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Ask HN: What is the average out of college base salary for software engineers?

5 points by antimatter ↗ HN
I recently graduated with a Computer Science degree and various job applications are asking for "desired base salary" and "Desired total compensation". I'm a bit of a noob when it comes to these things and I'm not sure what an appropriate amount to ask for is.

The positions I'm mostly looking at are junior to mid-level web application development (specifically rails) in SoCal.

Thanks.

8 comments

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epicureanideal
I think it would depend on whether your college education included a significant number of courses that would help you perform well in web application development. For example, I know of some programs where only 1/6 or so of the material is somewhat related to web application development (including the English classes and otherwise being generous). Also, do you have any relevant experience or projects?
antimatter
I've learned everything related to web development on my own. Other than a few security related courses, I wouldn't say I learned much about web development in any of my courses. I've got a few personal projects that I've done in Rails as learning experiments and have definitely mentioned those in my resume/cover letter.
epicureanideal
Also it depends on where you live and other things like that. "Median annual wages of wage and salary computer systems analysts were $75,500 in May 2008." (http://bls.gov/oco/ocos287.htm) "In May 2008, median annual wages of wage-and-salary computer applications software engineers were $85,430. The middle 50 percent earned between $67,790 and $104,870. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $53,720, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $128,870." (http://bls.gov/oco/ocos303.htm)

According to https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/EECS.stm, $73,045 is the typical starting salary for a Berkeley EECS major, although several people I know have gotten offers 10-20k higher.

epicureanideal
Typical advice in salary negotiation books is also to not be the first to state a number. Try putting in "competitive * " or something like that, and then later put * based on my skills and experience, or at least that's their advice.
T-R
There's been a bit of backlash against that, though - while it does set an upper bound on the negotiation, it also couches the range of the whole negotiation (i.e. the other side is unlikely to make a significantly lower counter-offer, since their perception of a reasonable counter-offer is based on the initial offer).

Still, the typical advice is probably pretty solid for situations where you don't know where to start.

johnsocs
My Advice: A first job just out of school if heading to an established company your going to fall into their base cookie cutter template so whatever you put down is not really going to matter much, infact you could leave it blank and when HR asks you say 'I'm a n00b'

Salary negotiations don't really come into place until you have a few years under your belt, acquired some domain knowledge and have become seasoned, that's when the real fun starts.

If you really feel 'I must put something down' then ask a friend with a similar background who has already gotten an offer or already in the workforce what to expect based on the area you are looking in. Lastly, if moving to another state, city etc.. checkout how salary conversions for the areas.

What it really boils down to is you have to do your homework.....

bendmorris
I agree that you should leave it blank but not that "whatever you put down is not really going to matter much" - it matters quite a bit, because your number is too high you could get your resume thrown away by someone in HR without ever being seen by the person you're trying to reach.
tom_b
This is always a tough question from corporations. Best is to know a little about the range the specific company is offering for entry level jobs. You'll not see much variation on that.

If you have to come up with a number and justify it, you can always quote from the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition [1].

[1] http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos303.htm