@Jesse Mitchell his salary is right on par with the national average. You must get your salary info from the ex Google ex Facebook coding boot camp faq pages?
I'm a little late to the party here, but I'll give you my numbers. I live just outside of Detroit and work for a Tier 1 automotive supplier. In 2019 I was a W2 contractor making $65/hour. With over 700 hours of overtime (straight pay, not time and a half) I made a little over $174,000. Bear in mind that is with ZERO benefits. No vacation, no health or life insurance (I paid for those myself), no STD or LTD. Your ~$174K total compensation package is very nice for the Midwest given all the benefits you receive. Oh, and in 2019 I was 50-years-old with 27 years of experience in IT.
thank you for getting straight to the point and being so transparent!! every youtuber wastes so much time beating around the bush and needless elaborating these days smh
Thanks, I wanted to keep this as transparent as possible. I found that just stating salary is relatively meaningless because it doesn’t get into taxes or other benefits that come from a full time job.
I love how real and raw you are about everything! You're absolutely right that context is extremely important when considering compensation. There are so many people out there saying "I make $350K+ per year" without giving any context as to their location, years of experience, whether or not that includes benefits, etc. Thank you for being so transparent - pay transparency is extremely important for everyone to know their worth and ensure that they are being paid fairly :)
Thanks Grant! I agree, it’s hard to know what people mean when they say “I make $500k per year” and then continue to not show the numbers or talk about where they are coming from.
@Jesse Mitchell Money isn't necessarily everything. Maybe he has a really good work/life balance? I have a IT job where I make 78k a year. I could always make more, but I sacrificed pay for having less stress and more flexibility. I can come in at 9am (after dropping my kid off at school), take a 2 hour lunch, and leave by 4pm.
Thanks Cody. I am moving into this field, returning after 20 years. In all business, we need more people to be transparent about earnings and cost of living in their region. Thanks for being so honest, you have clearly been a good and dedicated developer and employee.
Thank you so much for this video! I know it's still not a norm to share salaries but you're part of the change that I think a lot of people want to see! Subbed
Thanks Leo! I will always be as transparent as I can be without making HR mad. I currently work for a larger company so I’m not sure they would be as happy with me sharing my salary - but I’m trying to offset that by creating my software salaries videos.
. I've been at the same backwards technology company for nearly 33 years in management for nearly 25 of those years and still only make just over 100k... I have only myself to blame for being loyal with a company that doesn't reward hard working long term employees (my salary is the same as most others in the same position in my company - regardless if you are a top person or a bottom dweller)... if only I could go back in time and do it again!
I commend you for making a video like this. It seems like a lot of the SWE videos on youtube are more geared to get views and subs vs the quality of the content. I am currently and undergrad in CS and thought about making videos of my experience. This will allow others that are in or will be in my same boat to get an idea of what it's like without the bias that comes from the bigger channels. Feel free to make any videos that would help current college students. I'll leave the idea making up to you! Thanks!
Make the videos man, that’s a great idea. There are a lot of topics I’ll never make a video on now because it’ll seem trivial. The best time to share your knowledge is right after you struggled through a problem. One thing I’ve noticed is video quality truly isn’t everything. I’m currently in the process of moving but want to make some videos so I’m thinking about just using my phone to record them and see what folks think.
I’d love to see you do this again for 2022. The market is only that much more competitive so maybe you’ve been able to take advantage of that as an engineer with nearly 10 years experience.
I’m an Android Engineer living in Chi also. I’ve been to a few conference in chi such as Kotlin Everywhere & Chicago Roboto. I swear I’ve prolly run into you lmao. Anyways love the vid, keep up the solid content homie
Thanks man! Just catching up on comments this morning, really appreciated the request on LinkedIn. I think I skipped Kotlin Everywhere but have been to Chicago Roboto a few times; I’m sure we’ve ran into each other before 😂
Hello Cody, appreciate the transparency. This was really insightful and I will definitely be using this advice in my career. For reference, I am a recent college graduate who now works full-time as a Software Engineer in the state of Minnesota. My base salary is $61,800 before taxes and I have 0 years of technical experience, but I do have side projects I worked on while I was in college.
Great video. im just getting ready to start my bootcamp and DU. And its great to have someone in the field be so transparent about what they make! Id love to follow in your footsteps man and keep up with the good content the views will come later.
Thanks Brian that means a lot! Talking about salary is always a difficult and touchy subject, so this feedback really means a lot. Also congrats on the bootcamp! That’s a really great way to get into the field, just try to attend tech meetups if you have the time. I helped a few folks find jobs just because they were regulars to a meetup I attended. Don’t underestimate the importance of networking!
Cody Engel Thanks for the advise! I will actually do that i live in the denver area and im sure we have alot of them here. I didnt even know about them untill now. Im going to go back and obsorb your vids brother keep it up!
Denver is booming for tech, definitely take advantage of those meetups. I’ll see if I can make a video about networking when you’re just starting out in software development.
Great video Cody, you gained a new sub. It took me embarrassingly too long to realize that your apartment/house is two stories and that the ceiling fan behind you isn't at waist level.
Thank you so much for this video. I'm actually making a transition from social work to tech. I also live Midwest. It's nice to see that someone that's not working at a big tech company in Seattle can make a great living.
Thank you so much for sharing ! that needs to be talking more! I made about 120k+ as a software engineer with 2 years experience at a mid sized company in NYC! def coulda make more considering the rent out here lol
here is how that often heard $300k to $500k salary look like, it's usually start with a base pay of $150k ~$200k, plus $50k to $100k of stock, so the starting total comp is actually more like $200k~ $250k, which is more realistic. but with a good big tech in the past decade, how the stock has increased, by your 3rd, 4th year, the $50k /year stock would have x3 to x4 , so you suddenly got $150k+ 150k to 400k in stock... so you hear ppl say $500k salary. but what they don't say is that after the 4th or 5th year of vesting, they get a cliff, when the company is issuing you shares for the next 4 year(if you stay), they'll price it at the current value, so you won't the same number of shares, rather, more inline with the market rate for jobs at this position, so you are back to maybe $250, $300k, but of course, you get a promo, by then, that's a different story, and many of those companies continue to grow x2 , x3 in stock. it certainly has been good in FAANG who's stocks grew so much in the past decade, but if you are in a company who's stock didn't grow or declined, then not as much luck. also lot of ppl try to jump ship while their salary is still high before the cliff if they know they ain't getting promoted.
That sounds like a dream job for me! I make 38K/year and the employer doesn't pay anything. I work as a Senior Frontend Developer with 5+ years of experience. I am the hardest working person but my co-workers make more than me. The only reason is because I work remotely from a relatively poor country and the salary that I get is really good for the country I live. However, I do feel some kind of injustice sometimes but most of the time I just live with it.
