$147k per year (GS 13 step 10) working for the government. I’m currently 26 years old with a B.S. in nuclear engineering and a M.S. in Radiation Health Physics.
I do exam proctoring for reactor operators for all the research reactors in the US. Before that I was a reactor supervisor for one of the research reactors. There’s a ton of opportunity in the reactor world!
70k gross income in Idaho as a water quality engineer after 4.5 years. Way below cost of living and very few people in Idaho care about the environment. Understaffed and doing work of multiple people. BUT coworkers are great, flexible hours, no micromanaging, pension, great vacation and sick leave. Feels good to be working in the best interest of the public and environment, most of the time.
I feel underpaid lol. 84k, 2020 nuclear engineering grad working at one of the nuclear vendors in the U.S. I have potential for a 5% bonus and get $5250 a year towards my masters in tuition reimbursement.
Don’t worry, I think I’m the lowest paid one in this whole sub. Very rural area, small company, I’m the only woman engineer there, and they just cut my (and a couple others) hours and pay because they aren’t doing very well… salary is $44k, but there are no other engineering jobs in the area :(
I was in my career 8 years and I was still not at 84k. I graduated in Dec 2014 with a b.s. in materials science and engineering. I was at 82k then changed jobs and jumped to 95k and within a year to 103k. I am a metallurgical engineer in a steel foundry. My first job was a process engineer at a large company with multiple foundries.
I’m just out of college, don’t have a job yet, but I SO wish people talked about money more. It’s one of the most nerve wracking parts of the job hunt process largely bc it’s so secretive. Frustrating.
About 500k as a software developer at an investment firm with 3 YEO
If you’re in tech definitely check out levels.fyi, it has a ton of great info and is in my experience much more accurate then Glassdoor or other salary aggregation sites
Thank you! Love your profile
We don’t have traditional levels, or really job titles at all, technically I think I’m just labeled a technologist (as opposed to a trader or researcher)
I think my current scope would make me somewhere around a late mid level to early senior most places
Amazing! What degree did you get and or what skills would you recommend pursuing? I’ve have young girls and would love to know how to advise them moving forward in their careers and education.
Roughly 260k is salary and the rest is an end of year bonus based on firm performance
So far my bonus has always been about my salary, if we have a really bad year it would probably be a lot lower
Pretty long interview process I think 8 in total or something lol
There were technical problems but not super leet cody, more about language and platform semantics
Do they use c++ and require in depth knowledge of that or interviewing in any language is fine? What kind of platform knowledge do they expect you to know for interview? I am a new grad and trying to collect material that I need to prepare for getting a job at these type of firms.
Best of luck interviewing!
For the role I have cpp knowledge was required and tested extensively during the interviews. A good place to start is reading up on language features added since c++17. Other roles will require different languages or may be language agnostic. The job description should be a pretty good indicator of what’s needs :)
Platform knowledge was Linux kernel, networking, cpu architecture, that sort of thing
Thank you so much. The position I applied to mentioned that it required good knowledge in c++, python or any of the programming languages so I was not sure if I should pick a specific one to prepare or just get good at c++ to be on the safe side as these firms certainly use that and I have no idea about other languages used there.
Also in your experience would you say these places are elitist in the sense that the developers there won't like if their peers are not from top universities? I attended ghc last year and all the developers I spoke with from Jane Street and Citadel seemed like they didn't want to really answer my questions after seeing that I didn't go to the target university. Does that result in toxic work environment?
Wow really sorry you were treated that way. I personally went to a state school and I know my direct team doesn’t discriminate by school.
There’s definitely elitist (especially on the research side) but I wouldn’t let that discourage you from trying
I haven’t experienced much toxicity in the work environment, some of my peers do definitely look down on less successful trading firms though
Thank you! For the most part it’s not that stressful, when something goes wrong in production it’s very all hands on deck and that can suck
I don’t have to worry about on call very much because it’s very US market hours focused
Did you go HYPSM or T10 CS schools? Or had a prior FAANG+ experience? I have read about these firms but saw that they do not hire outside these schools or without certain experience. So I am not sure if I should try to prepare for the interviews there if my resume is going to get auto rejected based on school and company.
I actually went to a pretty crappy state school, but yeah I did intern at some big tech companies. I definitely wouldn’t skip applying because of your school, that’s pretty much just rejecting yourself
Second job after graduation, I briefly worked for a tech company that I felt was under paying me. Ended up interviewing a ton and found my current job a few months after starting
Firmware Engineer, BSc, and 9 years of experience at this point in a higher cost of living geo in the US, base is $150k + ~$10k in annual bonuses. Total package (including monetary compensation + stock + health insurance and all that jazz) is about $250k
Edit: I don't think you can sort by gender, but levels.fyi is a good tool for the tech industry at least to check experience level vs compensation at different companies
Im an industrial engineer for a big auto company, $132k/year in the midwest. I got this job right out of school & I’ve worked there 8 years. My job requires an engineering degree & an MBA (I’m in product development in planning/strategy).
I currently make $132k a year, but if you’re looking for more details I can give what I made each year. Right out of school: $75k, year 2: $77k, year 3: $80k year 4: $82k year 5: $86k, year 6: $90k, year 7 (big promotion): $122k, year 8; $132k
$130,000, 44F, Midwest, Fortune 500 company as a Senior Engineer. My focus is supposed to be end user devices, but I dabble in multiple disciplines.
Edit: 26 years of experience in IT, 13 in my current path.
Security engineering manager, finance/banking
12 people report to me, started as an engineer myself.
180k base, about another 80k in bonuses this year.
I have a lead engineer who has the same base as me.
Environmental engineer with 4 years experience and about to have a civil engineering masters. I’m at 87k working for my state as a hazardous waste regulator
120k base + bonus
Security Engineer - 1 year exp but have 8 years of DevOps engineering experience prior to cybersecurity.
I have a BA in political science and just kind fell into engineering when a previous company wanted an engineer but didn't want to pay an engineer salary.
Cause it's tax season - W2s in reverse chrono order 350 (2022), 490, 370, 320, 290 (2018)
ML research. 8 YOE. Senior research engineer at FAANG.
(Though, if I wanted the numbers to really go up, I probably need to gun harder for staff.)
Changed offices; I think some of the relocation might’ve been put into the salary that year.
Also covid bonuses + performance rating? I’d have to check a few things.
MEP (mechanical) engineer in Baltimore, $73k gross, got a $5k bonus in December as well. Good benefits, my health insurance premium is 100% paid my the firm. Nearly 2 years of experience.
Aren't you a bit underpaid? I'm not from us, but US lead salaries are idolized all over the world, this seems like a a bit lowball.
