Curious why software engineers in the United States are able to make so much more than many other countries? Watch this video next 👉ruclips.net/video/xWw1Jj9t8FU/видео.html
Yes, now I want to hear how you spent / invested the money! Well done on the salary progression, and I hope that your new job after Facebook has been well worth it! 😉
@@kyleb3580 Doesn't the cost of living almost balance this out? Remote work is on the rise, which is nice, but I have heard others basically feeling like they're living paycheck to paycheck with Six Figures in california.
@@bobbobber9211 I live in a low-wage, low cost-of-living country in southern Europe. While it's great that my rent and food are relatively cheap, there are some things that don't vary that much in price from country to country, or are even more expensive here. Things like a litre of petrol cost more or less the same in Spain as they do in the UK. Also, tools you need for your job, electronic goods, things like that, are not cheaper. A €2,000 iMac could be two months' net salary for a graphic designer here, while their counterpart in the US might be able to pay for it with just a week's labour. Another difference to consider is that, even with a proportionally higher cost of living, the absolute amount that people are able to save in higher-wage countries could easily be an order of magnitude greater. If I'm able to put away a couple of hundred a month for a rainy day, someone in Norway, the US, or UAE might be putting away a couple of thousand a month. Even an average skilled worker in the US probably *saves* more in a year than their counterparts are able to *earn* doing similar work elsewhere.
Thank you! I think it's very important and awesome of you to share this information. I once worked in India and noticed strangers casually asking each other what they did for a living and how much they made. I realized immediately that no one back in America had any idea how to negotiate for a salary because they didn't know what anyone else made, and I returned to America with a mission to do my little part in changing this cultural habit. Well done.
In Brazil, as a Middle Level Fullstack developer, I make 13000 USD a year give or take, each year you might get 100 USD raise if you get a good company.
Looking this video from Italy, knowing the average paycheck for senior engineer, it's really hard. Congrats to you my friend for your astonishing achievements.
Congrats to you, especially this quickly out of college. As a UW engineering grad (MSE) and a Seattle/Bellevue resident for the past 16 years, I gotta say this huge imbalance of salary compared to other industries in the area has had a hugely negative effect on cost of living. I've worked in manufacturing in the area for the length of my career and that level of pay is only for directors and VP's of those companies. Sad to say, but the huge influx of tech jobs in my beloved WA state is what will eventually have me relocate in the very near future.
@@Astrothunder_ Not when you're a single income family living in Bellevue. I'm barely within the middle class range, and single family homes are going for well above $1 million on average over here. It's truly insane.
Everyone complaining about how little their geographical area and companies pay, I’m a lead technical recruiter in California. Yes, it’s true that tech giants pay a lot. However, keep in mind: 1. All other industries in the United States don’t pay this high. It’s a niche for FAANG and tech start ups to pay out, which also contributes to mass layoffs when the company under performs ie, they can only afford to when the stockholders are happy. It’s a volatile and stressful risk if you have a family to provide for. 2. Cost of living is insanely high in Northern California. You have to make $200k USD to live a decent life so it’s unrealistic to compare their salary when it costs 100x more for the same standard of living as you’re getting. If you make less than $150k there, you’re sharing a small apartment, not living alone and not close to owning a home. 3. Stop bitching, increase your value add.
I agree that we should stop bitching and add our value add. However you don't get job stability when you have a normal/low pay somewhere else. So, it's better to get a high pay even when the job might not be stable.
Totally agree salary transparency is sooo important. You're doing the world a huge favor by normalizing talking about pay. I also have a video where interviewed Meta employees how much money they make. The salary info people shared kinda blew my mind.
I worked at FIS (US company noted on Nasdaq, fintech stuff) branch in Sweden. After 10 years of experience as a C++ and Python dev I earned about $5000 per month lol (plus 16% pension saved in my name per month or something like that). The numbers you mention in the video are insane. Although I guess in the US expenses are absolutely ridiculous. Especially in California you pay as much taxes as we do in Sweden but you don't get free healthcare or tuition. And housing over there is insane of course. I had a $600 per month rent for a 3 room apartment.