Thank you for sharing this information, I'm currently looking to work remotely for a US based firm, and I live in a low salary country (in Jordan - Middle East), for sure they will not pay for you as if you are a resident in the US. But from your experience, is it easy to get a job for a US based firm, I have 3+ years experience as Blockchain developer. And if you can tell me a salary range I can ask for as per my experience and location, it would be appertained :)
It will depend by region and company. In the Chicago area I started out making $60k a year. Fast forward to today and I’m hearing of places offering as low as $70k and others going as high as $95k in the Chicagoland area.
I live in Ukraine Ternopil, working for a Mid sized company on a remote basis. Full stack Software engineer 3 YOE 36k after tax. Taxed at 5% for a PE which is paid by the company. Social tax 50+ USD Per month also paid by the company. I rent a 3 room apartment with flat mates for 100 usd for my room and
Hey guys, lets give him some support, he is doing great job and his videos very helpful but he is still less than 10k. We need to keep him motivated for creating videos like this. Share his videos with your friends who are interested in software engineering. Come on , nothing is free.
$216k annually, take-home, not working at FANG company. I'm also a mid-level developer and I work on iOS and Android native apps. I have 4 years of "Formal Experience" and roughly 2-3 years of "Informal Experience" but I do have 14+ years of IT-related experience dealing with Hardware, Software, Networks, and even Database systems.
Thank you I appreciate it. I wanted to be as transparent and up front as possible while also talking about tangible benefits that aren’t in the paycheck but impact my financials nonetheless.
I said it and I'll say it again...this channel is underrated!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Btw quick question, I'm working on app dev but only through kivy library ( python), should I drop it and move to learn basics JS and react or do u think cross development is complete trash??
more people should make videos like this. It was a mystery to me how much your salary is broken down until I got my first job out of college. Taxes in Chicago were a bitch.
@@CodyEngelCodes Of course! We shouldn't be on here trying to make a million bucks, because that will most likely end in despair! Haha, yeah I'm just having fun
Yep! Thanks. I would be interested in another video on how having more money than everyone else impacts your safety. How does having money feel amidst so much inequality! Appreciate your communication style.
You should put more to your 401K and Roth. It is easier to increase that and get used to smaller take home pay, but then it will grow quickly. (my experience)
I'm in Ohio but work for a remote company out of Boston. 2 years of experience (but I'm older - informally programming for 5 yearsish) Javascript Application Engineer (Full JS Stack) $95,000/year with basic benefits like health, 401k etc.
Really appreciate this breakdown and the way it was provided with context. Just a side note, and I'm not a financial advisor, but it may not hurt to up your 401k a bit more. The magic of compound interest and all that, though I'm sure you probably invest in other ways. I know it's been almost 2 years since this vid :)
I'm a support eng for a popular Kubernetes distro, so I don't do any coding. I make 120k + 10% yearly bonus, plus fully paid benefits which is probably another $10+ k, in rural Texas working remote for an international company. I'm currently interviewing for $140k to do the same work, also remote.
It depends, in general they seem to be localized by region or cost of living. So say you’d make $100k in San Francisco (for easy math) in a mid-cost of living area that may be $80k and low COL would be $70k. There are companies out there that just pay what SF salaries are (see Basecamp) yet the majority of their employees live in cheaper areas. Buffer is another company to look at as they do the other approach (localize salaries).
I’m a Junior CS student & all I want is $30K starting out 😭😭 Edit: I should add that I’m aware starting SE salaries are upward of $50K, the dramatic low ball salary is to illustrate how I’m so tired of being poor 😭
$30K is still pretty rough, once you hit $70K money stops becoming an issue and you're able to start saving a lot more for things like retirement. You're getting close to graduation though ☺️ depending on where you live starting salaries can be in the six figures, around Chicago it's around $80K.
@@CodyEngelCodes I am in the south but I live in an area that’s essentially a “technology hub.” I’m surrounded by companies like NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, & a military base; my school is known to be a “feeder” school for jobs at these places. I’m not eager to necessarily work in missile defense & simulations (I would rather just be a regular lil software engineer Lmao). But the opportunities are definitely there. & the $70K/year salary has been my “goal” since I learned of that study. I grew up poor, I’m poor while I’m struggling in college. I’m ready for the cycle to end lmao.
You'll be able to hit that goal in no time ☺️ and I agree that working on missile defense and simulations wouldn't be super enthralling but it's somewhere to start and you can always pivot to another area in the future.
Great video dude. Only thing I'd change is contribute the max (19.5K) and even make after tax contributions to the traditional/roth 401k if at all possible.
Thank you. This is about what I expected in a tier 5/6 role, which is near the top of the food chain and well in line with your job responsibilities. It's pretty good for someone with
This video was made a while ago and salaries have since gotten a little nutty. Some places I've talked to are throwing out TC ranges of $300-400k for a senior engineer role.
@@CodyEngelCodes FML, what am I doing wrong in life lol. 20 yr Sr Staff SysE, making just south of 200k in defense sector. All straight compensation, no RSU's or bonuses. No one in my peer group makes even close to my salary, most are 2 levels under me. In my age group, I tend to be the youngest at this high of a level. I've been open to moving, even in CA, I don't get those kinds of crazy high salary offers. Most interviews I go through, I actually get offered less than my current. I try to negotiate 10% every 2 years, usually have to job hop to get that.
I'm just outside of Chicago in NWI. I know that this video is old now but from my experience as an engineer in the IT field, I came into this video I actually thought that are quite a bit under paid. Although your benefits are definitely good. I find incomes super interesting, I've been on teams where I have later found out that the difference in income between two people with the same job title was vastly different, like $100k difference. (Seriously), and it has always made me think, why is that, what makes the highest people the highest, it's not like it's just the longest time being there, or anything like that, anyway I'm rambling, I have just accepted a new position in Chicago, would love to get lunch or something with you, originally being from England I don't know too many people in my own field so always nice to meet people.
Sometimes it is being with the company the longest. If you are with the company before they have a proper HR team and the founders are just looking to hire at all costs you can get some really whacky salaries. I was definitely underpaid, I left the company in 2020 for a company offering a TC of $201,000.
@@CodyEngelCodes ah I’ve not had experience of being basically with the founders, that would be another story for sure! Awesome congrats on the new position, generally that’s the quickest way to increase your income in my opinion, to work elsewhere lol - gets me nervous though if the company culture is horrible in the new position. And it’s ok currently. But, what if it’s amazing!
Really appreciate it Jacob ☺️ I've talked about my salary progression in a few recent videos but never a dedicated one. Now that I'm thinking about it, I could probably turn that into a dedicated video if I provide some tips and tricks along the way. I'm in the middle of a few other videos and will be moving soon though so may not have that video up in the near future, so here are the videos where I talk about my salary progression: th-cam.com/video/ktB1AwIT0Ko/w-d-xo.html th-cam.com/video/7vEzYbUWKOs/w-d-xo.html The tl;dr on my progression though is I went from $60k a year, dropped down to $57k for a startup and then a lot of small adjustments along the way. This year I hope to earn around $215k a year, my TC is $200k but between ESPP and my equity nearly doubling in the last year I expect it to be slightly higher than my TC on paper.
