A lot of the companies who are now hiring lowered the offering salary since the layoffs . Like meta for example. They lowered their salary since last year by 10k.

[@Budulai89]

10k lower is nothing.

[@aaronarguetagoogle2296]

​@@Budulai89 its a precedence. probing to see how much less they can offer

[@dalagamble3164]

@@Budulai89 but u would think since of inflation and how the cost of living is going up, it would make sense and be more reasonable for salaries to go up rather than down. Imagine how much of a difference it will be in a few years. While salaries are going down the cost of living is going up.

[@Budulai89]

Meta employees are already getting paid top of the market. For them -10k is nothing. I think they are happy to have a high paying job. I'm sure there are many less paid jobs where $10k could make a difference. Regarding inflation, I think nowadays it is more important to keep your job(considering layoffs) instead of keeping up with inflation.

[@dalagamble3164]

@@Budulai89 nah bro I want my 10k these bills ain’t getting cheaper.

[@stevendeclercq3566]

thanks for being a straight shooter and saying data off the bat... liked and subscribed

[@tonykaze]

It's quite strange, but also kindof not surprising that salaries here in Japan for software engineers of comparable skill level are paid about 30-40% of US equivalents.

[@fenril6685]

This REALLY depends on the type of software engineer. Software Engineers educated in Machine Learning with a Masters or have some type of specialty such as embedded systems are going to be making the most right now. The jobs that are decreasing and have wage stagnation are mostly stuff like front end and web devs. There are just too many of those. Supply and Demand for job market is king when it comes to baseline wages.

[@AimlifestyleX]

Very True!!!!

[@Mekias]

I'm a mainframe developer with 21 years experience in Atlanta. Just got to 128k (base salary + bonus). When I got my recent promotion I thought, "Wow, I feel like I'm finally successful now!" While there may be software engineers with higher salaries, I don't feel like I'm poor by any means. It also helps that I'll be able to retire in 9 years with a nice pension on top of my other retirement savings.

[@Misteribel]

About stock options, you usually need to buy them, you are basically given a promise that you can buy the shares for a given price as long as you're staying at the company. If the shares price goes up, good, if it stays level, it could just as well be zero. They should not be added to the compensation like that, imo. If someone knows if this is different with some companies, as in, that the shares are given for free (say: you get $20k NFLX shares in your hands, not just the vesting/buying cycle), it would be sensible to add it to the compensation.

[@onlinealias622]

Most big tech companies grant you RSUs as part of your compensation, buying stock would be ESPP or something like that.

[@pizzadude007]

Here in Mexico a decent entry level job is between 350k - 600k MXN which is about 20k - 35k USD, so hearing about an entry level job in US is pretty insane to me. The highest I've seen is about 2 mill MXN which is about 115k US for a L5 job at Netflix.

[@Auto-Minute]

Yup! It's definitely insane looking in. The cost of living in places like the Bay Area, California is absolutely ridiculous. That's why during the surge of remote work due to the pandemic, a lot of engineers were looking to be hired at SF-based salaries and live somewhere out of the bay area.

[@zzzzzzzjsjyue2175]

our cost of living is wayyyyy higher

[@pizzadude007]

@@zzzzzzzjsjyue2175 I just checked in a cost of living calculator site and it says the cost of living in LA is 88% higher then Mexico City, yet the salary in LA is like 5 times as much, so it is still really disproportionate. Especially considering a lot of the times I'm comparing the same US based companies.

[@AndreaGonzalez-sc8de]

THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO! SERIOUSLY, THANK YOU

[@deanwilliams433]

Senior Engineers in most non-fang companies will be in the 135k-160k range. If you want more in those companies you need to take on management positions.

[@JasonTaylor-po5xc]

Yes, but there is a way to get around it - go with an IT consulting firm instead of working directly for a bank or health insurance company. Also, you have to factor in other benefits that hep offset the pay. When I worked for Disney, my salary as a lead software engineer was the same as a Senior Manager. Principles made about the same as a Director. If you need to make more than that, you needed to join the Dark Side.