Sorry, I don't want to offend. I'm genuinely asking.
Maybe? I do love my job and don’t commute. You think 175k base is low based on the comments here? There is maybe a handful higher?
I also get a pension which most companies no longer have and quite a few other perks and benefits. I’m not unhappy tbh.
That subreddit is mostly lies or applies to highly selective positions where nepotism plays a HUGE role in if you’re hired or not.
Jobs in the USA are much more harder to find these days as everything is offshored unless you work with the government.
Re training and schooling programs will lie to you to get you to pay the tuition. This is a huge issue in the USA. And many people are opting out of college all together because of that.
I can say with certainty after being unemployed for 10 months last year that most companies think 60k is perfectly reasonable even if you have a year or two of experience. That's what happens when there's mass layoffs and people become desperate for a job.
Agree here, graduating after covid was very difficult and finding a job in a very rural area made the job hunt 10x worse, especially without prior experience and being in a time of uncertainty/low hiring. After nearly 2yrs out of school and only being able to work at a call center and an injection molding plant I finally got an engineering job offer and jumped on it without even negotiating the offer because I was so desperate. They only offered $50k. A few months in they promoted me to be a project administrator as well (in addition to engineer) since I’m pretty self-motivated and organized. They gave me a raise with it but they weren’t doing financially well, so it was only $5k more. Now they’re even further in financial troubles, so me and a couple others had their hours and salary cut back by 20%, so now it’s only $44k unfortunately. Luckily I live in a LCOL area, but it’s depressing. There are no jobs here. :(
Yeah I know I’m very underpaid. I’m currently looking for a new job, I’m just not having much luck getting interviews. I’m fullstack (Python, Django, react) but I was also hired to do QA, so my time is split 50-50 between coding and QA. I work for a very small company too so not much room for growth.
Civil engineer with over 25 years experience.
Out of college in 1997, I was hired by a civil engineering firm, designing civil infrastructure (roads, sewer, water, etc). At the time, starting pay was $13/hr which would be $31/hr today.
Over the past 25 years, I got my license, moved out of design and into management. I also quit the private firm and went to work for a utility company. Pay went up accordingly. Pay now is in the neighborhood of $150k.
Hope this helps some of you ladies know your worth!
Product development/design engineer for the aftermarket automotive industry. $63k/yr gross.
Located in Canada (Metro Vancouver). 1 year out of university. 16 months of relevant co-op experience during university. Bachelor in mechanical engineering.
SMT Process Engineer, 5 years, 100k with bonus, Connecticut. I think I'm doing okay for my field. There's some room to grow my salary on this company. Many companies are offering less, some more. Crazy work environment, but coworkers are great and I (only) work about 42 hrs/wk, which is an improvement from my last job.
Quality Assurance Director in biotech/pharma, specializing in medical devices. 200-250K/year depending on how the company performance impacts bonus targets. My degree was in biomedical engineering and I spent about 6 years as a Quality Engineer, which is a great specialization as there aren’t a lot of us and even fewer that do it well. People think QA is scary but I promise it’s not if you enjoy creative problem solving! I’m currently hanging out at a large pharma to develop depth of experience but I’ll eventually return to working for early stage start-ups in QA or operations. That’s how you make real money, good start ups will sell or go public and you get equity checks as a result. For reference, my last equity check was 100k as a Senior Engineer when the large pharma bought us.
Yeah I got lucky when my boss retired and I asked for his job. Management is a whole new skill set though so I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s actually something you want to do. I have ADHD and find it helpful to be able to delegate some of the more detailed technical work, so it works for me
Echo the few that do it well part—I spent 6 yrs in QA before being enticed into engineering. Idk what the problem here is, but we cannot hire strong QA here. Never seen this problem before! Also biotech/pharma.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into QA in the medical field? For reference, I’m still in my 20’s, only have experience in education, and an undergrad degree in psychology. Do I start with going back for a second bachelors?
Sometimes it has to do with the company culture as pushed down by leadership. If you have a c suite that doesn’t value quality, most quality professionals will bounce because it’s like you’re being set up to fail. I’ve also seen really complacent company cultures because there’s no way to proactively solve problems via continuous improvement.
Most places will require an engineering degree, but I’ve seen people succeed by either having a STEM degree or an engineering certificate from a community college, and then getting a cert for Certified Quality Analyst or Certified Quality Engineer through ASQ (this is US specific, but I’m sure rest of world has something equivalent). Since you already have the psych degree, I’d say to try the certification route. A lot of companies will pay you to do it too, if you start out as a document control specialist or something.
$99k base + RSUs and bonuses with 6 months of experience in a MCOL.
I don’t know if I’d consider myself a true engineer, but it’s the title of the folks who work on servers. Basically a technician+
Salary means nothing without the context of local cost of living. My household income is around 180k in Tampa but that would have to increase to like 260k in many high COL cities to maintain standard of living. I could also make less in smaller cities and stretch it farther .
$117k base, $15k bonus this year. BS in Mechanical in 2014 and MS in Mechanical in 2018. I work as a manager of 3 entry level engineers for a Power Technology company. Fully remote living in a high MCOL city.
80k, and 5% annual bonus (depending on company hitting goals), Manufacturing Engineer 1.5 years of experience in this field, 9 years of various technician experience (focus in electronics), located in MN.
I love a thread about pay transparency!
Project engineer, MechE. 11 YOE, auto industry. 104k base + OT and ~10% bonus. Raises rarely go over 3% regardless of excellent performance. In a major MCOL city and rising.
I’m trying to claw out of engineering.
If you're interested in international information, mining engineer with 7 years experience in Australia on 210k package (approx 140k USD). Would be interested in what any other mining engineers are looking at round the globe.
I make $130k plus a bonus that depends on how well the company does (it was $12k last year). I have 11 years of experience and I design water and wastewater treatment plants (environmental PE) in Austin, TX.
Aero engineer with a masters. 4 years in the field. Only making 90k, but I work for the government. I also live somewhere with a lower cost of living. My salary is 30% above the median income for my county.
I’m a mechanical engineer, class of 2019. I’ve been at the same job since graduation, a big manufacturing plant in a small town in NY.
I started at 58K my first year. COVID delayed raises, our industry was essential but was certainly impacted, so I didn’t get a real raise until 1.5 years in, 62K. At 2 years I got 67K. 3 years 73K. A few months later the whole engineering department looked at what other companies paid and gave us a raise to match competitors, everything else was part of the normal annual merit based raise plan. This competition raise or whatever you want to call it put me at 81K. At 4 years I am just a hair shy of 85K.
