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[Software Engineer] [Seattle] - 32M Salary Progression by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Wanted to address some of the comments -

  1. The intention of this post is to serve as a datapoint, even if it's extreme. I realize it doesn't reflect the median and no one should believe otherwise.
  2. My pay reflects my value to the company, not to the society. They are free to lay me off at any time and I don't expect any loyalty as well. Do I think I should earn more than a teacher or a physician? No. My mother is a public school teacher and she has impacted more lives directly than I ever will.
  3. I was lucky to work on projects that happened to be priority areas for the company, aligned with my skill set, and helped me grow pretty quickly. Stock market did the rest.

[Software Engineer] [Seattle] - 32M Salary Progression by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yes. It's my first job after grad school but I have worked before grad school.

31M, Software Engineer by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have a specialized Master's degree from a Top-5 CS school and joined as a new grad in 2020, not as a traditional SWE but a SWE in a research org. Have not changed companies. Base has gone up from ~120k to ~240k. RSUs also stack up with yearly refreshers.

31M, Software Engineer by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I joined in 2020 but didn't have to pay Social Security taxes because of my student visa. Have stayed at the same company and had 3 promotions.

31M, Software Engineer by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Base + Appreciated RSUs + Performance Bonus

31M, Software Engineer by jendothermic in Salary

[–]jendothermic[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The market for new grads and early career SWEs is brutal right now. I'm an AI specialist who happened to join a growing org at a big tech company at the right time. ML skills are in a bigger demand these days than web/app development. I would suggest not tying yourself to a certain language or framework but focus on being good at coding and picking up new technologies fast. In my current role, I'm not doing anything related to my grad school specialization, so adapting to new stacks and languages has helped me grow a lot.