[@hellowill]

2 years ago my friends were being offered 180k for senior. Now they offer that to principals lol. Those crazy high offers are gone. Might come back one day though!

[@deanwilliams433]

@@hellowill let's be honest the offers were way overinflated due to FAANG companies poaching all the candidates.

[@ergohash2517]

from what i saw its "across the globe average software dev salary = X amount. USA's dev salary = 2X or 3X amount".

[@pizzadude007]

Here in Mexico a decent entry level job is between 350k - 600k MXN which is about 20k - 35k USD, so hearing about an entry level job in US is pretty insane to me. The highest I've seen is about 2 mill MXN which is about 115k US for a L5 job at Netflix.

[@dingusfartacus9624]

pound for pound, the top 10% of the software workforce in the US delivers a lot more than what avg global dev delivers

[@Misteribel]

Apples and pears. In most European countries, you get tax deduction when buying a house, pension is covered, health care and most insurances are reasonable (car insurance is maybe a tenth, and you're covered into the millions), housing is generally much cheaper. You get 5 to 8 weeks of holiday a year, and 32 hour work weeks are common. Compare that to US where you work 60 how a week and get two weeks off a year, if that. It's really hard to compare one on one. Not saying one is better than the other, just that it's very different and not just the bare money compensation. But, if you're smart, you live in Europe and take the benefits, but work remotely in the US. Best of both worlds.

[@pleasethink4789]

Thank you for starting with the answer. I watched the rest of the video as a result. I figured, if the normal hook to watching a video was provided right from the get-go, I was sure that the remainder of the video had more to offer.

[@andraslacatos5832]

From someone outside the US: are these salaries pre-tax? If yes, what is the approximate amount after taxes? Do you know of any website covering this topic in the EU in greater detail?

[@MichaelMkrtch]

Yes it’s pre-tax in the US. Taxes vary by state, but somewhere like California it would be around $115,000 for a single person. As far as I know, salaries are generally lower in Europe than the US

[@wlcrutch]

@@MichaelMkrtchSalaries are MUCH lower in EU than US.

[@rustystrings0908]

I make $120k salary and take home maybe 80k at the end of the year after taxes and retirement investments

[@chummy8880]

Roughly 75% of the money depending on where you’re from but on average you get taxed anywhere from 20-30%

[@cenunix]

I think even after taxes the pay in the US is still considerably higher, there are also a lot of higher positions here in the US that start getting tonnnss of stock. So taxes may become a bit more confusing? As others mentioned though it’s around 75% take home, in WA state for me personally it’s 74.97% for 150k, and 72.58% take home for 250k.

[@iamserda]

You did not lie. Netflix started accepting L3(New Grads who are talented enough to be L3 at Google) and those started at 250K... Now it is lowered to about 220K Before 2020, Netflix used to exclusively only hire people who they deem as L5. Interestingly, some people got in out of college back then. It was hard but some made it. Picture a new college grad who is an L5 at Netflix. Eventually, they tighten things up and started requiring the years of experience. This is especially true now because it is easy to find someone with 7+ years of experience who just got canned and need a new place of work. As of now, if you are a new Grad or L3, you can get an entry-level position at Netflix.

[@genericdeveloper3966]

As an American who has been applying to software jobs for several years, I know the median isn't that high.

[@piyushaggarwal5207]

Starting salary for entry level software engineer in India is 5000$. PER YEAR.

[@gamereactz]

Is rent the same there? Don't think we could pay 3k rent..

[@piyushaggarwal5207]

@@gamereactz I am living with my joint family in a 4BHK apartment in a four floor house. We pay a little less than 5000$ per year. I have worked for a year in web development. I earn around 10k$ per year now.

[@eotikurac]

that's great for a beginner. i'm in croatia and my first salary was 180 usd per month

[@binaakene7942]

@@eotikuracthat’s crazy, I’m in Nigeria and my first salary was 250 usd

[@yelnatsch517]

At the same time, there are inside jokes at top FAANG companies about how bad Indian SWE are. The code basically has to be completely rewritten. I don’t know how true that is, but that’s what I hear from insiders there.