Thanks for sharing this! 😁 This really sheds some light on some of the differences that need to be considered when comparing pay by region. For instance, my rent was about 4x that, tuition for a 4 year CS degree can be anywhere from like 30k to 200k USD (although usually on the lower end of that if you stay in state), and healthcare is certainly not free (although like I mentioned in the video Meta does have pretty solid insurance for its US employees). At the end of the day, I do think the US is probably the place where software engineers can save the most money, but salaries alone definitely don't tell the whole story.
Taxes are generally lower in America and that's why pay is so much higher. The market just has less government involved friction. And we prefer it this way.
@@farzana6676 that used to be true. but california for example (including federal and state taxes) now has higher income tax (highest tax bracket), corporate tax and capital gains tax than for example sweden. also there is no gift or estate tax in sweden whereas in the US it’s like 40%. furthermore, the regulatory burdens are higher in california than in almost all european high tax countries. what used to be the land of the free is low the land of the highly taxed and highly regulated.
@@Bcutter Yeah I agree but that's only California and New York. That's why there's a mass exodus out of these two states. That's why this dude got this job in Seattle Washington where there are zero state taxes(he probably pays around 25% in total federal taxes & social security.) Great thing about America, if the liberals make some shitty regulatory and taxation policy, you just move to another State. You won't believe the numbers of Californians and New Yorkers coming to Texas and Florida. It's crazy, everywhere I look it's Californians here in Austin.
@@farzana6676 yeah i think that’s what’s gonna happen in the future. california and new york will be drained of all entrepreneurial or ambitious people. and i agree, that is what is great about the US. let the stupid states suffer the consequences of their poor decisions
This is mind blowing to me. Even with cost of living it's amazing how much more money people make at those silicon valley companies over some dude with an IT job in PA. He got a salary increase 4 months after starting then got a huge promotion 6 months later. Every company I worked at that would be impossible no matter what you did not to mention how much the stock options are worth.
Do bear in mind that getting into Meta is like getting into an Ivy League. Very few can get in. You have to be very smart and hardworking to get these quick promotions and raises as well.
IT is a fundamentally different career than software engineering. It's basically the same difference as there is between being a plumber and being a civil engineer. Both are important, just not much overlap in skill set or what kinds of projects they work on.
@@iThoughtOfaUsername Right but I am not just talking about a DBA or SYSAdmin...I am talking about people with software engineer titles at different companies I have been at that still fall under an 'IT' umbrella at some of those places(the pay structure is really similar). Not small places either....some are large cap companies ...sometimes 100+ billion market cap. With that said obviously Facebook is recruiting very high talent but still blew my expectations away how fast they promote and how aggressive the salary increases are.
@@edthelazyboy Definitely they are hiring from good schools with a very tough interview process but I'm trying to put this into perspective. He's still a new grad who's not making that much less than most Senior Software Engineers in my area when you account for cost of living. Thats just really impressive and it means Meta has insane FU money to throw around at hiring. I mean he started full time August 2020 and left 10 months later. Meta hired a college grade an $85k signing bonus who left 10 months later. Just a different world there.
very honest video. loved the way he gave details. California pay has always been inflated compared to rest of the US and the world. In London where I live 70k is like a very big salary and taxes are very high as well. The houses are shoe boxes and cost a fortune.
I can’t really speak for others since I haven’t worked at many other companies, but levels.fyi is a great free website to check out with salary information for most tech companies 😀
I think you should be able to talk about anything, even salary. A low salary doesn't mean anything bad. People can still be happy and that's the thing that counts. I don't need 1000's of dollars as salary when I work very little and still have money left to do some fun stuff.