@@CodyEngelCodes That was exactly what I was looking for, thanks for sharing the link! There was so much value in that video :) Also, good luck in your move!
40 hours is fairly typical. If there is a big marketing effort then sometimes 50 hour weeks. Usually try to cut back scope before working longer hours though.
Damn that $12/day for lunch is a nice touch btw awesome video and you have practically my dream job in my dream city 😫you should do a video on how you built your career to get to that point
Yeah it was a nice perk. I decided to leave the company just before the pandemic though, I think they now offer a quarterly WFH stipend these days. I do want to start making videos again and they will probably be more this style than coding tutorials (tutorials are fun but boring to edit). Making one about how I got to where I am today would be fun.
$20K In Cyprus working as QA Automation Eng. I'm working mainly with US telco companies. This was my first job ever. However, I'm studying in order to switch to a DevOps role.
Bucharest, Romania, Senior Software engineer, 10 yoe, Bachelors in CS,$43428(about 182k lei - local currency). This is total compensation take home pay from last year. I work on the backend with go(golang).
As other people have mentioned, thank you for being so transparent. I think a lot of people underestimate the value of benefits as so many big companies love hiring for contractors now
@@CodyEngelCodes yes, I will be most likely be looking for Java developer roles. I learned some C++ from school but they teach us more in depth of Java and SQL. Will be learning Python most likely this term. I am also interested on building apps for Android. I believe that will be my next class after I finish this Advanced Java class.
I make 150K$ plus a signing bonus of 15K$(one time paid in the first paycheck ), i have 2 yrs of experience, i live and work in san Francisco, good luck to everybody !!
What was your starting salary for your first year? You mentioned the 44k matched to your starting salary. So it took a couple of years to reach over 100k?
This is a very informative video, thanks for the transparency. I have the choice of either going to Colorado State for a Certificate in Web App Development or go to Skillscrush for Software Engineering for 3 courses to learn Python, SQL,Numpy, Pandas, etc. Can you please provide advice/suggestions? Thanks so much for your inspiration!
I would go with whichever institution offers career services to ensure you can get a job after their program. The content is important but being able to find a job once you're done is the biggest (and hardest) thing.
Even thought Python can be used for software engineering, those lirbaries you listed are more day to day used by Data Analyst, Data Scientists or Data Engineers. If you want more Full stack software, try to get courses with Typescript, Node JS, AWS etc.
I am currently a Mechanical engineer and I am taking udemey classes to become a software guy, any recommendations to break into the software game? I’m doing it for the money lol
Hay man!!! Btw let me start off by saying, great video!! But I didn't really understand what u meant by "I also code and do code reviews.". Can you please explain it as I'm recently getting interested in software engineering field?
Code reviews are when you review another person's code before it is merged into the main development branch. Here's a video I made about how to have a more effective code reviews th-cam.com/video/Y9sp8gONv9M/w-d-xo.html
Finding this a bit late... I'm in Northwest Ohio... got in the field back in 2010 at $35k/yr.. after changing jobs a few times through the years.. currently only at $63k where I am now.. Major languages are SQL and VB..
Hey Chris, not sure if you are looking for advice but if you are, I'd recommend pairing your SQL knowledge with something like React (if you like front end work) or Python/Java if you want to do backend work.
What does the interview process look like in your company or area? Do they ask data structure and algorithms question or do they give you a take home challenge basically to create a mini app?
Depends on company. Some will do take home but most have shifted back towards regular in person ones. I’ve had some interviews ask no algorithm or data structure questions and just chat about tech and my background. Others will ask me to solve programming challenges. Honestly I prefer the more laidback ones (even as an interviewer) since they tend to give the same amount of info as the rigid algorithm/data structure ones.
@@CodyEngelCodes yeah I don't think anyone reverses a linked list in the their day to day job. It seems to be only feasible for big teach FANG companies to filter out the applicants. Thanks for the info and keep posting you got some quality content here👌
Yeah, to be fair, reversing a linked list isn’t difficult if you prepare for it and it’s kind of a fun problem once you solve it. None the less though, it is irrelevant for most positions.
In 2005, I worked for a bank in Charlotte NC. When I joined, I was offered $80k base salary, but no bonuses or other extras beyond standard benefits (401k match, some help with medical/dental, etc) for a mid-career software development position (Java web app dev/full stack). I wrote an app that helped them avoid fines of up to $25 million dollars from the SEC along with 14 other smaller reporting apps that helped portfolio managers be more efficient. While I mostly worked 45-ish hours a week, I started getting pressure to work more - basically threatened with being outsourced if I didn't put in more hours. I realized the person next to me was getting $60/hr and getting paid for every single hour he worked. Since I didn't really increase my hours except for final pushes for a release, I got an "average" review. Basically, I was doing what I was hired to do. I asked how would putting in the extra hours needed to get a better performance rating impact me financially (I had a young family at the time, so they valued my time more than the bank). Thankfully, my manager was extremely honest and basically told me it would only add an extra half-percent to my yearly salary increase if I got the top performance rating. I told him that I was thankful for his honesty and that I was very content with my rating. After that interaction, I decided to see if the free market would give me a raise instead. A few months later, I decided to quit the bank to work as a consultant reporting to a health care company (2007). I got paid $62/hr the first year and got a raise to $64/hr the following year. My hours ranged from 40/week to over 80/week - depending on my client's needs - but I was getting paid for every darn hour. I know that I averaged over 50 hours per week for the year - which means I made over $160k. To be fair, my expenses were a bit higher since I had to pay the full price of my consulting firm's cafeteria benefits - but I still did significantly better than if I had remained at the bank. Also, having a high base salary makes it a lot easier to have discussions with future employers about expected salary. Today, I work for a NYC based consulting firm but I live in Orlando, Florida - I sorta feel like I hacked the system.
Nope, no equity which was disappointing but the company had been around for quite a while and only started growing fast in the last few years. They didn’t want to give anyone equity and I guess it made sense, but still frustrating.
Yeah but not living in a closet for $4,000 a month is pretty nice. This video is a little dated too but it is pretty wild how much people make on the west and east coasts.
i won't blow you mind and tell you how really close to the staff engineer a welder in the mid-west makes with similar time on the job and no college degree then
@@jeremylarson6267 unfortunately a welder does not have the same social status as an engineer. A welder is exposed to more hazardous environments, inhaling those fumes can't be good for your body.
@@defqwe2557 - true but spending most of your day sitting and/or staring at a computer screen can't be good for you body either. and i suppose it depends on which groups you value when considering 'social status'.
Hey Blad, feel free to send me an email (it should be listed on my TH-cam page, if not let me know) and we can start the convo there. I’m also working on getting a discord setup but most likely won’t be ready until this weekend or next.
Hey Jojoy, self taught is totally doable (I have a video on that called “become a software engineer for free”) although it requires a lot of networking and trying to find someone that could refer you to their company. Boot camps are another good option, when selecting one make sure they have a proven track record of placing graduates into software engineering roles and find out how long it takes the average graduate to land a job.
