40k for a beginning .NET developer in Atlanta, GA

really?

5/13/2011 4:20:21 PM

Sounds about right

5/13/2011 5:04:13 PM

sounds crazy low to me

5/13/2011 5:06:52 PM

moreover, they've been trying to hire people at 30k, and they can't figure out why the position has been open for so long

5/13/2011 5:49:00 PM

Atlanta's cost of living is only slightly less than Raleigh, right? That sounds right for somebody without a relevant degree or experience.

5/13/2011 6:48:43 PM

i occasionally get emails from recruiters for PHP positions in the 30k range

5/13/2011 7:20:20 PM

Lucky to find any entry level jobs these days, usually they are wanting 3-5 years experience just because the applicant pool is so large

So 40k for a true entry level job is actually probably above average

5/13/2011 8:01:45 PM

Hope you have a roommate

5/13/2011 8:55:00 PM

Sounds really bad to me.

5/14/2011 7:30:26 AM

You have to start somewhere... if I had no experience or other options I'd take it, you should be able to double it within 2 years.

5/14/2011 12:16:08 PM

Quote :

"40k for a true entry level job is actually probably above average"

The average comp sci starting salary was 60K last I checked.

5/14/2011 5:33:34 PM

What's the median

5/14/2011 5:58:27 PM

Quote :

"Hope you have a roommate "

You can live fine on 40k without a roommate. Not living large, but comfortably.

5/14/2011 9:17:32 PM

Its always been my perception that certain types of software jobs are a bit more ubiquitous than other types of engineering jobs. And in this sluggish of an economy I can see those types of jobs going for 40k.

5/15/2011 12:25:50 PM

Software jobs are IMHO in the biggest boom I've seen in my career. It's not at the level where Philosophy majors are making $180/hr yet because they know a for loop like in the late 90s, but it's a job seekers market for sure.

Doubly true if you are looking for VC money or willing to work in a startup.

5/15/2011 2:50:50 PM

my younger brother is in software sales for IBM...he's doing extremely well.

5/15/2011 5:22:14 PM

Quote :

"You can live fine on 40k without a roommate. Not living large, but comfortably."

exactly.

5/15/2011 8:42:01 PM

guys, $40k while single is plenty. really, plenty.

5/16/2011 12:08:15 AM

$80k is better though

5/16/2011 12:30:07 AM

Eh, that's what I was offered as an entry-level job out of college in Civil Engineering. I held off a bit, got an offer from the feds, worked with them for a year, moved again, and am now making a pile more than that. If you take the job and look at your other options while in the area and while building experience you can do what most people do early in their career and trade up jobs for better pay & benefits every year or two. Can't do that but so many times before you become a flight risk to a potential employer, but you should be able to do it enough times that you make a salary that pleases you.

Also, the economy is still kind of balls and unless you really sold them on the other experience on your resume they don't think you know shit.

5/16/2011 2:49:19 AM

if you are a decent .NET developer and looking in the ATL area then PM me and you can interview with my company and likely get a higher offer than that

5/16/2011 3:16:15 AM

Seems a little low. I made over $60k my first year out of school at an entry level position. And that was starting the job in February of that year. Is there relocation money or any type of signing bonus?

5/16/2011 4:20:34 AM

ncsuapex lives large, he needs at least 65k to live on his own comfortably

5/16/2011 9:27:46 AM

I saw a network position requiring a CCIE starting at $50k. I LOLed.

5/16/2011 9:57:07 AM

I have no idea how smaller software companies make enough money to pay all their employees even at $30,000 each.

5/16/2011 2:38:47 PM

Millions in VC money, or millions from big companies that are your customers.

5/16/2011 4:41:33 PM

Quote :

"Its always been my perception that certain types of software jobs are a bit more ubiquitous than other types of engineering jobs. And in this sluggish of an economy I can see those types of jobs going for 40k."

Yeah there are plenty of jobs for just code monkeys with no real software engineering background to hack out macros, etc.

We have a couple of guys with no CS background doing work and while mostly they do a good job, I have to work around a knowledge gap a lot of times.

I spent like an hour or two trying to explain a semaphore the other day with little success

[Edited on May 16, 2011 at 5:26 PM. Reason : That said working with a cs degree you should probably get more than that.]

5/16/2011 5:21:24 PM

Quote :

" ncsuapex lives large, he needs at least 65k to live on his own comfortably"

At least. 40k is damn near minimum wage for tech jobs.

[Edited on May 16, 2011 at 9:16 PM. Reason : K]

5/16/2011 9:09:10 PM

Starting salary for entry level .NET developer at the NC Department of Transportation is about $60k. You can definitely do better but its a job to pay the bills until you find something better. If nothing else, its a resume padder.

5/17/2011 1:32:36 AM

Quote :

"The average comp sci starting salary was 60K last I checked."