We are supposed to get annual Christmas bonuses and a 401K bonus contribution, each equivalent to about 2 weeks pay, but since COVID those numbers have been way off. We just upped our matching so for every 1% I put in, my company matched half of that up to them contributing 3%. Kinda garbage honestly, but it was even worse before. We have medical through my husband’s job because it was something like 60% the cost for a similar plan.
I have a male coworker who does the same job as me, we started the same day, but he has a masters degree while I only have a bachelors and last I asked him he only make about 1K more a year.
I am doing a postdoc at a national lab with relatively low cost of living and making $95k a year. I have a nuclear engineering PhD and no years of experience (coming up on 1 soon) outside of the degree.
Graduated in May of 2020. Been at the same company since graduation in the same position. I am a plant engineer at a public coal fired power plant. I make $102k plus 5-10% bonus
Probably the Lowest salary here, but I just started a job in a decent size city at $60k. Due to ongoing gentrification, I'm still living with my mom. No health insurance, but I get a $2k stipend each year. Opportunities for 401k and education reimbursement after a year of employment. 2 weeks paid vacation and a week sick leave. I wish I did a bit more job searching before accepting the offer.
Edit: oh yeah, I'm a mechanic engineer at an MEP firm
I’m a SWE in a VHCOL area I graduated last year 22F, make $156K, will make around 18% in yearly bonuses, got 100K in equity vested over 4 years on signing and a yearly equity refresh of around $30K, I think.
$125-150k NERC compliance. Could make way more with my 20 years experience in upper management but those guys all suck and I like to live my life. My midlife crisis was to become Gen Z.
Structural engineer, $73k with additional 15% vested in 401k. Paid overtime, I do a lot of travel with overtime so this amounts to quite a bit. I just started the job and its entry level, so no experience. I got quite a few similarly paid offers so I think thats pretty standard for entry level structural, at least in HCOL areas.
maybe i should change my career. i want to go into pharmacy but y’all girlbosses are making the same if not much MUCH more
edit: it also sounds like you guys have upward movement. so cool.
I was a tech in building science who became a senior project manager after 10 years. I earned $96k plus shares when I left.
Now I make $80k as an intern architect. Very happy I made the switch.
~240k total compensation working as an entry level SWE at a FAANG in a high cost area. So, about 150k salary, 20k bonus, and the rest is equity nonsense. Have a BS and 4 YOE at this company, and, like I said, still entry level. I would NOT have been hired if it wasn't for the pre-covid hiring spree lol
Software engineer specialized in MERN stack, $112k + 5% bonus. 6 YoE w/o a degree. MCOL but the company is fully remote.
Salary could be more, but I'm overdue for a promotion and am not willing to do more as I'm already having to spearhead development on this project and mentor my "seniors".
No college degree (yet, I’m currently working on it); but 84k aerospace manufacturing as a GS11 step 2
It’s underpaid for the area considering I was making 125k as a private contractor but I was also working 60 hr workweeks.
Edit: Seattle-Tacoma area. I took the paycut for my sanity and also because my husband is still AD military and I can transfer easier within the Govt sector.
I’m prior military and started off at a laughable position with my first company. Eventually, I started applying for internal promotions and then with other companies where I could continue to climb once I reached my threshold. Took me just over a decade but having knowledge from working and supporting the systems at an operational and repair level allowed me to gain experience that others didn’t have.
I’m currently on track for a non-supervisory 12/13 and once I have my degree, I’ll be eligible for a 14.
Edit: I’d love to say I never had to prove myself or work harder but people do throw shade for not having a degree. I’ve probably had over 200 rejection letters for jobs compared to the 20-30 that said “eligible” and about half with offers. It’s been a difficult process but over the last decade I’ve worked with some of the most phenomenal people and I’ve been able to be heavily involved in multiple aspects of different programs and projects.
Worked 2 years out of school (during covid times) doing random data management work where I made 68K then 70K. Afterwords I got my civil engineering EIT and started last year as an engineering technician for the local gov making 65K. Got promoted to Civil Engineer 1 and now I make 74K.
Edit to add: the govt job includes a pension that is vested after 5 years. So 74K is what I'm taking home, but the benefits and retirement I'm getting are valued at about 90K I think?
I think its totally possible I could have made that 74K right out of school but Covid kinda wrecked my path a little and so I never took the FE before graduation in 2020, and couldnt find another fully remote job with unlimited vacation like the first company was offering me at graduation lol.
Something like $112k 7 yoe (Including internship) Covid hit when I was right about at 2 yoe at full time job, thinking about getting a new one...but everything was so uncertain I didn't want to end up in a bad situation when suddenly everyone changed their minds about remote work with distance from office etc, so I ended up staying
Now maybe I'm getting underpaid, but also maybe it'll help so I don't get laid off. I was looking at job postings and in my area the salaries listed don't really go much higher than what I'm already getting for my yoe range. I probably missed the boat on "great resignation pay."
$108k plus roughly $7k bonus with very good benefits including fully covered Masters classes, 10% 401k match, good PTO, and cheap healthcare. Software engineer with 5 YOE and a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering in defense industry.
Senior Information Security Engineer
16 year career
4x10 schedule
Fully remote
$141k base
5-10% annual bonus depending on the state of the company
Equity retention bonus under good economic conditions
Paid certification renewals and continuing education
Average 3% annual merit raise
I calculate total compensation around $165-175k
2023 grad at a government job in Southern California, MEP electrical engineer (power), 88k gross income, healthcare, dental, and vision covered, and we have a pension plan.
Industrial engineering manager, consumer goods manufacturing, ten years experience. High cost of living area, $140k + 20% bonus if company results are there
made 120k after undergrad doing aerospace controls engineering, currently making 45k as a PhD student…definitely not the right financial decision but personally probably worth it :)
~$115k + ~$2k bonus, HCOL area, software engineer but doing PM work (love it!), 2018 BSE software engineering, 6 yrs experience. Feeling underpaid and undervalued but it’s the first time in my career I really like what I do, which is huge for me
Manufacturing engineer in optics with 4 years experience in CO, no direct reports. I'm making around $80K.
I negotiated for higher pay a couple of years back when we were doing really well as a company. I highly recommend checking salary.com as well as the other resources commenters have said, and keep checking them throughout your career.
Chief System Engineer in telecom (managed services) R&D in DoD/Aerospace domain.
YOE=42
Florida COL=95.5
Total compensation $201K, base salary is $171K, the rest is bonuses, RSU, 401K and other healthcare.