Jojoy, learning software engineering by yourself is doable but difficult task / There's a slight distinction between software engineers and software/web developers that don't have extensive course work in science and math. But there are so many roles that the term are usually used to refer to each other. If you want to develop apps and web based sites you can take the full stack path and use either LAMP / MERN stacks and you will probably have a career for the rest of your life and they are not that engineering intensive. Software engineering jobs by definition are often given to people with CS or Engineering degrees, why? Unfortunately depending in your area of choice whether it is robotics, IOT, embedded systems the requirement to understand the science behind each one of those particular cases are very specific, and while yes you can teach yourself everything there is about lets electronic characteristics of a micro controller, the thermodynamic laws that will govern a motor or even the math to perform big Data analytics, you will lack the degree and unfortunately many hiring managers will not consider you for that particular set of roles. The good news, there's so much demand in web and cloud based technologies that you can probably earn as much or even more just doing the web based development without stressing yourself about not having a science degree.
After you gave your responsibilities and location, I guessed about $180,000 which was pretty close to what you earned. I think you are pretty close to average for your position and location. You probably came out a bit lower than I expected because you have just been promoted to staff engineer.
As a 28 year older adult . I went back into school and now a sophomore studying CS. My problem is that I make above average wage in non tech but I want to get internship experience without quitting my non tech job until I Graduate . Idk what to do 😫😫
I don't know how your average wage compares to other wages so unfortunately I can't help too much. If it's less than the starting salary of an entry level software engineer in you area though, I'd probably quit the job once you get an internship.
one thing that you can do that will help you out for that is you can build your repository in github by joining multiple open source projects, even if you do tiny tasks the importance is that you contribute often ( yes working for free sucks ) , unless you can master what you are taking in school and showcase a portfolio only of school work that is going to land you in a entry level opportunity that might pay you more that what you are making currently. Switching industry, but there's a reason you went back to college... I finished my electrical engineering degree at 34, and was making only 11.50/hr just 10 years ago stuck in a call center.
@@CodyEngelCodes I’ll make close to the low six figures this year . It’s a mix commission and hourly so I can fluctuate yearly between 80k and 100k . This is for sales In luxury retail industry in Atlanta . I want experience but don’t want to have an internship for 2 months and no job after . I have bills to pay as an adult smh
Thanks Cody for these info, I'm a follower from Egypt and I'm working for a US company,one question plz, am a full stack MERN ,MEAN developer and I wanna learn python and Go , which of them I should be focused on in the future ?
You really can’t go wrong with either. Python and Go are both quite popular although Python is currently the most popular. I’d learn whichever one you are most excited for, if it were me I’d learn Go but can’t go wrong either way.
Thanks for the more in depth view of what to consider compensation, with taking those into account may total compensation sounds much better. I am still very fortunate, recently out of college I was able to leverage my personal projects into getting my Junior Soft Eng. position at 60k and was quickly able to get a 5k raise off of merit. Benefits and company contribution is great, as well as work life balance This is in Montana where tech jobs are a little harder to come by.
Never seen such an on point and transparent video about someone's salary before
Thanks that was my goal 😊
@Jesse Mitchell 😳🤔
@Jesse Mitchell wow! People assume so much!
@Jesse Mitchell his salary is right on par with the national average. You must get your salary info from the ex Google ex Facebook coding boot camp faq pages?
I'm a little late to the party here, but I'll give you my numbers. I live just outside of Detroit and work for a Tier 1 automotive supplier. In 2019 I was a W2 contractor making $65/hour. With over 700 hours of overtime (straight pay, not time and a half) I made a little over $174,000. Bear in mind that is with ZERO benefits. No vacation, no health or life insurance (I paid for those myself), no STD or LTD. Your ~$174K total compensation package is very nice for the Midwest given all the benefits you receive. Oh, and in 2019 I was 50-years-old with 27 years of experience in IT.
Do you were w2 contractor working for a staffing agency? Where you get 0 benefits, but 1.5/2.0 for OT pay?
thank you for getting straight to the point and being so transparent!! every youtuber wastes so much time beating around the bush and needless elaborating these days smh
Thanks, I wanted to keep this as transparent as possible. I found that just stating salary is relatively meaningless because it doesn’t get into taxes or other benefits that come from a full time job.
I love how real and raw you are about everything! You're absolutely right that context is extremely important when considering compensation. There are so many people out there saying "I make $350K+ per year" without giving any context as to their location, years of experience, whether or not that includes benefits, etc. Thank you for being so transparent - pay transparency is extremely important for everyone to know their worth and ensure that they are being paid fairly :)
Thanks Grant! I agree, it’s hard to know what people mean when they say “I make $500k per year” and then continue to not show the numbers or talk about where they are coming from.
@@CodyEngelCodes Very well put video as a fellow mid-west SWE it was satisfying to see I fall in similar bucket as you.
@Jesse Mitchell Money isn't necessarily everything. Maybe he has a really good work/life balance?
I have a IT job where I make 78k a year. I could always make more, but I sacrificed pay for having less stress and more flexibility.
I can come in at 9am (after dropping my kid off at school), take a 2 hour lunch, and leave by 4pm.
@@tpc01x Google and Facebook is pretty cush for work life balance. Netflix and Apple not so much.
Thanks Cody. I am moving into this field, returning after 20 years. In all business, we need more people to be transparent about earnings and cost of living in their region. Thanks for being so honest, you have clearly been a good and dedicated developer and employee.
Thanks Daniel I really appreciate the comment and best of luck getting back into development!
Got recommended this video on the top of my feed, this video is going to do well bud!
That great to hear it’s getting recommended, the algorithm is working for me in this one 😂
@@CodyEngelCodes sorry to say
But, actually not
Thank you so much for this video! I know it's still not a norm to share salaries but you're part of the change that I think a lot of people want to see! Subbed
Thanks Leo! I will always be as transparent as I can be without making HR mad. I currently work for a larger company so I’m not sure they would be as happy with me sharing my salary - but I’m trying to offset that by creating my software salaries videos.
. I've been at the same backwards technology company for nearly 33 years in management for nearly 25 of those years and still only make just over 100k... I have only myself to blame for being loyal with a company that doesn't reward hard working long term employees (my salary is the same as most others in the same position in my company - regardless if you are a top person or a bottom dweller)... if only I could go back in time and do it again!
I commend you for making a video like this. It seems like a lot of the SWE videos on youtube are more geared to get views and subs vs the quality of the content. I am currently and undergrad in CS and thought about making videos of my experience. This will allow others that are in or will be in my same boat to get an idea of what it's like without the bias that comes from the bigger channels. Feel free to make any videos that would help current college students. I'll leave the idea making up to you! Thanks!
Make the videos man, that’s a great idea. There are a lot of topics I’ll never make a video on now because it’ll seem trivial. The best time to share your knowledge is right after you struggled through a problem. One thing I’ve noticed is video quality truly isn’t everything. I’m currently in the process of moving but want to make some videos so I’m thinking about just using my phone to record them and see what folks think.