[@ifstatementifstatement2704]

Software engineer in the UK here. £35k a year. Market average is £42k a year for a junior. I’m a lead.

[@Engazan]

pretty same in EU

[@jesso6670]

i got offer from uk 120k pound per year.

[@godmodeon666]

Levels fyi is biased in the right skewed compensation segment of an already right-skewed career. This is self-reported values of disproportionately FAANG-tier engineers. The median software engineer is not making anything near 170k. Everyone in these comments can relax now. Why would you make a video for which you have absolutely no subject experience? As a now engineer in the realm of the demographic being discussed, I started at like 1/4th of the compensation I have now. These videos are going to do nothing but set unrealistic expectations and lead people down a hole of depression.

[@fknight]

Yes I understand. That's why I mentioned the other studies that had an average or median of $127k and ~$150k at the beginning, because all of this data can and will be skewed one way or another, so it's important to take these numbers with a grain of salt but they should give folks a general idea. This is also including all types of software engineers from all experience levels and all disciplines that fall within it, which I explicitly stated. Not sure why you'd get combative and say I have no subject experience, when I do. No one is going into a hole of depression because of this, so relax with the broad generalizations that have no merit. Not only that, but you're using solely anecdotal evidence of your own experience. When did you start at that 1/4th compensation? Things are a lot different now than years ago. In my area, companies are offering 1.5x-2x than they did just 5 years ago for the same exact roles. Just take a look at what salaries companies are actually offering before you make just a bold claim, because I did my research and cleared any potential misunderstandings in the video.

[@Jelvix]

Thank you for this video! Very insightful! We also thought about that and made a new video about the difference between a software developer and a web developer and compared their salaries

[@searchingstuff]

Thank you for putting the number at the start. I ran the video in the background entirely to get you full credit.

[@Slov_]

I work in FinTech for a reputable well known bank. Entry level back end software engineer with 6 months experience and came from a coding bootcamp. I earn 85k at an hourly rate.

[@birdlawyer4885]

Thank you for putting this info out there. I was able to get a job an increase my pay by 20k with your sources

[@JonathanTheZombie]

I work for a small company in AZ in a LCOL area. I’m a senior engineer making $130k with minimal benefits. My mortgage is only $1300.

[@batoczki93]

I work in a midsize company in Southern California. I'm also a senior engineer but I make $98k and my rent is $2500 😂

[@walboey]

Its important to notice the drastic decrease from only top 1 to top 10 cities. If you aren't in those cities the numbers you see on levels are effectively meaningless

[@GuRuGeorge03]

as a european this is alawys so interesting for me, because the money I get in my bank account is magnitutes lower than what US devs get. Mostly because taxes are much higher. E.g. im about to be promoted to lead developer, which makes upwards of 300k US $ easily in the US, but here in germany I only make about 100k$. I keep revisiting the idea of migrating to the US, but it would mean to lose my circle of friends and family, which i'm not willing to give up. on the other hand, the money would allow me to fullfill some of my personal dreams. overall it just kinda sucks to know that I would get WAY MORE money somewhere else for the same work.

[@ordohereticus]

As a Senior SWE in the US the amount of money I get in my bank account is orders of magnitude lower than what I see in these charts as well. I don't know of anyone on my team of over 100 people that makes more than 80k. I take home around $5000 per month after all the taxes and insurance I pay. My bills like rent, internet, utilities are around $3500 per month (my rent is only $1700 because I live in a tiny apartment an hour away from my office). With the $1500 I have left I have to do everything else including buy food which is usually around $800 per month depending on how much meat I buy (beef is $9 per pound). I also can't afford to put any money in my retirement account. My wife who is a Household Manager makes the same amount of money as I do and she works 4 hours per day. People will tell me it's my fault and that I need to find another job but that is nearly impossible right now, and the places I have had offers from never pay anywhere these salaries. I've had offers from places like Oracle, IBM, Deloitte, Cisco etc.

