[Baypiggies] Salary ranges

[Alex Martelli]

I find that a somewhat reasonable calibration for salary ranges can be
found at www.glassdoor.com -- far from perfect, but useful.  For
"software engineer" in the "San Jose Area" they mention a range of
80-117, median 99; funny enough, it's somewhat higher on a national
basis (!).  (To see more than a couple pages on that site you'll have
to register, and [[theoretically-untraceably]] post your own info).

The reason I find their numbers to offer "a reasonable calibration" is
that the numbers they give seem a sensible match in cases where I've
been able to check.  Of course, compensation's usually a pretty
complicated matter (base salary is key, sure, but what about benefits,
bonuses, options and/or stock, ...?).

One bit about the state of the economy wrt hiring prospects: I haven't
seen a breakdown by professional field or region, but, nationally,
today's problems seem to be affecting mostly people with around-median
or lower salaries -- around the $100k salary mark, unemployment is
pretty stable wrt 2-3 years ago, and around the $150k mark, it's
actually _lower_ than 2-3 years ago (!).

Anecdotally, I just got an email from Van Linden about the forthcoming
Pycon in Atlanta (this coming weekend), and the number and intensity
of companies trying to hire great Python developers at that venue is
scary (from the point of view of one such company -- Google/YouTube,
at whose hiring-focused booth I'll try to be as often as I can, for
example;-) // promising (from the point of view of great Python
developers looking for a new gig;-).  If you haven't signed up for
Pycon, it's not too late -- hop on the "red eye" direct SF - Atlanta
flight, sign up at the desk, and enjoy a weekend of great technical
and social/networking time (including both formal and less formal
job-hunters).

If you can't make it to Pycon, but would still like to try your hand
at a Google or YouTube interview, why not mail me privately with your
resume?  Next week (once I'm back from Pycon;-) I'll be delighted to
try to help you (I'm biased, of course, since I'm a long-time, happy
googler, _and_ I can get incentives for referring candidates who are
strong [[and lucky]] enough to navigate all the way through our
incredibly-demanding selection process -- but, mostly, I'm biased
because I *crave* to keep hiring such candidates to be my
colleagues!-).


Alex


On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 1:33 PM, Seth Friedman <sfseth at gmail.com> wrote:
> My first reaction to salary ranges this wide are that the people doing the
> hiring are not practicing the most critical thinking ever carried out.
>
> With quite a bit of experience on both sides of this equation, $50k in san
> francisco is an entry level computer enthusiast with a high school degree,
> customer support role.  If someone took a job with any substantial
> professional experience in programming for $50k in SF here, I would be
> suspicious about them.
>
> And no, I don't believe those salary statistics sites until they are
> transparent about their data sources / methodology.
>
> ~seth
>
> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Alan Westbrook <voidref at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> In 1998 entry level C++ devs were worth at least $45k in Santa Cruz
>> (an area notorious for paying less than the Bay Area).
>>
>> So $50k seems quite low. Especially given that it's in San Francisco.
>>
>> Alan
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 9:39 AM, Glen Jarvis <glen at glenjarvis.com> wrote:
>> >> Let's put it this way: how many people with real (not just titular) two
>> >> or more years of experience with Django would take $50K/year (keeping
>> >> in
>> >> mind that real Django experience implies Python, SQL, HTML/CSS, and
>> >> JavaScript), given how competitive the current market is for those
>> >> skills?  Speaking as someone who six months ago was on the searching
>> >> side
>> >> and is now on the hiring side, I definitely think this range is on the
>> >> low end.  But I would be interested in hearing contrary opinions from
>> >> people with experience in hiring.
>> >
>> > I definitely agree the low end of this scale is too low. When I said
>> > "average" I wasn't looking at the median of that range (I was looking at
>> > the
>> > higher end). The median is $70K which is $10K - $15K lower than the
>> > average
>> > I mentioned. Oh, and these numbers do take the current economy into
>> > consideration.
>> > I hadn't rechecked these stats, though, for six months..
>> > Cheers,
>> >
>> > Glen
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