I’d love to see you do this again for 2022. The market is only that much more competitive so maybe you’ve been able to take advantage of that as an engineer with nearly 10 years experience.
I’m an Android Engineer living in Chi also. I’ve been to a few conference in chi such as Kotlin Everywhere & Chicago Roboto. I swear I’ve prolly run into you lmao. Anyways love the vid, keep up the solid content homie
Thanks man! Just catching up on comments this morning, really appreciated the request on LinkedIn. I think I skipped Kotlin Everywhere but have been to Chicago Roboto a few times; I’m sure we’ve ran into each other before 😂
Cody is such a respectable, down to earth person.
Thanks Shallon!
Hello Cody, appreciate the transparency. This was really insightful and I will definitely be using this advice in my career. For reference, I am a recent college graduate who now works full-time as a Software Engineer in the state of Minnesota. My base salary is $61,800 before taxes and I have 0 years of technical experience, but I do have side projects I worked on while I was in college.
Nice! That was about what I made starting out, it can take a little bit to get going but the raises will become more substantial as time goes on ☺️
Shoutout U of M!
One of the best breakdowns ever done
Thank you :)
Great video. im just getting ready to start my bootcamp and DU. And its great to have someone in the field be so transparent about what they make! Id love to follow in your footsteps man and keep up with the good content the views will come later.
Thanks Brian that means a lot! Talking about salary is always a difficult and touchy subject, so this feedback really means a lot.
Also congrats on the bootcamp! That’s a really great way to get into the field, just try to attend tech meetups if you have the time. I helped a few folks find jobs just because they were regulars to a meetup I attended. Don’t underestimate the importance of networking!
Cody Engel Thanks for the advise! I will actually do that i live in the denver area and im sure we have alot of them here. I didnt even know about them untill now.
Im going to go back and obsorb your vids brother keep it up!
Denver is booming for tech, definitely take advantage of those meetups. I’ll see if I can make a video about networking when you’re just starting out in software development.
I like how transparent this vid is.
Thank you Anna ☺️
Great video Cody, you gained a new sub.
It took me embarrassingly too long to realize that your apartment/house is two stories and that the ceiling fan behind you isn't at waist level.
Yeah that ceiling fan threw off a lot of people.
Another great video! You've been doing consistently awesome content. Keep up the good work. 👍👍 Smashing that like button!!
Thank you Ivan that means a lot to me! If you have video requests just let me know 🙂
Thank you so much for this video. I'm actually making a transition from social work to tech. I also live Midwest. It's nice to see that someone that's not working at a big tech company in Seattle can make a great living.
Thank you so much for sharing ! that needs to be talking more! I made about 120k+ as a software engineer with 2 years experience at a mid sized company in NYC! def coulda make more considering the rent out here lol
Thanks for sharing!
Watched the first 10 minutes and decided to sub to the channel.
Really honest, concise and sincere.
Thanks Dylan!
here is how that often heard $300k to $500k salary look like, it's usually start with a base pay of $150k ~$200k, plus $50k to $100k of stock, so the starting total comp is actually more like $200k~ $250k, which is more realistic. but with a good big tech in the past decade, how the stock has increased, by your 3rd, 4th year, the $50k /year stock would have x3 to x4 , so you suddenly got $150k+ 150k to 400k in stock... so you hear ppl say $500k salary. but what they don't say is that after the 4th or 5th year of vesting, they get a cliff, when the company is issuing you shares for the next 4 year(if you stay), they'll price it at the current value, so you won't the same number of shares, rather, more inline with the market rate for jobs at this position, so you are back to maybe $250, $300k, but of course, you get a promo, by then, that's a different story, and many of those companies continue to grow x2 , x3 in stock. it certainly has been good in FAANG who's stocks grew so much in the past decade, but if you are in a company who's stock didn't grow or declined, then not as much luck. also lot of ppl try to jump ship while their salary is still high before the cliff if they know they ain't getting promoted.
Very true and very insightful.
Hey, I hope you truly know that your viewers really appreciate this type of content!!
I do! Thanks ☺️
Loved the video :)
Happy to hear that!
That sounds like a dream job for me! I make 38K/year and the employer doesn't pay anything. I work as a Senior Frontend Developer with 5+ years of experience. I am the hardest working person but my co-workers make more than me. The only reason is because I work remotely from a relatively poor country and the salary that I get is really good for the country I live.
However, I do feel some kind of injustice sometimes but most of the time I just live with it.
Thank you for sharing this information, I'm currently looking to work remotely for a US based firm, and I live in a low salary country (in Jordan - Middle East), for sure they will not pay for you as if you are a resident in the US. But from your experience, is it easy to get a job for a US based firm, I have 3+ years experience as Blockchain developer. And if you can tell me a salary range I can ask for as per my experience and location, it would be appertained :)
Hi Cody. Thanks for the info! Much appreciated. How much does your employer pay a junior software engineer? Thank you.
It will depend by region and company. In the Chicago area I started out making $60k a year. Fast forward to today and I’m hearing of places offering as low as $70k and others going as high as $95k in the Chicagoland area.
Thank you for the video very transparent there's too much taboo when it comes to salary
Sure thing, happy to see you enjoyed the video.
I live in Ukraine Ternopil, working for a Mid sized company on a remote basis.
Full stack Software engineer
3 YOE
36k after tax.
Taxed at 5% for a PE which is paid by the company.
Social tax 50+ USD Per month also paid by the company.
I rent a 3 room apartment with flat mates for 100 usd for my room and
Thank you for sharing, it's interesting to see how things differ around the world ☺️
Extremely well done video. Thanks for it!
Great work! Very informative!
Hey guys, lets give him some support, he is doing great job and his videos very helpful but he is still less than 10k. We need to keep him motivated for creating videos like this. Share his videos with your friends who are interested in software engineering. Come on , nothing is free.
$216k annually, take-home, not working at FANG company. I'm also a mid-level developer and I work on iOS and Android native apps. I have 4 years of "Formal Experience" and roughly 2-3 years of "Informal Experience" but I do have 14+ years of IT-related experience dealing with Hardware, Software, Networks, and even Database systems.
Nice!
Your video is so great, i can see all your deductions, is a lot, many people lie about their salary but, you are honest
Thank you I appreciate it. I wanted to be as transparent and up front as possible while also talking about tangible benefits that aren’t in the paycheck but impact my financials nonetheless.
I said it and I'll say it again...this channel is underrated!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Btw quick question, I'm working on app dev but only through kivy library ( python), should I drop it and move to learn basics JS and react or do u think cross development is complete trash??
If you're going to learn cross platform development you'd probably be better served learning Flutter.
Thanks for the transparency
Yeah sure thing 🙂
I live in Richmond VA, work remotely for Facebook. Make 275k a year. 4 years of experience, self taught software engineer
Is this a formal invite to hang out at your castle next time I'm on the east coast?