[@Danuxsy]

the large majority of devs don't make the figures in the video lol, not even close. most are below 100k

[@neycongjuico7395]

Honestly… Europe has better workers’ rights than the US. Like 24/7 oncall rotations are not common in Europe but in US tech companies, it’s expected that you wake up at 3am if a SEV0 or SEV1 occurs and you’re oncall. PTO and maternity/paternity leaves are also limited, and these jobs are “at-will” which means you can be laid off without reason at any time. You could technically work for a couple of years and then just retire back home lol. Imo US is amazing income and lifestyle for single people and couples without kids. The salaries are a product of US capitalism. Only companies who make large profits can afford to pay engineers these salaries. If me and 2 other devs who are paid 100k-200k work on a project for maybe 6 months (2 fiscal quarters) that will generate passive income for the company in the order of millions, then the salaries are justified. Like a finance company that is not in FAANG but pays the laaargest I’ve seen for software engineers is Hudson River Trading. Entry level engineers are at 200k base and 200k bonus. Why do they pay so much? They’re a company that focuses on trading algorithms that accounts for 5% of all trading in the US. They generate a lot of value for their customers and so are fairly profitable.

[@RiRi-ku6xz]

But legally are you allowed to do that? Don’t you like need a work permit from an employer? Which will give you lower chances of getting hired

[@andye7715]

Here in Germany you start with around 55k€/year as junior and it goes up to around 100k€/year for a 10year high lvl lead developer. Thats total with all bonuses incl. And they are highly competing against very good developer from eastern country like Poland, Hungary or Ukrain were it more start like 30k€/year up to around 80k€/year. So...as a CTO I will and would never get the budget to pay these inflated salaries from US.

[@RiRi-ku6xz]

I don’t get it Do Eastern Europeans apply Germany based companies often bcuz it’s higher salary than thier home countries Do they have to move or work remotely? Do companies prefer to hire thier own nationals?

[@grantnlee]

Congrats on getting to 500k subs!!!

[@whiskey4609]

This is all fang companies lmao not regular companies. its probably fair to say 80-130 is a better range. Then as you get more senior 130-200+ but ymmv based on a number of factors like location, negotiation skill, jumping companies, skill level etc.

[@kml.]

i would take the non-public companies TC with a grain of salt. for example, plaid, airtable, openai, etc. all include illiquid equity. i would almost discount the equity for private companies to zero tbh.

[@ghostangel8434]

thanks a lot brother can you make a video and compare software engineering and other computer science jops and what is the highest paying computer science jop please man

[@callous21]

Would love to see how many unemployed software engineers there are and the average time it takes to get first job, degree vs self taught vs bootcamp

[@Astrussy]

I don’t think any data would really be helpful unless they had info on hours put in, what projects they worked on, how many applications they put in, if they networked, etc. Generally, with a degree will be the easiest because college provides you with so many networking opportunities (professors, job fairs, other students who have landed internships and can put in a good word for you). But college is what you make it. You can learn basically nothing and do no networking; or you can put in 60 hours a week and make as many networking connections as possible. Self taught, you have to be very disciplined and determined, and you ideally find a good mentor or a good community willing to guide you. It’s hard to determine what you should learn when you really don’t know what anything is. It’s hard to put in the time to really learn different programming languages and tools. Bootcamps are a structured way that help alleviate the issues of not knowing what to learn, and you typically pay for them so you are motivated to finish them. As far as resumes go, with the job market right now having a degree definitely gives you a leg up on applications vs self-taught people. Not to mention you learn a lot of peripheral information like OS, system architecture, UI/UX principles, discrete mathematics, algorithms, complex data structures. These kinds of things can be the small difference that sets you apart from someone else for a specific job where they just happen to need you to know algorithms or it would be easier/cheaper to introduce someone who understands the system architecture because you won’t have to hand hold them as much. However, college has a lot of random stuff that’s frankly a waste of time. If someone is willing to work hard and work smart (don’t waste time learning the wrong things), being self taught could probably reap the same rewards as a degree in less time. But I don’t think many people are cut out for that.