I learned python from Udemy, now learning c++, my question is how much difficult is coding test when they select the resume, what previous record they check or current coding task And yes your salary is super good 👍
It’s hard to quantify the difficulty of the questions, but for the most part they are testing knowledge of data structures and algorithms. There are plenty of websites online with example interview questions (AlgoExpert, Leetcode, etc.).
bhaha its literally insane how much software engineers get paid. Its literally pointless to go into any other field at this point. Even docs are not making that much after 14 years of schooling and these 4-year bachelor's degree people are compensated so highly. Gota love our society.
I wouldn't say it is pointless to go into other fields. If you're purely optimizing for income, then sure software engineering is probably the highest ROI from college. That said, I think there are a few strong counterpoints: 1. The income ceiling for some other careers is much higher. It's far more likely for a doctor or lawyer to make 500k-1M+ than a software engineer. 2. Professions like medicine allow you to make extremely good money from pretty much anywhere (at least in the US). Software engineers only tend to make this type of money in San Francisco, New York and Seattle, all very high cost of living areas. 3. There have been pretty good studies showing that happiness derived from income doesn't grow linearly. There's usually pretty sharp diminishing returns once you have enough money to afford necessities and a few reasonable "splurges". For instance, if you could make 100k doing something you love or 250k doing something you hate, I think most people would be much happier doing the thing they love. Of course it's easy to say that coming from a lucky field where the thing I love doing happens to pay really well, but I think it's generally true. I've seen a lot of people come into software engineering just to make money and they end up burnt out pretty fast. I also know many people who chose other fields that pay well, but maybe less than software engineering, and for most of them that was probably the right choice. All that said, it's an amazing field to be in and I am extremely fortunate/grateful that the thing I fell in love with doing happens to also be a lucrative career 😊
This is awesomely transparent and super helpful! $75k signing bonus though?? I mean, I believe you, but that is an absolutely astronomical number. That is well over the annual gross salary for a low-level dev in the Midwest.
Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous. At some point I think Facebook learned they can attract talent away from other big tech companies without increasing salaries much (i.e. long term expenses) by just giving a big signing bonus. It’s just a recruiting expense to them. For a while they even gave out a good number of 100k signing bonuses to returning interns.
@@ConnerArdman Holy smokes…I could pay my house off instantaneously. With that said, the tech space is a little shifty right now. Especially for the big companies. I am terrified of jinxing it, but - I am in love with my role to the point that, even while making far less that amounts referenced in this video, it would take a lot to make me jump ship. The fit is a dream, they value people, and I feel a bit safer than I might at Google. I know it’s contextually fuzzy, but what are your thoughts on that sort of value? I’ve been a freelance dev for over a decade and just two years ago devoted myself to a stellar edtech company.
Once you can afford to pay your bills and live a comfortable life, I'd value the other benefits a lot more personally. It sounds like you've got a pretty great gig! Also, once you account for the cost of living in the Midwest vs. SF/Seattle/NYC, the pay difference is much less. For example, that $100k signing bonus wouldn't even be a down payment on a house here unless you want to live in a rundown 1920's shack or have a 1hr+ commute to work.
My salary of a full time self-driving cars machine learning developer with 2 years experience in one Russian company is 32k USD/year. And I have masters in data science and two publications. International salary gap is overwhelming.
@@farzana6676 I don't know where to go. I don't want to go to any city that is in autocracy, or joined anti-Russian sanctions, or has lower living standards than Moscow does. I can't find any city that satisfies my 3 simple requirements.
You know what makes me feel good, I didn’t go to college and got hired at a paper mill as a production tech. I worked my ass off and really learned the skill and task at hand and moved up the ranks quickly. I live in Buffalo New York where the cost of living is pretty low. After 2 years there I was making 140k a year. I am hourly and work about 60 hours a week so I do make 15-20 hours a week overtime. Now if you stayed at Facebook for a long time you would blow my salary away but I also get cost of living increase every year and a lot of benefits including 2 bouns’s a year which comes out to be 20-25k a year. So all and all my main point is hard work and a beastly motivation in life can get you far. You don’t need to be an engineer to bring in a 150k a year salary. But awesome video and congrats for your success 👍
That's awesome, big congrats on all your success! I couldn't agree more. I think there can be an over-romanticizing of tech/engineering when in reality there are tons of other ways to make a great living 😊
@@ConnerArdman at the end of the day in 20 years my salary probably won’t break past 200k but your will probably be more like 500k lol. Congrats to us both. Anyone reading this, all it takes is hard work and a mastery of a skill set & never taking no for an answer.