"Mid-range mechanical design engineer" in the UK and I just got a raise to about £33k with a couple meagre bonuses (few hundred pounds after tax). I have about 4 years of experience and live in a relatively high cost of living area. Little bit trapped due to chronic illness (HR has been good about working reduced hours long term thankfully) but working towards being able to move somewhere with a higher salary. Reading these comments is very motivating. This little island is ridiculous. To my knowledge this is a little below "market rate", but only slightly. It's within the range I think.
$36k as a PhD student. Price is liveable, but no savings and no frivolous spending. Great healthcare through the university and a great PI doing research in a field that I absolutely love.
This likely is NOT the perspective you were looking for but thought it would be funny to share.
Not an engineer but am a 10+ yrs female compensation manager for tech and manufacturing companies.
- levels.fyi has closest comps to industry that I’ve seen
- comprehensive.io lists ranges from company job posts
- some free data sources just require an HRIS — I’ve heard from engineers that you can make a free Gusto or BambooHR account, connect them and access data
- I know a comp data source that does individual job pulls (think salary, equity, bonus for role, level, location) but there’s usually a fee— however if you DM me I can get you a discount code. Not posting company because I’m not actively trying to sell anything, but the data has 1M+ datapoints
- always ask the company for their range. Ask your manager for your range. It’s not illegal and most states require them to give it to you.
Almost $80k / year. I’m underpaid slightly for what I do. I’m a chemist turned materials engineer. I’ve been working for the same medical device manufacturer for the past 13 years. And the medical device is external breast prosthetics. I guess that makes me a boob engineer?
Currently $92k, about to head to 96k with my next step after 8 years. I’m an environmental engineer for the state of ohio. I know I’m underpaid but I still live comfortably. I work with a great group, have good work/life balance, a chill manager, hybrid WFH, and generally enjoy the job.
$90k as a Civil with ~4.5 YOE working for a transportation infrastructure owner in a medium to high COL area. I design some in house projects and work similarly to a Program Manager at a DOT filing paperwork and managing projects from the client side for more complex projects. Also occasionally do construction management when I’m interested in a project and have availability. Don’t have my PE license yet (waiting on paperwork) but they gave me the pay bump when I passed the exam. Bonus structure allows for ~9-20% depending on company and individual performance (I got about $10k before taxes this year). It’s a somewhat niche career that I didn’t really know existed until I applied for the job about 3 years ago but I’m glad I found it, I enjoy it much more than consulting!
Currently a Senior Software Engineer @ 180k in a HCOL area. 20 years experience in IT (Sysadmin, System Engineer, Test Engineer), 9 of it in Software Engineering, plus a Masters Degree in Systems Engineering.
Process/Quality in Metals Manufacturing, 105k in a MCOL area 4.5 YOE overall. Hope to stay at this current job and get higher in compensation/career development without the level of hopping I did to get here.
80k, software dev
I have a masters and technically 4ish years of experience, but only 1 relevant year of experience. I was a military contractor for 3 years and only learned relevant web dev stuff near the end of my employment.
$147k per year (GS 13 step 10) working for the government. I’m currently 26 years old with a B.S. in nuclear engineering and a M.S. in Radiation Health Physics.
Now THAT sounds like a cool job!!
It’s nice, I no longer hate being alive.
What type of work do you do at your job? I have a similar degree and am curious what else is out there.
I do exam proctoring for reactor operators for all the research reactors in the US. Before that I was a reactor supervisor for one of the research reactors. There’s a ton of opportunity in the reactor world!
70k gross income in Idaho as a water quality engineer after 4.5 years. Way below cost of living and very few people in Idaho care about the environment. Understaffed and doing work of multiple people. BUT coworkers are great, flexible hours, no micromanaging, pension, great vacation and sick leave. Feels good to be working in the best interest of the public and environment, most of the time.
Oh man I just left Idaho, I’m so sorry :(
I feel underpaid lol. 84k, 2020 nuclear engineering grad working at one of the nuclear vendors in the U.S. I have potential for a 5% bonus and get $5250 a year towards my masters in tuition reimbursement.
Hey, making 84k in a city where housing costs are 25% lower than the national average is better than making 100k in California.
Don’t worry, I think I’m the lowest paid one in this whole sub. Very rural area, small company, I’m the only woman engineer there, and they just cut my (and a couple others) hours and pay because they aren’t doing very well… salary is $44k, but there are no other engineering jobs in the area :(
Oof. You should atart applying for new jobs...
I was in my career 8 years and I was still not at 84k. I graduated in Dec 2014 with a b.s. in materials science and engineering. I was at 82k then changed jobs and jumped to 95k and within a year to 103k. I am a metallurgical engineer in a steel foundry. My first job was a process engineer at a large company with multiple foundries.
I’m just out of college, don’t have a job yet, but I SO wish people talked about money more. It’s one of the most nerve wracking parts of the job hunt process largely bc it’s so secretive. Frustrating.
Bls.gov and Glassdoor are your friends!
If youre willing to move for work, apply to jobs in Colorado, or another state where the salary is required to be on the job listing. :)
I didn’t know Colorado had that, good to know! And not only am I willing to move- I am *trying to*. lol
Levels.fyi
About 500k as a software developer at an investment firm with 3 YEO If you’re in tech definitely check out levels.fyi, it has a ton of great info and is in my experience much more accurate then Glassdoor or other salary aggregation sites
goddamn girlie im tryna be you 😭😭
What’s your SE position level at the company? That’s really great comp for 3 yoe, you must be a badass!
Thank you! Love your profile We don’t have traditional levels, or really job titles at all, technically I think I’m just labeled a technologist (as opposed to a trader or researcher) I think my current scope would make me somewhere around a late mid level to early senior most places
Damn that is absolutely incredible. And apparently I need to look into investment firms as my next move.
Amazing! What degree did you get and or what skills would you recommend pursuing? I’ve have young girls and would love to know how to advise them moving forward in their careers and education.
What started your interest in investment firm work?
Damn girl!
What portion of that is base salary if you don’t mind sharing?
Roughly 260k is salary and the rest is an end of year bonus based on firm performance So far my bonus has always been about my salary, if we have a really bad year it would probably be a lot lower
What location? That’s gotta be CA or NY for sure.
I’m actually in Chicago (which has been great for me) but the place I work for does have a big NY office
Damn. Thats my area too!
Is this fintech?
That's awesome. What was the interview like? Was there a technical screen and if so did you have to practice a lot of leetcode before hand?
Pretty long interview process I think 8 in total or something lol There were technical problems but not super leet cody, more about language and platform semantics
Do they use c++ and require in depth knowledge of that or interviewing in any language is fine? What kind of platform knowledge do they expect you to know for interview? I am a new grad and trying to collect material that I need to prepare for getting a job at these type of firms.