[@codeman99-dev]

I have 10 years experience as a backend engineer. I've been out of work since June. On average I get one response per 100 applications. I get about 1 interview per 10 responses. I have interviewed at about 30 different companies now (*not* counting recruiting firm screening calls)

[@callous21]

​@@codeman99-dev That sounds terrible. Have you tried other countries/ freelancing? Where are you based?

[@yelnatsch517]

@@codeman99-devself taught or formal education?

[@codeman99-dev]

@@callous21 I am based in the US, just outside of Pittsburgh. I managed to land a role just this week.

[@Jeff321]

This is wrong. From BLS data it's $127,260 median.

[@WorkingDev]

Good to see a fellow Hampton roads dev.

[@lionelthebuilder]

I’m from Hampton roads as well! Va beach to be exact

[@yayinternets]

Subscribed for putting the main information in up front. Going to keep watching the video though. 🙂

[@walfytaffy3108]

Hey man-sir, I’m transitioning from a blue collar role. Doing some research before making any definite changes. But I’m definitely subscribing based off of two random videos from your channel 🤙🏼 Thank you for the great content!

[@civrev]

I don't think the stats are correct about Northern Virginia/DC are correct. Just look at how many of the highest income counties are in that area. I can personally attest that it's not unusual for software engineers in this area to make between 200k-400k. There is a sizeable cleared community in this area which command a relatively generous salary.

[@Its_crazyadamla]

I learn more watching him than trying to research it for my self....

[@datboi449]

another factor is niche vendor app implementation and engineering. i know principles who don’t even think about roles below $600 an hour in a non-fang client

[@dynamo3059]

this seems very high. ive never heard of this kind of pay outside tech companies

[@seymour_videos]

Also! I live in the Hampton roads area. I'd love if you did some sort of in person events. I've been remote my whole career and would love to get plugged into a real community of people I can talk to in person

[@MilMike]

I see that in US people earn waaaay more than for example me in Germany. I dunno, maybe I should work for US companies remotely? Then I would be rich af.. xD I know that in US you have higher expenses and no health care, you have to pay for many things by yourself but still, living outside US but earning US salary would be interesting but not sure if possible

[@koteendeladze4189]

Possible to work remotely, but they won't pay the same amount they would have payed you if you were working locally from the US. My friends work remotely and that applies to all of them

[@Longlius]

In the US, anyone salaried is going to have access to an employer health plan (basically by law but it's a little complicated). The health plan isn't free but, for example, before taxes and health insurance premiums, I make just under $7000 a month. After taxes and paying for health insurance, I take home about $5000. So for US salaries, it's generally safe to assume that the person is taking home about 70-75% of what their nominal salary is.

[@neycongjuico7395]

I believe a lot of these salaries are based on the value a SWE generates for a company which is a product of capitalism in the US. If 2-3 devs each paid around 100k-200k can work on a project that can passively generate a company millions per year, paying these salaries are not that unreasonable. This is why it’s important in terms of job security to know how “useful” the projects you’re working on are. How much financial impact does it have for the company? Because this denotes if, during times of hardship, you get laid off or not. Europe has more workers’ rights than US companies, so layoffs arent as common there.

[@magicflyinggekko8587]

I'd always look at the base and bonus, but not too much at the stock. While you get the stocks, they are the incentive to stay, not part of the salary itself. If you get let go, all unvested stocks are gone. so stocks overinflate the salaries.

[@SavageBits]

Good point. With a typical 4 yr annual vesting schedule on stock grants, The stock component of total comp/yr would be divided by 4 if you leave at 1 yr anniversary. However, if you stay longer than 1 year, you may achieve overlapping stock grants vesting. At 4 year anniversary, one could see up to 4 overlapping grants. If you really want to maximize total comp, jumping ship every 3-10 years is an almost necessity.