@@nicholasbarrett7131 in my experience the biggest issue we have with most companies nowadays is hard work + skill is not rewarded.... HR seems to be the biggest issue in my eyes if you are friends/drinking buddies/related i have seen more people get promotions wage increases etc... also the belief that degrees equate to being a more likely skilled employee i make good money but I'll be honest cards had to all line up in order for this to happen and I ended up being in the right place at the right time...
@@wnxdafriz The great thing about America is that you can always change jobs or change States. There are just so many opportunities out there. From Austin to California, to Miami.
Good info. I watched lots of other videos on FB salary, and all talked about 500k ~ 600k TC/year. Your number looks much more reasonable to me, and also more aligned with my offer (I declined it though)
My brother in law works in Meta right now. He’s told me that the employees should be paid more for the amount of work they do. The perks are nice though. But the pay for the amount of work could be better.
are you kidding me??? these techies get paid more than nurses!!! how is that even right?! techies should be paid less....i mean RNs don't make bad money but they definitely deserve some of these good perks that these techies have like free food in the office, free health/wellness money for the gym, etc!!!
@@11pinkie11 more demand more value techies should earn kore because engineers and scientists are at the centre of the world without them no industry could stand.they also have more knowledge and brain than some mere nurses lol.🤣
Hey amazing video, makes me feel optimistic. I am currently in a full time career and am looking to learn software engineering. Which program/degree/certificates would you recommend to get started? Any word on the meta blueprint program offered through coursera?
It depends a lot on you and your learning style as well as your goals. There are some great coding bootcamps out there, although I can’t really recommend one specifically (that’d be like asking which university I recommend, there’s just too many). If you want to self-study, I really like ProgrammingExpert. Of course disclaimer there, I work for the company that created it, but I had no involvement in that product and have no financial incentive towards people buying it. If the goal is just to learn, I’d go the online course route. If the goal is to make it a career, then you’ll need to decide for yourself, but it can be very hard to get interviews without a related degree/bootcamp/experience. It’s not impossible, but that’s just something to keep in mind. I don’t know anything about the Meta coursera course, although in the past I’ve found most educational products put out by non-education organizations to be pretty subpar. It could be good though 🤷♂️
I had no idea that you went to UW until I saw your certificate in the background! Did you major in cs? I’m currently an upcoming Junior in the Informatics major and was wondering if it was too late to transition from UX Design to programming (understanding that I can’t change majors due to low acceptance rate and will likely have to self study in addition to the cs courses available to INFO/ non-cs majors). Really encouraged to see a fellow husky growing on RUclips!!
I actually majored in Informatics as well! I just focused on taking all of the programming classes in INFO and I took basically every CS nonmajor class. It’s definitely not too late to make that switch if it’s something you want to do. Really 14x and data structures (373 I think?) are the only CS classes you actually need to get a job, but if you have time to supplement that with a few others it would obviously be great. Go Dawgs! 🐶
Hi Connor, Great video thanks so much for sharing that ! Little question here 🙋🏻♂️ Do you think that a developer without a degree but with a Bootcamp certificate and a year of experience as a software developer could get such a salary also ? Is there a link or an average salary we could check somewhere ? Anyways thanks again a lot in advance Waiting for new videos 👏🏽👏🏽 !!
Thanks for the kind words! As far as I know having a CS or related degree doesn't have any impact on salaries at most big tech companies. Landing interviews might be more difficult, but once you do I wouldn't expect your education to directly impact potential salaries.
Wow, they pay so well! I"m an old X software engineer of long ago (no longer in the field) but how good of a resume do you figure one must have to get hired at FB? Obviously, they are looking for the cream of the crop! Also, being so young and having a lot of funds around how did that make you feel after a while?