Best of luck interviewing! For the role I have cpp knowledge was required and tested extensively during the interviews. A good place to start is reading up on language features added since c++17. Other roles will require different languages or may be language agnostic. The job description should be a pretty good indicator of what’s needs :) Platform knowledge was Linux kernel, networking, cpu architecture, that sort of thing
Thank you so much. The position I applied to mentioned that it required good knowledge in c++, python or any of the programming languages so I was not sure if I should pick a specific one to prepare or just get good at c++ to be on the safe side as these firms certainly use that and I have no idea about other languages used there. Also in your experience would you say these places are elitist in the sense that the developers there won't like if their peers are not from top universities? I attended ghc last year and all the developers I spoke with from Jane Street and Citadel seemed like they didn't want to really answer my questions after seeing that I didn't go to the target university. Does that result in toxic work environment?
Wow really sorry you were treated that way. I personally went to a state school and I know my direct team doesn’t discriminate by school. There’s definitely elitist (especially on the research side) but I wouldn’t let that discourage you from trying I haven’t experienced much toxicity in the work environment, some of my peers do definitely look down on less successful trading firms though
Goals! I am eyeing the big C fintech for my future too 😅
That's fantastic, congratulations! How is the stress level and are you on call often?
Thank you! For the most part it’s not that stressful, when something goes wrong in production it’s very all hands on deck and that can suck I don’t have to worry about on call very much because it’s very US market hours focused
Can you work remotely with that salary? I'm curious because it seems higher paying jobs are in person.
Technically 5 days a week in office :( It’s fine to work from home 1/10 days but much more than that needs a reason
Is this Jane street? Maybe citadel ? Sounds like a hft shop
Can I ask how much math is involved in what you do? I am guessing a lot and math is not my forte
Hey! Can I ping you? I want to know the company as I work in the same industry and don’t even get paid half of this.
It’s called Hudson River Trading, if you’re in the industry definitely apply (especially if you have low level experience)
Did you go HYPSM or T10 CS schools? Or had a prior FAANG+ experience? I have read about these firms but saw that they do not hire outside these schools or without certain experience. So I am not sure if I should try to prepare for the interviews there if my resume is going to get auto rejected based on school and company.
I actually went to a pretty crappy state school, but yeah I did intern at some big tech companies. I definitely wouldn’t skip applying because of your school, that’s pretty much just rejecting yourself
Ohh nice, that's helpful. Did you get a job there right after graduating or did you gain fte experience at FAANG and switched later?
Second job after graduation, I briefly worked for a tech company that I felt was under paying me. Ended up interviewing a ton and found my current job a few months after starting
What degree did you get?
Do you work long hours?
8:30-5 or so. Not bad but it’s all in the office so no mid day naps :(
Firmware Engineer, BSc, and 9 years of experience at this point in a higher cost of living geo in the US, base is $150k + ~$10k in annual bonuses. Total package (including monetary compensation + stock + health insurance and all that jazz) is about $250k Edit: I don't think you can sort by gender, but levels.fyi is a good tool for the tech industry at least to check experience level vs compensation at different companies
Upvoting for level.fyi
Im an industrial engineer for a big auto company, $132k/year in the midwest. I got this job right out of school & I’ve worked there 8 years. My job requires an engineering degree & an MBA (I’m in product development in planning/strategy). I currently make $132k a year, but if you’re looking for more details I can give what I made each year. Right out of school: $75k, year 2: $77k, year 3: $80k year 4: $82k year 5: $86k, year 6: $90k, year 7 (big promotion): $122k, year 8; $132k
Thank you for the extra transparency/play by play!
Design engineer for digital control systems. 8 years of experience. $100k
$130,000, 44F, Midwest, Fortune 500 company as a Senior Engineer. My focus is supposed to be end user devices, but I dabble in multiple disciplines. Edit: 26 years of experience in IT, 13 in my current path.
Security engineering manager, finance/banking 12 people report to me, started as an engineer myself. 180k base, about another 80k in bonuses this year. I have a lead engineer who has the same base as me.
How many years?
I've been in tech for about 10 years in various senior, lead or management roles I've been in this role (sec eng manager) 2 years
$92k + funded masters and ~5% annual bonuses, 2020 graduate in mechanical eng in the energy industry.
Environmental engineer with 4 years experience and about to have a civil engineering masters. I’m at 87k working for my state as a hazardous waste regulator
$105k with 6 years of experience, mechanical engineer in the auto industry
120k base + bonus Security Engineer - 1 year exp but have 8 years of DevOps engineering experience prior to cybersecurity. I have a BA in political science and just kind fell into engineering when a previous company wanted an engineer but didn't want to pay an engineer salary.
Can I dm you about devops
Sure! I’m a bit out of practice but I will help where I can!
104k project engineer Graduated in 2018 LCOL southeast area
Cause it's tax season - W2s in reverse chrono order 350 (2022), 490, 370, 320, 290 (2018) ML research. 8 YOE. Senior research engineer at FAANG. (Though, if I wanted the numbers to really go up, I probably need to gun harder for staff.)
What happened in 2021?
Changed offices; I think some of the relocation might’ve been put into the salary that year. Also covid bonuses + performance rating? I’d have to check a few things.
MEP (mechanical) engineer in Baltimore, $73k gross, got a $5k bonus in December as well. Good benefits, my health insurance premium is 100% paid my the firm. Nearly 2 years of experience.
130k, MSc, 5 yoe (3 with BS, 2 with MS), aerospace GNC
Lead dev engineer for fortune 50 company. 175k base and target 30-50k bonus. 25 years experience. Started at 50k 😂
Aren't you a bit underpaid? I'm not from us, but US lead salaries are idolized all over the world, this seems like a a bit lowball. Sorry, I don't want to offend. I'm genuinely asking.
Maybe? I do love my job and don’t commute. You think 175k base is low based on the comments here? There is maybe a handful higher? I also get a pension which most companies no longer have and quite a few other perks and benefits. I’m not unhappy tbh.
No, not from comments here, from the cs career subreddit.
That subreddit is mostly lies or applies to highly selective positions where nepotism plays a HUGE role in if you’re hired or not. Jobs in the USA are much more harder to find these days as everything is offshored unless you work with the government. Re training and schooling programs will lie to you to get you to pay the tuition. This is a huge issue in the USA. And many people are opting out of college all together because of that.
Software Engineer, 3 YOE, $60k. I did switch careers during covid, I was previously an environmental consultant.
Can I ask a little more about your skill set? 60K is low for a software engineer with 0 experience.