[@ThisGuy-st5ce]

starting the video with "this is the thing", good for you, and for humans. Thanks :)

[@HiiPPi3]

how can the median in Amsterdam be that high if most collective labor agreements in big institutions or corporations doesn't even reach 100k with max scale and seniority?

[@GordoFabulous]

That median seems a bit high. That being said, subbed because of that killer mustache.

[@bryanzawlocki]

Props for getting to the point. Forest a real one

[@billyhollywood2278]

thank you for this video ☝🏾 loved that you kept it transparent and didn't hide the answers at the end lol. great stuff as always

[@88spaces]

It's way off. It's about 121K including benefits.

[@HiffClunger]

Really appreciate you on reading the amounts for us multi-tasking listeners lmao :D

[@Joeybeautiful_]

I will make that $1,million a year, I manifest that, I am planning to enroll for software engineering through Bootcamp.

[@ernesto8738]

im on a 5 person eng team at a small startup in a small market and i make 215k p/y plus ~30k options

[@ko1078]

Like and comment for not burying the lead. You make good videos keep it up

[@eternalrinx]

Love it

[@DonJuanDM]

I work for Fortune 30 company, my pay is below the median figure but not by much. Then again, I guess I don't live in the US, that makes the difference.

[@financiallife3696]

The data even at the tech companies is off. I was offered a manager position for security at Amazon in Seattle and it was almost half of what levels reported. Needless to say I turned it down, I’m making more at another tech company

[@gabrielmartinez2455]

Definitely not that high, companies are hiring Indian developers in huge numbers, so that lowers the salary for US based developers.

[@Uax101]

Your dataset is unfortunately skewed towards large companies like FAANG. Most SWE's don't make nearly as much.

[@hamids4550]

I like the honesty at the beginning, so I gave it a BIG LIKE I' not greedy, I would totally be happy with 150K. it's a lot of money

[@KenBoyer-ij9iz]

Good luck with the 500k subscriber. I am a structural engineer. I want to transition to a software engineer and develop structural design software. Where would I look for jobs for this type of work or is there forum I could join?

[@Twist3dElements]

Lmao

[@MR-ym3hg]

Maybe look at the existing structural design software companies and look at their job postings to see what additional skills you will need to pick up to pivot. Applications engineer at one of those companies may be another avenue to get your foot in the door without software dev skill, as long as you have skill with the particular software suite and domain specific knowledge of the application area. A third avenue is grad school; from what I’ve seen a lot of engineering grad school is taking what you learned in undergrad and doing it computationally. You’ll learn programming along the way. ymmv of course.

[@voip4life]

It’s getting clearer why companies love those $20 an hour devs in India.

[@noriller]

Where a company profits from is what should matter for how much they pay, not where you work from. Sure, one place has more cost than other, but same level, different places, different pays, both manage to save 10%... this compounds in an unfair way. So, just because you live in a costier location you will accumulate a lot more and be able to travel wherever you want, meanwhile the other one living in a less costly location will what, need to settle to less?

[@ycombine1053]

Levels is definitely skewed. It's probably closer to the 125-150 range.

[@francshemsiu3132]

I subscribed when he showed that he cared about our time and answered the question lol

[@kamiljanowski7236]

170k?!?!?!?!?! When I was running my own business in Finland, I was making 110k and I was in the top 0.1% richest people in the country

[@RiRi-ku6xz]

Before or after taxes?

[@emmaccen]

ForestNight! You’re awesome! Also, I love the mustache 🎉

[@hidden-treasures]

Good News / Bad News. Save your money, and not just in Stock Options. I'm a retired Engineer, and remember when everyone was getting rich. First it was CE guys. Than the EE guys. Now it's the SE Guys. The truth is, when you get 40, the offers will dry up for most. IF, you don't burn out first. You avoid this by getting an MBA, and making the transition to management (and join the comparatively lazy folk). Oh, I forgot about the Fortran to C to Java to Python transition. Did you know that Chat GPT knows Python? Of course you did...