Yeah the bar is definitely high for hiring, but it's hard to quantify and they are much more interested in your ability to solve technical interview questions than the resume itself. That said, a huge portion of my coworkers either went to a highly ranked CS university or came from another FAANG company, so the resume certainly helps (probably just for getting the initial interview though). As for how the income made me feel, that's an interesting question. Initially, there was definitely a shock factor that was pretty exciting and validating. Although that quickly wore off and it just felt "normal". I'd say the only feeling I'd associate with it is the feeling of freedom and security. I don't really need to worry about paying rent or buying food, and I have the freedom to not say no to things purely out of financial necessity (at least within reason obviously). There's definitely a point where I don't think it has any measurable impact on my current life though. I'd basically live the exact same way making 100k as I would making 250k, just without the benefit of potentially retiring early.
$118k, which you made in your first year, is twice what I make as a CS grad/software engineer in Sweden with 10 years experience, and I pay 65% tax on that, when you account for the 25% sales tax on everything I buy. No signing bonus or stock options. I do get a bonus but it’s only around 3k per year and of course the government steals 2/3rds of that. A lot of that is due to Sweden having a shit currency though. I’m in the process of moving to Denmark where I can still only get $103k per year but still a lot better than this shithole.
Salaries and taxes between the US and Sweden aren’t really comparable, because there are so many other factors at play. For example, my university degree to be qualified for this job cost ~$130k, where it would be free in Sweden. Expectations for vacation days, parental leave, etc. are much lower in the US than Sweden. Rent in Seattle is -50% higher than Stockholm from what I can find online. Healthcare is extremely expensive here, and that can even be true with the very good corporate insurance. That’s not to say it isn’t still amazing money, because it is. But it doesn’t go nearly as far as you’d think either.
@Cornner : How is the working rhythm at Facebook ? Is it very fast paced ? Or is it laid-back ? Do you work more than 40 hours per week ? (overtime, no extra pay) ?
Generally speaking, it is considered a pretty fast paced company. That said, I think that is much more team and individual dependent than anything else. I had great work life balance, and basically never worked over 40 hours in a week (and usually worked well below that). And no, you don't get paid for overtime. It's a salaried job, so you don't track your hours in any official way. You're paid to get the job done, not to sit in a seat for x hours per day.
These numbers don’t say anything if not also cost of living is revealed. An 8000/month can make you a poor sucker if your house sets you back 5000/month and a loaf of bread cost 10 bucks.
The cost of living in Seattle is high, but not nearly as high as the bay area. There's no state income tax which helps a lot, and you can easily get your rent in the 2000-2500 range (or lower with roommates, or much higher of course if you get something super nice). I'll probably make a video on my exact expenses eventually, but even on the intern salary I think most reasonable people without outside major expenses would still be able to save a good percentage while living well in Seattle.
Thanks you so much Connor I would like to know what type of project to make as a front-end to get my resume shortlisted I m currently making e commerce in mern stack but doubt that going to be enough to stand out
Honestly I don’t think it matters too much. Unless you’ve turned a project into a legitimate business or something else super impressive, specific projects probably won’t make you stand out more than others. Just do projects that you find interesting and that use a similar tech stack to the companies/roles you are applying to. Bonus points of course if you are creative and do something other than the common generic projects.
I have a video on this, but I really didn’t work that much tbh. I probably averaged around 30 hours a week, and I don’t think I ever worked over 50 hours in a single week. That said, it can vary a lot from person to person and team to team. I certainly knew people who worked 40-60 hours every week.
Intern pay at facebook is wort as maybe principal engineer or technical architect in indonesia, of course i understand that you high paid porposionated with the company profit and you skills, also the company cultures. But damn man
Yeah levels.fyi has data about a bunch of different roles. For non-engineering roles in tech (pm, design, etc), the salaries tend to be fairly similar but with less stock/signing bonus. Outside of the tech org (ops, recruiting, sales, etc), it can vary a lot by role, but most are significantly less than engineering.