@@CodyEngelCodes Haha anytime! I still live like a college student actually. Trying to FI(RE) in 4 years!
more people should make videos like this. It was a mystery to me how much your salary is broken down until I got my first job out of college. Taxes in Chicago were a bitch.
Very legit content! Glad I skipped all that "Software influencer" search results and reached this content.
Hey Diego, thanks for the comment. Happy to hear this was helpful ☺️
Hey, I like your name!
You're about 78 videos ahead of me, but I like your content so far. Very cool man
Thanks Cody! The first dozen videos are a bit of a grind but just focusing on having fun ☺️
@@CodyEngelCodes Of course! We shouldn't be on here trying to make a million bucks, because that will most likely end in despair! Haha, yeah I'm just having fun
Thanks for the insight! Quite enlightening!
Glad it was helpful!
Yep! Thanks. I would be interested in another video on how having more money than everyone else impacts your safety. How does having money feel amidst so much inequality! Appreciate your communication style.
You should put more to your 401K and Roth. It is easier to increase that and get used to smaller take home pay, but then it will grow quickly. (my experience)
Agreed - should be maxing both 401k and roth with that kind of money. 19k in 401k and 6k in Roth.
Yup, these days I max out my 401k.
I'm in Ohio but work for a remote company out of Boston.
2 years of experience (but I'm older - informally programming for 5 yearsish)
Javascript Application Engineer (Full JS Stack)
$95,000/year with basic benefits like health, 401k etc.
Really appreciate this breakdown and the way it was provided with context. Just a side note, and I'm not a financial advisor, but it may not hurt to up your 401k a bit more.
The magic of compound interest and all that, though I'm sure you probably invest in other ways. I know it's been almost 2 years since this vid :)
I think its insane how low the ceiling fan is in the background.
Considering I was about 10 feet above the first floor and the ceiling in the living room was 20 feet it was actually a little too high 😉
@@CodyEngelCodes Bruh, why're you working in the attic? :p
Because my mom kicked me out of her basement.
I'm a support eng for a popular Kubernetes distro, so I don't do any coding. I make 120k + 10% yearly bonus, plus fully paid benefits which is probably another $10+ k, in rural Texas working remote for an international company. I'm currently interviewing for $140k to do the same work, also remote.
Thanks, great content! What would you say about remote jobs? Are they usually less than average on site?
It depends, in general they seem to be localized by region or cost of living. So say you’d make $100k in San Francisco (for easy math) in a mid-cost of living area that may be $80k and low COL would be $70k. There are companies out there that just pay what SF salaries are (see Basecamp) yet the majority of their employees live in cheaper areas. Buffer is another company to look at as they do the other approach (localize salaries).
Awesome! Thank you.
I’m a Junior CS student & all I want is $30K starting out 😭😭
Edit: I should add that I’m aware starting SE salaries are upward of $50K, the dramatic low ball salary is to illustrate how I’m so tired of being poor 😭
$30K is still pretty rough, once you hit $70K money stops becoming an issue and you're able to start saving a lot more for things like retirement.
You're getting close to graduation though ☺️ depending on where you live starting salaries can be in the six figures, around Chicago it's around $80K.
@@CodyEngelCodes I am in the south but I live in an area that’s essentially a “technology hub.” I’m surrounded by companies like NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, & a military base; my school is known to be a “feeder” school for jobs at these places. I’m not eager to necessarily work in missile defense & simulations (I would rather just be a regular lil software engineer Lmao). But the opportunities are definitely there.
& the $70K/year salary has been my “goal” since I learned of that study. I grew up poor, I’m poor while I’m struggling in college. I’m ready for the cycle to end lmao.
You'll be able to hit that goal in no time ☺️ and I agree that working on missile defense and simulations wouldn't be super enthralling but it's somewhere to start and you can always pivot to another area in the future.
@@CodyEngelCodes thank you so much for the valuable information & the encouragement!
Great video dude. Only thing I'd change is contribute the max (19.5K) and even make after tax contributions to the traditional/roth 401k if at all possible.
Thank you. This is about what I expected in a tier 5/6 role, which is near the top of the food chain and well in line with your job responsibilities. It's pretty good for someone with
This video was made a while ago and salaries have since gotten a little nutty. Some places I've talked to are throwing out TC ranges of $300-400k for a senior engineer role.
@@CodyEngelCodes FML, what am I doing wrong in life lol. 20 yr Sr Staff SysE, making just south of 200k in defense sector. All straight compensation, no RSU's or bonuses. No one in my peer group makes even close to my salary, most are 2 levels under me. In my age group, I tend to be the youngest at this high of a level. I've been open to moving, even in CA, I don't get those kinds of crazy high salary offers. Most interviews I go through, I actually get offered less than my current. I try to negotiate 10% every 2 years, usually have to job hop to get that.
I'm just outside of Chicago in NWI. I know that this video is old now but from my experience as an engineer in the IT field, I came into this video I actually thought that are quite a bit under paid. Although your benefits are definitely good. I find incomes super interesting, I've been on teams where I have later found out that the difference in income between two people with the same job title was vastly different, like $100k difference. (Seriously), and it has always made me think, why is that, what makes the highest people the highest, it's not like it's just the longest time being there, or anything like that, anyway I'm rambling, I have just accepted a new position in Chicago, would love to get lunch or something with you, originally being from England I don't know too many people in my own field so always nice to meet people.
Sometimes it is being with the company the longest. If you are with the company before they have a proper HR team and the founders are just looking to hire at all costs you can get some really whacky salaries. I was definitely underpaid, I left the company in 2020 for a company offering a TC of $201,000.
@@CodyEngelCodes ah I’ve not had experience of being basically with the founders, that would be another story for sure! Awesome congrats on the new position, generally that’s the quickest way to increase your income in my opinion, to work elsewhere lol - gets me nervous though if the company culture is horrible in the new position. And it’s ok currently. But, what if it’s amazing!
@@CodyEngelCodes Yeah now you have a more reasonable TC.
Subscribing because of your transparency 👍🏻 would be curious to hear about your progression from when you started to where you’re at now
Really appreciate it Jacob ☺️ I've talked about my salary progression in a few recent videos but never a dedicated one. Now that I'm thinking about it, I could probably turn that into a dedicated video if I provide some tips and tricks along the way.
I'm in the middle of a few other videos and will be moving soon though so may not have that video up in the near future, so here are the videos where I talk about my salary progression:
th-cam.com/video/ktB1AwIT0Ko/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/7vEzYbUWKOs/w-d-xo.html
The tl;dr on my progression though is I went from $60k a year, dropped down to $57k for a startup and then a lot of small adjustments along the way. This year I hope to earn around $215k a year, my TC is $200k but between ESPP and my equity nearly doubling in the last year I expect it to be slightly higher than my TC on paper.
@@CodyEngelCodes That was exactly what I was looking for, thanks for sharing the link! There was so much value in that video :) Also, good luck in your move!