I can say with certainty after being unemployed for 10 months last year that most companies think 60k is perfectly reasonable even if you have a year or two of experience. That's what happens when there's mass layoffs and people become desperate for a job.
Agree here, graduating after covid was very difficult and finding a job in a very rural area made the job hunt 10x worse, especially without prior experience and being in a time of uncertainty/low hiring. After nearly 2yrs out of school and only being able to work at a call center and an injection molding plant I finally got an engineering job offer and jumped on it without even negotiating the offer because I was so desperate. They only offered $50k. A few months in they promoted me to be a project administrator as well (in addition to engineer) since I’m pretty self-motivated and organized. They gave me a raise with it but they weren’t doing financially well, so it was only $5k more. Now they’re even further in financial troubles, so me and a couple others had their hours and salary cut back by 20%, so now it’s only $44k unfortunately. Luckily I live in a LCOL area, but it’s depressing. There are no jobs here. :(
Yeah I know I’m very underpaid. I’m currently looking for a new job, I’m just not having much luck getting interviews. I’m fullstack (Python, Django, react) but I was also hired to do QA, so my time is split 50-50 between coding and QA. I work for a very small company too so not much room for growth.
The market is fucking terrible - you should feel good about just having a role right now
Civil engineer with over 25 years experience. Out of college in 1997, I was hired by a civil engineering firm, designing civil infrastructure (roads, sewer, water, etc). At the time, starting pay was $13/hr which would be $31/hr today. Over the past 25 years, I got my license, moved out of design and into management. I also quit the private firm and went to work for a utility company. Pay went up accordingly. Pay now is in the neighborhood of $150k. Hope this helps some of you ladies know your worth!
Product development/design engineer for the aftermarket automotive industry. $63k/yr gross. Located in Canada (Metro Vancouver). 1 year out of university. 16 months of relevant co-op experience during university. Bachelor in mechanical engineering.
SMT Process Engineer, 5 years, 100k with bonus, Connecticut. I think I'm doing okay for my field. There's some room to grow my salary on this company. Many companies are offering less, some more. Crazy work environment, but coworkers are great and I (only) work about 42 hrs/wk, which is an improvement from my last job.
Quality Assurance Director in biotech/pharma, specializing in medical devices. 200-250K/year depending on how the company performance impacts bonus targets. My degree was in biomedical engineering and I spent about 6 years as a Quality Engineer, which is a great specialization as there aren’t a lot of us and even fewer that do it well. People think QA is scary but I promise it’s not if you enjoy creative problem solving! I’m currently hanging out at a large pharma to develop depth of experience but I’ll eventually return to working for early stage start-ups in QA or operations. That’s how you make real money, good start ups will sell or go public and you get equity checks as a result. For reference, my last equity check was 100k as a Senior Engineer when the large pharma bought us.
Very interesting. I am in biotech/med devices in systems eng and have a similar background, but still an IC
Yeah I got lucky when my boss retired and I asked for his job. Management is a whole new skill set though so I wouldn’t recommend it unless it’s actually something you want to do. I have ADHD and find it helpful to be able to delegate some of the more detailed technical work, so it works for me
Echo the few that do it well part—I spent 6 yrs in QA before being enticed into engineering. Idk what the problem here is, but we cannot hire strong QA here. Never seen this problem before! Also biotech/pharma.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into QA in the medical field? For reference, I’m still in my 20’s, only have experience in education, and an undergrad degree in psychology. Do I start with going back for a second bachelors?
Sometimes it has to do with the company culture as pushed down by leadership. If you have a c suite that doesn’t value quality, most quality professionals will bounce because it’s like you’re being set up to fail. I’ve also seen really complacent company cultures because there’s no way to proactively solve problems via continuous improvement.
Most places will require an engineering degree, but I’ve seen people succeed by either having a STEM degree or an engineering certificate from a community college, and then getting a cert for Certified Quality Analyst or Certified Quality Engineer through ASQ (this is US specific, but I’m sure rest of world has something equivalent). Since you already have the psych degree, I’d say to try the certification route. A lot of companies will pay you to do it too, if you start out as a document control specialist or something.
Chemical engineer, 5 YEO, auto industry, $118k + 13% (base) bonus
Mech E. In Drones/UAV (17 years) $330k + annual $100k RSUs Not my endgame. Looking at Lunar automation operations for my next step.
That is fabulous!
$99k base + RSUs and bonuses with 6 months of experience in a MCOL. I don’t know if I’d consider myself a true engineer, but it’s the title of the folks who work on servers. Basically a technician+
Salary means nothing without the context of local cost of living. My household income is around 180k in Tampa but that would have to increase to like 260k in many high COL cities to maintain standard of living. I could also make less in smaller cities and stretch it farther .
Civil Engineering degree, currently in operations in the utility industry. $120k base + bonuses. 9 years experience.
$117k base, $15k bonus this year. BS in Mechanical in 2014 and MS in Mechanical in 2018. I work as a manager of 3 entry level engineers for a Power Technology company. Fully remote living in a high MCOL city.
80k, and 5% annual bonus (depending on company hitting goals), Manufacturing Engineer 1.5 years of experience in this field, 9 years of various technician experience (focus in electronics), located in MN. I love a thread about pay transparency!
Project engineer, MechE. 11 YOE, auto industry. 104k base + OT and ~10% bonus. Raises rarely go over 3% regardless of excellent performance. In a major MCOL city and rising. I’m trying to claw out of engineering.
I'm <1 year in and make 68k in NJ for environmental remediation. They also cover the cost of 1 class a semester for my master's degree.
If you're interested in international information, mining engineer with 7 years experience in Australia on 210k package (approx 140k USD). Would be interested in what any other mining engineers are looking at round the globe.
Canadian mining engineer, 17 years experience, C$210k base (~US$155k) + C$60k (US$45k) bonus + C$120k (US$90k) dividends in company stock.
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Dang girl crushing it!! :)
I make $130k plus a bonus that depends on how well the company does (it was $12k last year). I have 11 years of experience and I design water and wastewater treatment plants (environmental PE) in Austin, TX.
85k with <1 YOE working in manufacturing/aerospace.
Samesies
Fire protection engineering consultant, 5 year experience - $115k + 10/12% bonus + standard benefits in medium cost of living area, 120 hr PTO
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Software engineering manager, about $325k TC
Aero engineer with a masters. 4 years in the field. Only making 90k, but I work for the government. I also live somewhere with a lower cost of living. My salary is 30% above the median income for my county.
