[Salary] Software Developers - How much do you make annually?

No poll.

 

We hire programmers straight out of school at over $50,000 and depending on their body of work they can make in the six figure range for lead positions.

For example Programming leads on a video game can run anywhere from about $80,000-$120,000 a year, same for Art leads etc.

Designers get less around $40-$75,000....

And Producers get a bit higher than the top end.

Owners of the company? Well, we get ball ache !

DD

 

Crash Ferraris?

 

Not me, I live conservatively....still drive my '97 Ford Explorer.....

And for the record the guy that crashed the Ferrari was not an owner but a board member.




DD

 

I have another question. How many of you software developers actually does the coding? And how many of you just does the requirement and design? Is there an salary differences between those?

 

i thought the ferrari wasn't the only thing that crashed, and didn't realize the company was still in business.

 

Chief responsibility has always been coding. If I am working on a new product or feature, I also have to do the designs, test plans, ad nauseum., before coding. If I am fixing bugs on an existing product (the bulk of the work I have done), I spend about 50% of my time coding and the rest of the time documenting, recreating, testing, etc.

I have known only a handful of programmers who did requirement and design only. They usually talked a good game but produced the worst quality work. But they do get paid more.

 

I think there is a salary difference. Designing the software architecture is usually done by the main Architect or the Technical Leads. They are in charge and get the most money. The bulk of the coding work gets done by the regular developers/engineers who are managed by the leads.

How many of you do Agile Development?

And judging by the poll numbers, its good to be a software developer!

 

The salary alone does not tell the story. Years of experience affects the figures by quite a bit.

 

That company is long gone, I started another.

DD

 

Sometimes I wish I had the patience to code. Instead I just make sure the crap that is produced sells so everyone gets to keep their job.

You don't realize how good you guys have it over here. Developer in almost every other country in the world make less than you do. Our dev guys in Poland start about 12K a year. China is about the same and our dev guys in South America making just slightly more.

It's not just the salary but the life style. In almost every other country in the world, a developer regardless of where they fit in the food chain lives a middle class lifestyle where in the US its very much an upper middle class job and can potentially be a upper class job if you work for Google. For example, I don't know any developers outside the US and maybe the UK that can afford a luxury brand car like a bmw, lexus, or mercedes. In Texas, almost every dev guy can afford to buy a house within a few years of graduating. Thats unheard of in every other place in the world.

We are some lucky SOBs.

 

Yeah, my bad. It was my attempt at a quick laugh.

Uprising and humor don't cross paths very often, about as often as Rafer Alston shoots better than 50%.

 

I started out in 1985 making $15,500. Since then, I've gotten a few raises. I've gone from using Fortran, to PowerBuilder, to doing Data Warehouse (C++, Unix, Oracle) to Web Apps (Visual Basic/ASP.SQLServer), to more Web apps (C#, ASP.Net) to building automated multi-platform process (C# for web services and windows services, MQSeries, BizTalk). I spend probably 30% coding, 20% designing, 20% helping others and 30% in meetings and emails. I've always told management that the day my coding drops below 20% is the day I try to find another job. The problem is getting another job at the same pay is getting harder and harder (almost impossible without moving).

This has been 1 field that change is inevitable and you must adapt or get left behind. I know some RPG programmers that have refused to change and that killed them. As I get older (I'm 47), I don't know how many more changes I can mentally take. My college course consisted of Pascal, Fortran, Cobol - C was just coming out be too new to be offered. My first classes were punch cards (those were some painful times). I never would have dreamed that in 20+ years later, I'd have learned as much as I have or make as much as I do.

The past year we have been working with a lot of offshore resources. I interviewed 2 more yesterday. Most are more technically inclined than Americans but communication has proved to be a problem for most. I still think that day is coming as more and more IT jobs are transferred, but there's not a lot I can do about it except keep my value up by designing, leading, keeping my coding skills updated and being a go between for our company and the offshore technicals.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I was asking that because our SE professor told us that more and more companies are starting to ship the coding jobs offshore, and the people gets to keep their job and getting good pays are the ones doing the requirement and design. Do you see the same trend?

 

There is definitely a trend to ship coding jobs offshore. From my limited experience, the first jobs to go are support for end of life products, mostly customer support and bug fixes. The next to go is the QA jobs (clearly a mistake IMO). And eventually the new product coding followed by design. Requirements should be market driven for commercial s/w products.

I have read about one Fortune 500 company (JP Morgan iirc) that takes an interesting approach to offshoring. They will not offshore/outsource s/w that is part of their enterprise, oiow s/w that gives them a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

 

Wow, 9 out of the first 18 posts used some sort of smiley or quoted a smiley.