Thanks 😊
Very informative Cody. I’m curious on how many hours do you average per week to earn that salary?
40 hours is fairly typical. If there is a big marketing effort then sometimes 50 hour weeks. Usually try to cut back scope before working longer hours though.
I like your channel, keep going.
Damn that $12/day for lunch is a nice touch
btw awesome video and you have practically my dream job in my dream city 😫you should do a video on how you built your career to get to that point
Yeah it was a nice perk. I decided to leave the company just before the pandemic though, I think they now offer a quarterly WFH stipend these days. I do want to start making videos again and they will probably be more this style than coding tutorials (tutorials are fun but boring to edit). Making one about how I got to where I am today would be fun.
$20K In Cyprus working as QA Automation Eng. I'm working mainly with US telco companies. This was my first job ever. However, I'm studying in order to switch to a DevOps role.
Nice! Thanks for sharing that information ☺️
Cody, Thank You!
Yeah you're welcome ☺️
Love this channel
Bucharest, Romania, Senior Software engineer, 10 yoe, Bachelors in CS,$43428(about 182k lei - local currency). This is total compensation take home pay from last year. I work on the backend with go(golang).
Nice! Thanks for sharing that info ☺️
As other people have mentioned, thank you for being so transparent. I think a lot of people underestimate the value of benefits as so many big companies love hiring for contractors now
Yeah you're welcome ☺️
Huuuge balls for exposing this amount of personal info. 😎
Pro tip: turn-off the fan, it lowers quality for the same bitrate.
Thank you for this info. Very helpful! Keep them coming! Just subscribed to you. I am also in Chicago. Still going to school for software dev.
Thanks Jay! Are you attending university or a coding bootcamp? How much more time do you have until you’re done?
@@CodyEngelCodes I am attending an online university. My goal is to finish by the end of this year.
Nice! Do you have any software engineering roles in mind?
@@CodyEngelCodes yes, I will be most likely be looking for Java developer roles. I learned some C++ from school but they teach us more in depth of Java and SQL. Will be learning Python most likely this term. I am also interested on building apps for Android. I believe that will be my next class after I finish this Advanced Java class.
Android is a ton of fun! If you go that route you should check out Kotlin as well, it’s kind of like Java but a little more fun to work with ☺️
sounds just right
nailed it 100%
Daaamnn you getting to the money !!!
thank you so much!
I make 150K$ plus a signing bonus of 15K$(one time paid in the first paycheck ), i have 2 yrs of experience, i live and work in san Francisco, good luck to everybody !!
Nice, a refreshing take on the software engineering community on TH-cam.
Yup thats why I exactly subbed instantly
@@cocoarecords same
Thanks! I really appreciate the nice comments and support 💪
Salary: 150k; Philadelphia suburbs; Senior Data Analyst (SQL); 20 years
Thank you for sharing!
401k tax vs pre-tax video would be very helpful, please do one.
What was your starting salary for your first year? You mentioned the 44k matched to your starting salary. So it took a couple of years to reach over 100k?
My starting salary out of college was $60k
Thank you!
This is a very informative video, thanks for the transparency. I have the choice of either going to Colorado State for a Certificate in Web App Development or go to Skillscrush for Software Engineering for 3 courses to learn Python, SQL,Numpy, Pandas, etc. Can you please provide advice/suggestions? Thanks so much for your inspiration!
I would go with whichever institution offers career services to ensure you can get a job after their program. The content is important but being able to find a job once you're done is the biggest (and hardest) thing.
@@CodyEngelCodes Thanks Cody!
Even thought Python can be used for software engineering, those lirbaries you listed are more day to day used by Data Analyst, Data Scientists or Data Engineers. If you want more Full stack software, try to get courses with Typescript, Node JS, AWS etc.
I am currently a Mechanical engineer and I am taking udemey classes to become a software guy, any recommendations to break into the software game? I’m doing it for the money lol
Focus on networking and learning things that are in high demand. You can’t go wrong with Python, JavaScript, or Java these days.
Hay man!!! Btw let me start off by saying, great video!! But I didn't really understand what u meant by "I also code and do code reviews.". Can you please explain it as I'm recently getting interested in software engineering field?
Code reviews are when you review another person's code before it is merged into the main development branch. Here's a video I made about how to have a more effective code reviews th-cam.com/video/Y9sp8gONv9M/w-d-xo.html
Finding this a bit late... I'm in Northwest Ohio... got in the field back in 2010 at $35k/yr.. after changing jobs a few times through the years.. currently only at $63k where I am now.. Major languages are SQL and VB..
Hey Chris, not sure if you are looking for advice but if you are, I'd recommend pairing your SQL knowledge with something like React (if you like front end work) or Python/Java if you want to do backend work.
Thank you 🙏🏼
You’re welcome 😊
Great thanks...
Finland, 23 years of experience, senior sw developer, yearly net amount paid to my bank account ~36000€ = $42500
What does the interview process look like in your company or area? Do they ask data structure and algorithms question or do they give you a take home challenge basically to create a mini app?
Depends on company. Some will do take home but most have shifted back towards regular in person ones. I’ve had some interviews ask no algorithm or data structure questions and just chat about tech and my background. Others will ask me to solve programming challenges. Honestly I prefer the more laidback ones (even as an interviewer) since they tend to give the same amount of info as the rigid algorithm/data structure ones.
@@CodyEngelCodes yeah I don't think anyone reverses a linked list in the their day to day job. It seems to be only feasible for big teach FANG companies to filter out the applicants.
Thanks for the info and keep posting you got some quality content here👌
Yeah, to be fair, reversing a linked list isn’t difficult if you prepare for it and it’s kind of a fun problem once you solve it. None the less though, it is irrelevant for most positions.
currently making 76k base with 4.5k bonus with 1.6 months of experience post-undergrad in the midwest. Tax man dont play.
Tax man don’t play unless your last name is Bezos then they let you win the game without even working.
Moscow, Russia. Performance (QA) Engineer with 1-2 YoE makes $12000-20000 after taxes and this is way above average salary in country.
Poor russia
Poor Russia indeed 😔
In 2005, I worked for a bank in Charlotte NC. When I joined, I was offered $80k base salary, but no bonuses or other extras beyond standard benefits (401k match, some help with medical/dental, etc) for a mid-career software development position (Java web app dev/full stack). I wrote an app that helped them avoid fines of up to $25 million dollars from the SEC along with 14 other smaller reporting apps that helped portfolio managers be more efficient. While I mostly worked 45-ish hours a week, I started getting pressure to work more - basically threatened with being outsourced if I didn't put in more hours. I realized the person next to me was getting $60/hr and getting paid for every single hour he worked. Since I didn't really increase my hours except for final pushes for a release, I got an "average" review. Basically, I was doing what I was hired to do. I asked how would putting in the extra hours needed to get a better performance rating impact me financially (I had a young family at the time, so they valued my time more than the bank). Thankfully, my manager was extremely honest and basically told me it would only add an extra half-percent to my yearly salary increase if I got the top performance rating. I told him that I was thankful for his honesty and that I was very content with my rating. After that interaction, I decided to see if the free market would give me a raise instead. A few months later, I decided to quit the bank to work as a consultant reporting to a health care company (2007). I got paid $62/hr the first year and got a raise to $64/hr the following year. My hours ranged from 40/week to over 80/week - depending on my client's needs - but I was getting paid for every darn hour. I know that I averaged over 50 hours per week for the year - which means I made over $160k. To be fair, my expenses were a bit higher since I had to pay the full price of my consulting firm's cafeteria benefits - but I still did significantly better than if I had remained at the bank. Also, having a high base salary makes it a lot easier to have discussions with future employers about expected salary. Today, I work for a NYC based consulting firm but I live in Orlando, Florida - I sorta feel like I hacked the system.