I would like to give you a video content idea. You can make an interview simulation just like you are doing with Clement :) It will be amazing for your subscribers.
Thats awesome mate, thank you for sharing Facebook sounds cool, , thanks for sharing, quick question is it possible land a gig at Facebook (Meta) without a CS Degree but holding a Frontend and AlgoExpert Cert. Is it possible for one to get a shot to an interview as a SWE with the CS degree, if so how can one go about it, and during your time at Facebook did u work with any SWE without CS Degrees?
Yeah I worked with plenty of people without CS degrees. Many had related degrees (math, engineering, etc.), but there were a few with completely unrelated degrees. Getting interviews in this case can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. If you’ve had other developer jobs or went to a bootcamp, focus on that with the resume. If not, try to make some impressive projects to focus on. Really the goal is just to find a way to demonstrate that you can be as productive of a software engineer as someone who has a CS degree.
how did you find the List of salaries that your peers are making? if you can share Link or if it's hosted somewhere please share it will be a great help.
When I was an intern someone started a Google Sheet and shared it with all of the interns. I don’t think I have that anymore, but it had a few hundred return offer details for different positions. From my experience levels.fyi is very accurate though.
What? I live in east europe ..the most people are making around 400$ a month this means 4800$ a year. While that we import most of the goods and they cost even more. Take the iphone in usa here is like 20% more so yeah. I'm glad you guys have a decent life but I pity us.
Are these salaries come before taxes? E.g., if i saw a position on Glassdoor or Indeed with an annual salary of 120,000$, does it mean that the company pays 10,000$ a month net or gross?
I am interested what is your Take-Home pay, because in Serbia, when we are signing contract, we are agreeing on take-home pay, and not payment before taxes. If you are located in California, I calculated around $150,000 take-home pay. Is that correct?
Thanks for sharing , that's really cool , can you provide us please on how to apply in facebook internship (especially for non US residents and if there's any more relative details) and tahnks ☺
It isn't any different than any other company, you just apply on their website or through a recruiter/career fair if you have one. I think the applications for most tech internships tend to start opening up around September when all of the US universities are back in session. From there it's just about your resume and a few coding interviews.
Yes. In the US, it's generally illegal for a company to prevent employees from discussing wages and whatnot due to the National Labor Relations Act as well as some state laws. I also never signed anything saying otherwise even if that would be enforceable. I'm always _very_ careful with contracts that I sign. This video is also a few years old, so if they cared they would have done something about it by now lol. Disclaimer: I'm obviously not a lawyer, this is just my interpretation of how things work.
I had only been at the company for 4 months, so I don’t know if these refresher numbers are a great data point to generalize. I think in general they give pretty standard refreshers.
I was in Seattle, although my understanding is that at the time offers were the same between Seattle and MPK. I _think_ Seattle salaries are like 5% lower than MPK now, but I'm not completely sure. Whatever the difference is, it definitely doesn't account for the difference in taxes and cost of living.
I need to apply to Facebook! Crap. I never followed through with recruiters from Amazon/Facebook/Google and I have a computer science degree from the same school, UW. After 13 years of professional experience, I have never made anything remotely close to what you made in your first year. Well, I am not dead yet. Graduated near 2008. This video makes me equally sad and motivated, such strange emotions. Lol
I mean my base salary has exceeded what you mentioned, but total compensation. I think you missed the part of the stock options not actualizing? Since it was on a 4 year vesting cycle? Or I'm likely mistaken?
Yeah I want to eventually make a detailed video breaking down my expenses/cost of living. But the short version is that living in Seattle I paid no state/local income taxes. Rents in areas near the tech offices for decent apartments tend to be 2k-3k if you don't want a roommate (although of course they can get cheaper or way more expensive). One nice perk of working at companies like Facebook is you don't really need to pay for much else if you don't have any other major financial responsibilities. Food was free 5 days a week (excluding covid times when the office was closed of course), healthcare/insurance was very good and close to free, they paid for our gym memberships, and they paid for our public transit cards so living near downtown it was easy to not own a car. I'd say all in, I probably spent 3-5k per month during my time at Facebook as a full time employee, with some months higher than others. I probably could have gotten that lower if I really tried, but that was a spending level I was pretty comfortable with.
