• tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Friend making $450k as a software engineer

    I’m a software developer. If I just start calling myself an engineer, can I have 450k?

    • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Are you a senior or staff software engineer for a multinational tech company in the Bay Area or NYC?

      $450k is typical in that case.

      • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 months ago

        Seniors are usually pulling around $200k in NYC, plus stock worth around $100k. Still crazy high, but not nearly $450k unless they’ve been there for a very long time, and the high CoL makes it worth about half of that.

        Staff engineers, as in those who write 4 lines of code a year, are closer to $450k

        • evatronic@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Staff engineers get paid the big bucks to spend all day in meetings so the rest of us don’t have to.

          Worth it.

          • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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            7 months ago

            Hello, I’d like to apply to be staff engineer, I will even accept a lower salary if I can call the client/user a dumbass for contradicting themselves during the meeting

          • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            7 months ago

            Yeah, that’s net including ~$100k of stock distributed over 4 years. The base starting is around $130k for a low level SWE. As the years to by, the base salary goes up to a little over $200k for seniors, but the stock refreshes aren’t usually as large as the initial.

            Of course, it also depends on how the company is doing as a whole. Lately Googs has been struggling and laying off people.

    • wwaxen@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Check the law where you live. Engineer is in many places a restricted profession like lawyer or doctor.

      • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        It’s not restricted in the US.

        If the person is calling themselves a “software developer” instead of a “software engineer” then they almost certainly live some place where “engineer” is a restricted term.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
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          7 months ago

          No, software developer isn’t a fallback term for software engineer, they have slightly different implications. They’re all very loosely defined so they’re almost interchangeable

          • cbarrick@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Really? Do you know of a company that has both developers and engineers where the distinction is not location?

            Where I work, we have both, but it’s purely a location thing. In the American offices we’re called “engineers”, yet my coworkers in Canada are called “developers” despite doing the exact same work. We don’t have “developers” in the US.

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
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              7 months ago

              It’s usually one or the other. It just doesn’t matter which one

              At my first job I was on a contract as a software engineer I with the job title junior developer, because that’s just how the titles mapped

        • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s somewhat restricted. You can’t hold yourself out as a civil engineer without passing the exam, for example. For made up jobs like software “engineer” there are no rules — it’s like the FDA with regard to actual food vs. supplements.