Holy crap - I'm making around half that

5/17/2011 5:44:07 PM

so what sounds generally right for a BS in CSC w. 4 yrs experience for a programmer in the Atlanta area?

5/17/2011 10:13:01 PM

I would expect somewhere in the neighborhood of 70-80k for a corporate type job. If someone was seriously offering 40k I'd think it was either a tiny ass company or some shitty consulting outfit.

If that's the best offer you've gotten in Atlanta I would look at going to a better city

Edit: This is all assuming you haven't been out of programming for an extended period of time...

[Edited on May 17, 2011 at 10:49 PM. Reason : .]

5/17/2011 10:47:25 PM

Depends on what you've done and how you negotiate.

$80k to $130k.

5/17/2011 10:48:20 PM

If you find anywhere offering 130k for 4 years experience, please call me. I will pay you commission from my salary

5/17/2011 10:50:44 PM

That's if you are a lead contributor of jQuery or some important framework

5/17/2011 10:54:16 PM

I don't think this place is tiny tiny. They are a distributor with several call centers and warehouses. From what I understand, they've got an IT staff of 10-20 people. alright, I'm just glad I'm not the only one thinkin this is a lil low. I haven't gotten an offer yet, but I expect to get one, and the recruiter was tellin me they were lookin at 35-40k and I almost laughed.

5/17/2011 11:23:27 PM

70-80K sounds reasonable to me as well

5/18/2011 1:10:58 PM

yeah, they really wanted 40k. shady ass recruiters. KNOW YOUR MARKET.

5/18/2011 8:32:08 PM

A recruiter eh? No wonder it was so low.

5/18/2011 8:34:36 PM

then the girl tried to tell me that I wasn't worth 40k... if the didn't catch her attention, me walking out the door should have. eh, learning experience.

oh, then I get a phone call on my cell as I'm driving home, with her half berating me half apologizing. then she asks if she can represent me to another client that I already had contact with through someone else. i am too fucking nice sometimes to hang up on people, lol

[Edited on May 18, 2011 at 8:39 PM. Reason : ]

5/18/2011 8:37:30 PM

I had a guy call me a bout a job once. We talked for a few and I asked him what the pay range was. He said a number, just a number. No x/hour or x/year. So I said is that x/hour he said "no x/year" I said well I'm making x/hour now. He was like. OH I'm so sorry, I hope I didnt offend you. I said no worries, have a nice day.

5/18/2011 9:01:26 PM

Haha, oh shit I didn't realize you had 4 years of experience. Yeah... I am not a fan of recruiters. I think every time I was called by a headhunter telling me about a "fantastic opportunity" (this was when I was just starting out and only had around 1.5 years of intern experience) I always took down the info and told them I would call them back after I did a little more research. With more research it was always some senior level job wanting 5+ years experience.

I kind of don't like most recruiters. The one who helped me land my last job was a really nice guy though. He drove a minivan and liked to talk about his kids. At least they aren't all slimy.

5/28/2011 12:15:57 PM

Quote :

"I am not a fan of recruiters. "

same here.

5/29/2011 12:26:09 AM

.

[Edited on May 30, 2011 at 3:44 AM. Reason : .edited.. meh, long winded advice. ]

5/30/2011 3:43:05 AM

If you want to know if it is 'bad', why don't you check out comparable salaries on salary.com?

5/30/2011 10:12:39 AM

^ better to use glass door

5/31/2011 3:08:12 PM

Try this...

add eight times the marketing...
halve the features...
then double the price salary...

6/2/2011 8:56:50 PM

^ I laughed.

6/3/2011 2:51:37 AM

Quote :

"then the girl tried to tell me that I wasn't worth 40k... if the didn't catch her attention, me walking out the door should have. eh, learning experience. oh, then I get a phone call on my cell as I'm driving home, with her half berating me half apologizing. then she asks if she can represent me to another client that I already had contact with through someone else. i am too fucking nice sometimes to hang up on people, lol"

I had a similar experience with a recruiter. They kept telling me that I should be happy with $30k out of college. Ummm... I made more than that co-oping. It was a lot like dealing with a used car salesman.

[Edited on June 10, 2011 at 6:32 AM. Reason : asdf]

6/10/2011 6:32:14 AM

The recruiter I went through about 5 years ago got caught pocketing the raises companies were giving employees. It was fun that the director of the group I was in liked me and I knew he hated them for that. Money quote from an account manager at the firm, "I've looked over your request for a raise and it seems like you're asking for 50%. Our policy is...". I interrupt, "I care not of your policies, only of my raise."

The reason they ended up giving it to me was I knew what they were getting paid and there was room even with a 50% raise--those bitches are corrupt. We never use recruiters where I work now.

6/10/2011 7:54:24 AM