@@ConnerArdman How many hours did you put in per week? Great salary though regardless but if you were doing extremely long days all the time then it makes sense.
I didn’t actually work that much honestly. Most weeks I worked around 30 hours, just with an occasionally more stressful week if I was launching some new feature. I don’t think I ever worked more than ~50 hours in a single week though. This is very, very team and individual dependent though. There certainly are people working 60+ hours a week, but I never felt a need to. I probably could have really grinded to get even higher bonuses, but I was more interested in my sanity. It also comes down to time management. I tried to be really good at not wasting working hours. I actually have a whole video on that if you’re interested 🙃
@@ConnerArdman Fair play then. I can imagine some working 15hour days though. In that case the money isn't that good when you consider the hours. Excellent in your case though!
There are a lot of paths to getting the initial interviews (applying online, referrals, career fairs / recruiting events, etc). Prior internships, research, teaching, etc. type positions are definitely helpful, but not required. In my case, I met a recruiter at a university career fair and got the interview. Beyond that, it is almost entirely just about interview performance. I don't think grades matter much at all. My GPA was on my resume, but they never asked about it or to see my transcript.
Reason people don't share salaries sometimes is because is stresses people like myself out who own a business and take risks as well as the huge start up cost. Tech workers are paid to much, plain and simple.
Dang as a remote Software Engineer I make pretty much that much and I live in a super low cost area. My salary is low around 83k but our bonus is well over 90k. We make more in bonus than salary. Any good .NET engineers want a job? Seriously! We are hiring!
I guess it depends on what you mean by "average". This is pretty typical (although still a bit on the high side) for big tech companies in Seattle, New York or The Bay Area. At the "target" CS universities in the US, getting these jobs is fairly common. At schools that are less heavily recruited from, it's a lot less common to land these jobs, but it's still possible. Outside of the major tech hub cities, compensation tends to be a lot lower, but the cost of living also tends to be a lot lower. Of course this is still a range and it has plenty of outliers. I've heard everything from new grad software engineers in the US making like $40k all the way up to $300k+ at some hedge funds. I'd guess if you took the median of all of them, it would be somewhere in the $80k-$120k range though, because the vast majority don't live in these expensive tech hubs and don't work for FAANG-like companies.
Self taught developers absolutely can get jobs as software engineers, but it is much harder. You will be competing with people from bootcamps and universities, so you have to find another way to stand out. I think going from self-taught without a degree to a FAANG or similar job is pretty unrealistic, but you can certainly work your way up to it over time.
I’m not sure the comparison makes perfect sense, because the cost or living in US tech cities is so much higher. That said, the cost of living difference almost definitely doesn't account for the whole difference in pay 😔. Software engineers in the US do just tend to make a lot more than in most other countries, even those with higher costs of living.
@@ConnerArdman Yeah man! This is right too. But, here in Pakistan, some of the fresh graduates start their first job at just $4600/year. There is no comparison with US
@@ConnerArdman I think the quality of life you live in USA will cost the same in India. We think the cost living in India is low because we compromise with the quality of life. If we live with the same quality it will cost the same as USA.
Probably around 30. Occasionally more, occasionally less, but never more than ~50 in a single week. It’s very individual/team dependent though. There certainly were people working way more than me.
I live in Seattle, so there are no state income taxes. Here’s a good calculator for take home pay that’s been fairly accurate in my experience: smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes I paid roughly 25% of my income in taxes, but it’s hard to get an exact number because I never spent a full calendar year working at just Facebook. Expenses in Seattle are also a lot lower. As a single person without other major financial obligations (medical expenses, bad debt, etc) I found I can live very comfortably on about $3000-$4000 per month. If I had to I could probably get that down to around $2000 living with roommates and lowering my standard of living. I don’t think I could spend much more than around $5000 a month living reasonably, but again ymmv based on your life situation and spending habits. I might make a breakdown video of my expenses if there is enough interest, but generally it’s probably in that range.