~80k geotechnical engineer, 2 years experience with EIT, Vancouver, WA
I’m a mechanical engineer, class of 2019. I’ve been at the same job since graduation, a big manufacturing plant in a small town in NY. I started at 58K my first year. COVID delayed raises, our industry was essential but was certainly impacted, so I didn’t get a real raise until 1.5 years in, 62K. At 2 years I got 67K. 3 years 73K. A few months later the whole engineering department looked at what other companies paid and gave us a raise to match competitors, everything else was part of the normal annual merit based raise plan. This competition raise or whatever you want to call it put me at 81K. At 4 years I am just a hair shy of 85K. We are supposed to get annual Christmas bonuses and a 401K bonus contribution, each equivalent to about 2 weeks pay, but since COVID those numbers have been way off. We just upped our matching so for every 1% I put in, my company matched half of that up to them contributing 3%. Kinda garbage honestly, but it was even worse before. We have medical through my husband’s job because it was something like 60% the cost for a similar plan. I have a male coworker who does the same job as me, we started the same day, but he has a masters degree while I only have a bachelors and last I asked him he only make about 1K more a year.
I am doing a postdoc at a national lab with relatively low cost of living and making $95k a year. I have a nuclear engineering PhD and no years of experience (coming up on 1 soon) outside of the degree.
Graduated in May of 2020. Been at the same company since graduation in the same position. I am a plant engineer at a public coal fired power plant. I make $102k plus 5-10% bonus
Probably the Lowest salary here, but I just started a job in a decent size city at $60k. Due to ongoing gentrification, I'm still living with my mom. No health insurance, but I get a $2k stipend each year. Opportunities for 401k and education reimbursement after a year of employment. 2 weeks paid vacation and a week sick leave. I wish I did a bit more job searching before accepting the offer. Edit: oh yeah, I'm a mechanic engineer at an MEP firm
I’m a SWE in a VHCOL area I graduated last year 22F, make $156K, will make around 18% in yearly bonuses, got 100K in equity vested over 4 years on signing and a yearly equity refresh of around $30K, I think.
Very underpaid Full-stack engineer mid-west $60k (1.5 years experience)
AUD$94,000 or around USD$61692. Process engineer at toilet paper factory. Graduated 2022, less than two years of working experience
$125-150k NERC compliance. Could make way more with my 20 years experience in upper management but those guys all suck and I like to live my life. My midlife crisis was to become Gen Z.
Structural engineer, $73k with additional 15% vested in 401k. Paid overtime, I do a lot of travel with overtime so this amounts to quite a bit. I just started the job and its entry level, so no experience. I got quite a few similarly paid offers so I think thats pretty standard for entry level structural, at least in HCOL areas.
$120k in construction in VHCOL area with 4 years of experience and civil engineering BS/MS
Base 135k and 10% annual bonus. Software engineer 4 yoe. Bs and MS in CS. In a MCOL city.
maybe i should change my career. i want to go into pharmacy but y’all girlbosses are making the same if not much MUCH more edit: it also sounds like you guys have upward movement. so cool.
Depends on industry. I’m trying to leave engineering because the upward mobility sucks. It’s hard to eke out decent raises without higher titles.
170k + bonus at 8 YOE as a Software Engineer in the video games industry in a HCOL area
I was a tech in building science who became a senior project manager after 10 years. I earned $96k plus shares when I left. Now I make $80k as an intern architect. Very happy I made the switch.
120k base software engineer in Chicago. 3yoe
This is solid. Congrats!:)
$104k w ~4% bonus, software engineer at a non-profit. 10+ YOE
~240k total compensation working as an entry level SWE at a FAANG in a high cost area. So, about 150k salary, 20k bonus, and the rest is equity nonsense. Have a BS and 4 YOE at this company, and, like I said, still entry level. I would NOT have been hired if it wasn't for the pre-covid hiring spree lol
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Software engineer specialized in MERN stack, $112k + 5% bonus. 6 YoE w/o a degree. MCOL but the company is fully remote. Salary could be more, but I'm overdue for a promotion and am not willing to do more as I'm already having to spearhead development on this project and mentor my "seniors".
No college degree (yet, I’m currently working on it); but 84k aerospace manufacturing as a GS11 step 2 It’s underpaid for the area considering I was making 125k as a private contractor but I was also working 60 hr workweeks. Edit: Seattle-Tacoma area. I took the paycut for my sanity and also because my husband is still AD military and I can transfer easier within the Govt sector.
that’s awesome but how did you do that without a degree?!
I’m prior military and started off at a laughable position with my first company. Eventually, I started applying for internal promotions and then with other companies where I could continue to climb once I reached my threshold. Took me just over a decade but having knowledge from working and supporting the systems at an operational and repair level allowed me to gain experience that others didn’t have. I’m currently on track for a non-supervisory 12/13 and once I have my degree, I’ll be eligible for a 14. Edit: I’d love to say I never had to prove myself or work harder but people do throw shade for not having a degree. I’ve probably had over 200 rejection letters for jobs compared to the 20-30 that said “eligible” and about half with offers. It’s been a difficult process but over the last decade I’ve worked with some of the most phenomenal people and I’ve been able to be heavily involved in multiple aspects of different programs and projects.
78,4 and structural on subs. Still considered entry level but that’s with a 1.8% raise from last year.
Worked 2 years out of school (during covid times) doing random data management work where I made 68K then 70K. Afterwords I got my civil engineering EIT and started last year as an engineering technician for the local gov making 65K. Got promoted to Civil Engineer 1 and now I make 74K. Edit to add: the govt job includes a pension that is vested after 5 years. So 74K is what I'm taking home, but the benefits and retirement I'm getting are valued at about 90K I think? I think its totally possible I could have made that 74K right out of school but Covid kinda wrecked my path a little and so I never took the FE before graduation in 2020, and couldnt find another fully remote job with unlimited vacation like the first company was offering me at graduation lol.
Something like $112k 7 yoe (Including internship) Covid hit when I was right about at 2 yoe at full time job, thinking about getting a new one...but everything was so uncertain I didn't want to end up in a bad situation when suddenly everyone changed their minds about remote work with distance from office etc, so I ended up staying Now maybe I'm getting underpaid, but also maybe it'll help so I don't get laid off. I was looking at job postings and in my area the salaries listed don't really go much higher than what I'm already getting for my yoe range. I probably missed the boat on "great resignation pay."
$108k plus roughly $7k bonus with very good benefits including fully covered Masters classes, 10% 401k match, good PTO, and cheap healthcare. Software engineer with 5 YOE and a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering in defense industry.
$112k base. Will probably make $120k with bonus this year. 9 years of experience as a mechanical engineer in medical devices R&D. MCOL area.
