My ACTUAL Salary as an IBM New Grad Software Engineer

I think people tend to gravitate towards big-name tech software engineer roles (Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, etc.) and sometimes even claim IBM is a "sinking ship". I found my 3 years at IBM to be a great building block in my career journey, and I wanted to share my salary and experience as an IBMer.
Timestamps
00:00 IBM's Reputation/Intro
00:36 Qualms with IBM
01:41 IBM Moves Slower
02:18 Why I Chose IBM
02:45 Internship Salary
03:30 Co-Op
03:45 Full Time Offer
04:28 COVID Complications
05:00 1-Year Anniversary Increase
05:31 Internal Transfer
06:11 Annual Salary Increase
06:23 External Offer Match
07:00 Reflecting on My Experience

[@janet4407]

thank you for being this honest and kind to share! I would love to see more of your videos!

[@bryan_truong]

Thanks so much ! Be sure to like/subscribe for more. I'm trying to upload more frequently now!

[@jessezigi2419]

Love your content bro Hoping to break into tech soon

[@Nokoredev]

Great content

[@league83]

I love him cause he's honest and open

[@wellingtonmusicas3144]

Great video! I'm in Australia now trying to get a graduate internship at IBM. This video helped me get an overview of the process and how to growth in the company. Best of luck on your journey.

[@bryan_truong]

Thanks you too!

[@dkgnew]

THANKS for sharing thisn

[@bryan_truong]

Of course! Hope you found it interesting

[@Outta12]

Thanks bro!

[@bryan_truong]

anytime my friend!

[@connermann8659]

Editing/graphics are fire in this one

[@bryan_truong]

Finally got the creative cloud subscription 😎

[@league83]

extremely heat animated infographic

[@rohan.rahalkar]

When you started at IBM as a full-time, when did you feel was the right time to ask for a salary bump? How did your manager respond?

[@edsonphilippe58]

I am considering applying to Microsoft Atlanta after completing my last algorithm class. Their new office is about 3 miles away from my house in Atlanta. Their building is at the Atlantic Station. I would really like it if you do a video on how you prepare for their interview and did the things you learned in OSMCS helped you clear their interview?

[@bryan_truong]

Hey Edson, I honestly didn't really prep much. I did prep for maybe 3 weeks prior to the interview, doing one LeetCode medium question a day. However, I actually took the Microsoft interview to practice for an upcoming Google interview, but I ended up taking the Microsoft offer (and never scheduled the Google interview)

[@wanxingdai5272]

Hi Bryan. I am starting my full-time role at IBM in RTP soon and your video is super helpful! I am new to the area and wondering if you have any recs of apartments and places to visit? Thank you:)

[@bryan_truong]

Well, apartment-wise, I lived at Cameron Village (now know as Village District) and really liked it! Good for young adults/professionals. If you are older and looking to settle down more, Cary is popular.

[@johnp9890]

A 95k starting salary is huge! If IBM does not "pay well" i really do not wanna know what they pa people fresh out of college at FANG.

[@bryan_truong]

You can expect 160k+ total compensation for FAANG and even more for Quant/Trading companies (Citadel, Two Sigma, Jane Street, etc.)

[@johnp9890]

@@bryan_truong unbelievable. But why did you have trouble getting an internship or getting calls back from recruiters? You seem like a smart guy and what they were desperately looking for in the industry, at least before the lay-offs.... So why?

[@PhantomfireWasHere]

@@johnp9890 FAANG is incredibly competitive. It’s like why people don’t get into Harvard or MIT. There are tens of thousands of qualified candidates filling a much smaller number of openings.

[@torql13]

The biggest issue making it difficult to get into these jobs for people is the insane algorithm grind. It requires weeks/months of memorization and nothing else but companies pretend it's actually useful.

[@johnp9890]

@@PhantomfireWasHere Then why does the USA import so many computer scientists from India? And why do the big tech firms complain when the number of H1B-visas is capped, if they can easily fill all their positions from the tens of thousands of highly intelligent home-grown applicants? Just wondering how that works!

[@abdelrhmanmohamed4754]

Do you think working on ibm improve my cv to help me working on faang in the future

[@bryan_truong]

Yep definitely doesn’t hurt.

[@user-vs9ih9od1i]

Hi does they ask for transcript to know my gpa before interview I didn’t put it on my resume because it’s low

[@bryan_truong]

No I’m pretty sure they didn’t ask for a transcript. But I did have my gpa on my resume. I don’t think it matters though

[@user-vs9ih9od1i]

@@bryan_truong that’s also for microsoft ?

[@bryan_truong]

@@user-vs9ih9od1i yep

[@johnp9890]

What was your salary at MS?

[@bryan_truong]

That's a video for another time ;)

[@ronaldmcsidy763]

When do IBM new grad open?

[@bryan_truong]

Not sure what you mean- are you asking when the job reqs go online? I'd just check LinkedIn/the IBM Careers site.

[@dinhquochuyk18dn]

Are you Vietnamese bro?

[@bryan_truong]

Yeah I have the Vietnamese last name but am mostly Chinese!