Thanks Cody very helpful. Did they not give equity?
Nope, no equity which was disappointing but the company had been around for quite a while and only started growing fast in the last few years. They didn’t want to give anyone equity and I guess it made sense, but still frustrating.
when u realize someone right out of college in Silicon Valley makes as much as a staff engineer in Chicago 💀
Yeah but not living in a closet for $4,000 a month is pretty nice. This video is a little dated too but it is pretty wild how much people make on the west and east coasts.
sir have you heard of citadel
i won't blow you mind and tell you how really close to the staff engineer a welder in the mid-west makes with similar time on the job and no college degree then
@@jeremylarson6267 unfortunately a welder does not have the same social status as an engineer.
A welder is exposed to more hazardous environments, inhaling those fumes can't be good for your body.
@@defqwe2557 - true but spending most of your day sitting and/or staring at a computer screen can't be good for you body either. and i suppose it depends on which groups you value when considering 'social status'.
What a fantastic video. How did you initially get started in the software industry?
I got started by running blogs and modifying Wordpress themes. My channel trailer goes more in-depth on how I got started though.
5:57 that noise u make when you realize your test is today
That noise you make when you realize it's Monday 😅
Hi great video with deatails I live in Chicago and I make roughly 100k. I would love to have a personal conversation with you. Thank you for sharing
Hey Blad, feel free to send me an email (it should be listed on my TH-cam page, if not let me know) and we can start the convo there. I’m also working on getting a discord setup but most likely won’t be ready until this weekend or next.
Hi Cody,
Where would you start for someone like me to become a software engineer without a degree?
Hey Jojoy, self taught is totally doable (I have a video on that called “become a software engineer for free”) although it requires a lot of networking and trying to find someone that could refer you to their company. Boot camps are another good option, when selecting one make sure they have a proven track record of placing graduates into software engineering roles and find out how long it takes the average graduate to land a job.
Jojoy, learning software engineering by yourself is doable but difficult task / There's a slight distinction between software engineers and software/web developers that don't have extensive course work in science and math. But there are so many roles that the term are usually used to refer to each other. If you want to develop apps and web based sites you can take the full stack path and use either LAMP / MERN stacks and you will probably have a career for the rest of your life and they are not that engineering intensive. Software engineering jobs by definition are often given to people with CS or Engineering degrees, why? Unfortunately depending in your area of choice whether it is robotics, IOT, embedded systems the requirement to understand the science behind each one of those particular cases are very specific, and while yes you can teach yourself everything there is about lets electronic characteristics of a micro controller, the thermodynamic laws that will govern a motor or even the math to perform big Data analytics, you will lack the degree and unfortunately many hiring managers will not consider you for that particular set of roles. The good news, there's so much demand in web and cloud based technologies that you can probably earn as much or even more just doing the web based development without stressing yourself about not having a science degree.
I want to become a software engineer but I’m only 13 got a few more years! But I WILL become one!
same :)
After you gave your responsibilities and location, I guessed about $180,000 which was pretty close to what you earned. I think you are pretty close to average for your position and location. You probably came out a bit lower than I expected because you have just been promoted to staff engineer.
I like your maple 'tree', I'm sure it's taken for something else... a lot :)
My money tree? Sadly it passed away this past year :(
@@CodyEngelCodes those need light like any good money tree
Just noticed we both have the same ultrawide 👍👍
The monitor was a game changer, I just need to find a way to get another one for my desk at work 😂
@@CodyEngelCodes haha...good luck with that 😀. The wide screen is so awesome for video timeline editing.
Yeah it makes FCPX easier. I also do 2/3 Android Studio and 1/3 Google Chrome when I work from home. Works great 🍻
I also have it (: Cheers!
is this with a BS/Masters? I am doing a boot camp now (web dev) and I'm hoping my first job is going to be competitive with what I make now
This was with a BS in CS.
As a 28 year older adult . I went back into school and now a sophomore studying CS. My problem is that I make above average wage in non tech but I want to get internship experience without quitting my non tech job until I Graduate . Idk what to do 😫😫
I don't know how your average wage compares to other wages so unfortunately I can't help too much. If it's less than the starting salary of an entry level software engineer in you area though, I'd probably quit the job once you get an internship.
one thing that you can do that will help you out for that is you can build your repository in github by joining multiple open source projects, even if you do tiny tasks the importance is that you contribute often ( yes working for free sucks ) , unless you can master what you are taking in school and showcase a portfolio only of school work that is going to land you in a entry level opportunity that might pay you more that what you are making currently. Switching industry, but there's a reason you went back to college... I finished my electrical engineering degree at 34, and was making only 11.50/hr just 10 years ago stuck in a call center.
@@CodyEngelCodes I’ll make close to the low six figures this year . It’s a mix commission and hourly so I can fluctuate yearly between 80k and 100k . This is for sales In luxury retail industry in Atlanta . I want experience but don’t want to have an internship for 2 months and no job after . I have bills to pay as an adult smh
@@CodyEngelCodes is it possible to just skip the internship process and get entry level job while still in school ?
Thanks Cody for these info,
I'm a follower from Egypt and I'm working for a US company,one question plz, am a full stack MERN ,MEAN developer and I wanna learn python and Go , which of them I should be focused on in the future ?
You really can’t go wrong with either. Python and Go are both quite popular although Python is currently the most popular. I’d learn whichever one you are most excited for, if it were me I’d learn Go but can’t go wrong either way.
@@CodyEngelCodes thanks for the advice but what do you mean by going wrong with either?
@@AbouLojyn He means both are great to learn.
Thanks for the more in depth view of what to consider compensation, with taking those into account may total compensation sounds much better. I am still very fortunate, recently out of college I was able to leverage my personal projects into getting my Junior Soft Eng. position at 60k and was quickly able to get a 5k raise off of merit. Benefits and company contribution is great, as well as work life balance This is in Montana where tech jobs are a little harder to come by.
Nice! Thank you for sharing and that sounds like a really solid starting salary for Montana!
North east, 3 YOE, 183K TC
Come to Kansas and make more here
Taxation is theft. Hard work and dedication is penalized. That always works out well for societies.
Four years ago now. Wonder what things are like today
Special never brags :)