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

125k is insane. Y'all in the States are being spoiled

[@darylallen2485]

You don't think a company would pay less if they could get away with getting the same skill at a lower price?

[@xmagnetisx]

Cost of living is insane here

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

@@xmagnetisx Is it really twice that of other developed countries like Canada?

[@xmagnetisx]

Yes.. pretty much. I go back and forth, it's much cheaper in canada but yeah the income scales proportion to the expenses.

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

@@xmagnetisx Not really? To an extent yes, but the salary in San Francisco is twice that of Toronto, but it's not nearly twice as expensive to live there.

[@ScepticEngineer]

I’m on under £40k with 2 years experience in the UK. This clearly isn’t representative of most companies

[@risaiahgamers5686]

The irony of using the median instead of the average because of skewness 😢

[@fknight]

lol we work with what we got!

[@unknown-otter]

But where's the irony?... Salary can't be negative so of course upper values would skew the mean towards them

[@s2tha3lgaming94]

I work for Faang, this is very well presented and communicated. Nice work, Forrest, and also great work on growing this channel. Keep it up!

[@evilzzzability]

These are truly mindboggling numbers for a "profession" that has literally zero official barriers for qualification and where you can literally learn how it works in the real world while with on the job. Don't get me wrong not everyone can be a good dev, but a hell of a lot more people can be a good dev than a doctor.

[@falkensmaize]

These numbers need to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. Yes if you are a top 1% dev who gets a job at FAANG co you might be making one of these eye-popping salaries, but one of the reasons they pay that much is because you have to live in metro areas where $100k a year is borderline poverty level. And this represents a tiny fraction of the total dev jobs out there. Zoom out to smaller cities that aren't typically thought of as "software" cities (think Des Moines, Iowa or Memphis, TN) and you start seeing medians like $100k, $90k and that's often for people with years of experience. And that's the MEDIAN - that means half the devs in those cities are making *less* than that. The reality is probably more like most juniors start in the $45-70k/year range and most seniors top out at $125-150k after 10+ years of experience. That's certainly not bad money at all depending on where you live, but there are plenty of other skilled professions that pay as much or more. And make no mistake, the "zero official barriers for qualification" days are over - companies are looking for cs degrees and/or significant experience. Even in the good times, the idea that people could attend a bootcamp and waltz right into a $200k job was always a myth. Software engineering is quickly settling back into what it was in the 80s and 90s, an unflashy middle class corporate job.

[@MrG-yb8py]

This is a naive take. The work of a Software Engineer can scale to save the company millions of dollars a year by writing code that is executed on multiple servers thousands of times a second. A doctor can only work on a single patient at a time. That is why the best SWE's are paid a lot, especially compared to other engineering professions.

[@dirtyred-ch7mk]

I don't think this is good data for your claim. Levels is not a random sample of software engineers. Levels selects for engineers working at high paying tech companies, but most engineers do not work for high paying tech companies. Your average web developer is not adding their total comp to levels. Also people are more likely to share their salary if it's high, even it's done anonymously.

[@cody_codes_youtube]

Thanks for the video dude! I’ve been thinking about talking this same topic too, but got quickly overwhelmed trying to negotiate from levels and elsewhere. I ALSO thought about paying for the levels pro plan but… 600 bucks??

[@erikipsen1682]

Wow! In Denmark the salary-level is half of these numbers

[@davidc.5519]

50k a year would be a nice step up. Won’t settle there tho if there’s possibility for more later on.

[@hemlo7494]

I see a lot of San Francisco companies, hence the high salaries.

[@Taker1317]

I look at data from the Bureau of Labour Statistics, I think it's more accurate and can be broken down geographically.

[@Oathbetrayer]

Why are people getting entry level jobs for 40-70k per year then? Some of the salaries these companies are paying are insulting.

[@unstoppablebox5415]

As a computer engineer from Oklahoma City this is why I moved

[@Crzyspeedfrk]

Can you even imagine making 1 Mil/yr? Me neither. Im happy with my remote work no stress gig.