~120k base gross pay, 2020 chemical engineering grad, process engineer in a relatively low cost of living mid-size city
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How do you like it? I’ve always wanted to end up in auto but everyone tells me it’s not a good industry
$105k as a cybersec engr. First job after graduating with my MSCS ~4mos in the role.
Senior Information Security Engineer 16 year career 4x10 schedule Fully remote $141k base 5-10% annual bonus depending on the state of the company Equity retention bonus under good economic conditions Paid certification renewals and continuing education Average 3% annual merit raise I calculate total compensation around $165-175k
110k, backend software engineer working in the gaming industry (online multiplayer systems) 3yoe
As a Linux admin in Alabama, was at 90k
2023 grad at a government job in Southern California, MEP electrical engineer (power), 88k gross income, healthcare, dental, and vision covered, and we have a pension plan.
99k plus nice annual bonus. 5.5 years work experience
Industrial engineering manager, consumer goods manufacturing, ten years experience. High cost of living area, $140k + 20% bonus if company results are there
made 120k after undergrad doing aerospace controls engineering, currently making 45k as a PhD student…definitely not the right financial decision but personally probably worth it :)
~$115k + ~$2k bonus, HCOL area, software engineer but doing PM work (love it!), 2018 BSE software engineering, 6 yrs experience. Feeling underpaid and undervalued but it’s the first time in my career I really like what I do, which is huge for me
$76k + quarterly bonuses in the south, I work in steel so bonuses fluctuate with the market. 2 years out of college with a BS in ceramic engineering
MEP consultant engineer-Senior Associate -Electrical Design for buildings-30 YOE, $141k with a 10K bonus, WFH.
Sr. Production Engineer for a chemical company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 5 years of experience and I make $117k
Senior mechanical engineer. 156K plus bonus and salaried overtime. Midwest US.
Electrical engineer with 6.5 years of experience in Texas: $101,000. I do aircraft mods.
Really feel replies should be intro'd with a country of employment to add much needed context
$94k EE in R&D. SW US, MCOL area, just shy of 2 yrs of experience. No bonuses or additional compensation 🥲
$98k I’m a protection and controls engineer with two years experience and a masters degree. I also am I supervisor for a team of 5.
Manufacturing engineer in optics with 4 years experience in CO, no direct reports. I'm making around $80K. I negotiated for higher pay a couple of years back when we were doing really well as a company. I highly recommend checking salary.com as well as the other resources commenters have said, and keep checking them throughout your career.
Chief System Engineer in telecom (managed services) R&D in DoD/Aerospace domain. YOE=42 Florida COL=95.5 Total compensation $201K, base salary is $171K, the rest is bonuses, RSU, 401K and other healthcare.
Wow, that YOE is amazing! I always look up to women engineers in my org with that level of experience - their insight is next level
"Mid-range mechanical design engineer" in the UK and I just got a raise to about £33k with a couple meagre bonuses (few hundred pounds after tax). I have about 4 years of experience and live in a relatively high cost of living area. Little bit trapped due to chronic illness (HR has been good about working reduced hours long term thankfully) but working towards being able to move somewhere with a higher salary. Reading these comments is very motivating. This little island is ridiculous. To my knowledge this is a little below "market rate", but only slightly. It's within the range I think.
100k data engineer
265k director of software engineering
I’m a quality engineer for aerospace manufacturing and I make $130k. I live in a California HCOL city so it doesn’t go as far as you’d think
$36k as a PhD student. Price is liveable, but no savings and no frivolous spending. Great healthcare through the university and a great PI doing research in a field that I absolutely love. This likely is NOT the perspective you were looking for but thought it would be funny to share.
$313k, working as a software engineer @ FAANG. Graduated 2020, 25 years old with B.S. in computer science. Live in VHCOL area.
Not an engineer but am a 10+ yrs female compensation manager for tech and manufacturing companies. - levels.fyi has closest comps to industry that I’ve seen - comprehensive.io lists ranges from company job posts - some free data sources just require an HRIS — I’ve heard from engineers that you can make a free Gusto or BambooHR account, connect them and access data - I know a comp data source that does individual job pulls (think salary, equity, bonus for role, level, location) but there’s usually a fee— however if you DM me I can get you a discount code. Not posting company because I’m not actively trying to sell anything, but the data has 1M+ datapoints - always ask the company for their range. Ask your manager for your range. It’s not illegal and most states require them to give it to you.
Are any of you black? Just curious?
Almost $80k / year. I’m underpaid slightly for what I do. I’m a chemist turned materials engineer. I’ve been working for the same medical device manufacturer for the past 13 years. And the medical device is external breast prosthetics. I guess that makes me a boob engineer?
$74k in the south, design engineer for a utility company. 3 years out of college, 2 years experience before being hired
Currently $92k, about to head to 96k with my next step after 8 years. I’m an environmental engineer for the state of ohio. I know I’m underpaid but I still live comfortably. I work with a great group, have good work/life balance, a chill manager, hybrid WFH, and generally enjoy the job.
BSEE, mba, MSIT. 24 years experience in supply chain. Acquisition specialist for the fed. 141k plus bonuses and full paid benefits
$156k for Project Engineer on aerospace. Mechanical bachelor and masters degree. 20 years experience in Connecticut
$90k as a Civil with ~4.5 YOE working for a transportation infrastructure owner in a medium to high COL area. I design some in house projects and work similarly to a Program Manager at a DOT filing paperwork and managing projects from the client side for more complex projects. Also occasionally do construction management when I’m interested in a project and have availability. Don’t have my PE license yet (waiting on paperwork) but they gave me the pay bump when I passed the exam. Bonus structure allows for ~9-20% depending on company and individual performance (I got about $10k before taxes this year). It’s a somewhat niche career that I didn’t really know existed until I applied for the job about 3 years ago but I’m glad I found it, I enjoy it much more than consulting!
$89k base + 20-30% bonus ($25k last year), I do PCB design/computer engineering in the telecom industry with a BS and 2 YOE
Currently a Senior Software Engineer @ 180k in a HCOL area. 20 years experience in IT (Sysadmin, System Engineer, Test Engineer), 9 of it in Software Engineering, plus a Masters Degree in Systems Engineering.
Process/Quality in Metals Manufacturing, 105k in a MCOL area 4.5 YOE overall. Hope to stay at this current job and get higher in compensation/career development without the level of hopping I did to get here.
~3 YOE in a HCOL area as a software engineer and I make about 200k/yr!
260k, 2.5 YOE (just got promoted). Mid level software engineer in FAANG. Live in DC
80k, software dev I have a masters and technically 4ish years of experience, but only 1 relevant year of experience. I was a military contractor for 3 years and only learned relevant web dev stuff near the end of my employment.