[@vectoralphaSec]

If only i could get a job id be happy with $50,000 a year as a software engineer.

[@AlternateCurrent.]

😂 You deserve more.. get the skill and don’t say a word, just Nod your head throughout the interview… lol.. 😆 don’t you ever say 50k again… let them tell you “we start at a modest $110k to start.. plus..tbd. 🤝

[@LucasDimoveo]

For real. I’m exhausted of $15 an hour

[@ksubyslowed]

@@AlternateCurrent.😂 damn it’s that bad cause i would take $50,000 as well

[@milt0n290]

Don’t say that. It’ll become the norm

[@softinix9462]

Man oh man, it’s draining to say the least. 5 years in and you will be totally drained. I have been it for 18 years and every day is a fight. It’s like playing pro level sport vs a hobby . Pro level is not what you expect there is a very narrow margin of error. After your 5 years come and tell me if you are happy with 50k for the torture and sleepless nights

[@migo-migo9503]

I personally do not trust level.fyi's data. While logging into it, it kept asking me to contribute my salary data, it asked me multiple times for some reason and now it's registered as 3 different persons, which is not true. So based on that experience, I really feel like FYI is inflated and innacurate.

[@sampeters5460]

Playing devil's advocate, I'd say this dynamic leads to the data being deflated. The prompt they gives offers you the option to click "I've already entered my salary" to skip the prompt. Assuming there's some correlation in performance between handling a website prompt and a tech company interview, it's likely the people with lower salaries entered their salary info more than people with higher salaries, skewing stuff downward.

[@migo-migo9503]

@@sampeters5460 I don't know why but I could not find a way to exit out of it. To unlock data that I wanted to view it asked me to enter my salary, so I had no way to skip it if I wanted to unlock the data. It gives you an option to enter your email to edit/delete your entry, but I didn't do that due to fear of it being tracked back to me. So that's probably why it keeps assuming I still haven't entered my salary information. If this has happened to hundreds or thousands of people then the data is unreliable, imo.

[@armansivri7355]

how many years of work experience are required to entry level engineer

[@Davyhatesu]

Watched you when I first started dipping my toes in SE and here I am, a SE in the industry now 💅🏽🤭

[@chummy8880]

Capital one is the funniest company I saw. They just be giving people $500 in stock?😂

[@PaulMorgan1]

Until you get to director level or higher the stock plan at Capital One is a 15% bonus on COF stock purchases up to 15% of your salary, with no vesting period. So $500/year extra is probably about right for a median (factoring in people that don't take full advantage or just don't bother with it).

[@Ohiostategenerationx]

That is insane I'd be happy even getting $100k right now.

[@affergot]

2:24 I'm literally like an hour away from OKC 😅

[@liam1902]

Had a company offer me $200k yesterday...told them I'm looking for at least $3.5 million. Those suckers won't lowball me and get away with it! (obv a joke)

[@stephenbrennan1903]

Only for US market

[@bigneiltoo]

This guy looks like the singer of Three Dog Night. He needs to sing "One" or "Mama Told Me (not to come)".

[@DodoLP]

Median pay for software engineer in Berlin is 91k$ ???? Lmfao not even senior contractors are paid that much

[@davekohler5957]

The lowest of the low software engineer makes as much as I do. I am topped out in my pay too.

[@mattheskaiser]

cool mustache bro

[@drinkaziu3096]

So... Russell, what do you love about music?

[@brandoncorwin8812]

As an Aerospace engineer, this mekes me sad.

[@rogerpatterson3422]

Why, are aerospace engineering salaries lower?

[@brandoncorwin8812]

@@rogerpatterson3422 Aerospace doesn't generate revenue like software. Most projects are government contracts or contracts won by the lowest bidder. So, aerospace companies nickel and dime everything. Including human resources.

[@bhaisaheb4686]

You look older than yesterday i saw u somewhere in a webapp related video😊

[@Decoy22x]

my aging like crazy. The cost of software engineer. holy crap over 488k sub now, used to watch him under 10k