The terms are pretty much interchangeable. There is some interesting history there, because in some countries the term "engineer" can only be used if you have a specific certification (similar to how you must pass The Bar Exam in the US to be an attorney). Because of this, I think the term developer tends to be more common outside of the US, while engineer seems to be the preferred term in the US where such requirements don't exist. At the end of the day, it's the same job though. I've never seen a company hire both software engineers and software developers as different positions. At Facebook I worked in the privacy organization. I'm actually not too sure what I can/cannot say (I don't think I signed any NDAs, but honestly I don't remember fully), but broadly speaking I worked on internal tools used by legal/policy/etc. to manage and mitigate any privacy incidents that might happen. For the most part I worked on the frontend, so I built user-interfaces that these people would use for their day-to-day work.
No it wasn’t. I never really worked all that much to be honest. I left to join AlgoExpert, mostly because I was really excited about the opportunity and it aligned with my personal goals a bit better. I have a full video explaining that thought process 😀
damn that is a lot of money! how long was this guy at work that he ate 3 meals there a day. Is this hard work, do I need to go to school and learn how to use the internet lol. He quit this job?
Most of the time I worked at Facebook the office was closed due to covid, but I think breakfast ended at 10am and dinner started at 6pm. So theoretically you could work 10-6 and eat all 3 meals at the office. In my case when the office was open, sometimes I would go home early and then come back for dinner (I lived within walking distance of the office). As for hard work, that is pretty subjective. It is hard in the sense that it is intellectually stimulating and requires a skillset that relatively few people have. But it certainly isn't hard in the same sense as like a construction job being hard. Schooling wise, these jobs generally require either a computer science degree or some similar experience such as a software engineering bootcamp. And yes, I did leave Facebook. Nothing against the company, it was an awesome job, I just had an opportunity that felt better for me / more aligned with my personal goals.
😂 It’s actually pretty common to leave right after promotions. It gets you one last bonus, and it sort of “locks in” that higher level if you were to ever come back. It sounds like a funny time to leave, but logically it’s the time that makes the most sense.
Curious why software engineers in the United States are able to make so much more than many other countries?
Watch this video next 👉ruclips.net/video/xWw1Jj9t8FU/видео.html
Yes, now I want to hear how you spent / invested the money! Well done on the salary progression, and I hope that your new job after Facebook has been well worth it! 😉
Lol I’d say it’s going well so far 😁🚀
No we dont
@@ConnerArdman New company name??
@@guapeousa sounds like Aloe Dessert. not to be confused with its competitor Pete Chode
As an intern you earned around as much as a senior developer with 6+ years of experience does in the UK. This is insane.
The UK has horrendous pay for the same level of work. I left that country for California as soon as I realized this.
@@kyleb3580 Doesn't the cost of living almost balance this out? Remote work is on the rise, which is nice, but I have heard others basically feeling like they're living paycheck to paycheck with Six Figures in california.
@@dragoon9554 It absolutely does. My country, one of the wealthiest in the world, has a 50% smaller rent average compared to the US.
@@bobbobber9211 I live in a low-wage, low cost-of-living country in southern Europe. While it's great that my rent and food are relatively cheap, there are some things that don't vary that much in price from country to country, or are even more expensive here. Things like a litre of petrol cost more or less the same in Spain as they do in the UK. Also, tools you need for your job, electronic goods, things like that, are not cheaper. A €2,000 iMac could be two months' net salary for a graphic designer here, while their counterpart in the US might be able to pay for it with just a week's labour.
Another difference to consider is that, even with a proportionally higher cost of living, the absolute amount that people are able to save in higher-wage countries could easily be an order of magnitude greater. If I'm able to put away a couple of hundred a month for a rainy day, someone in Norway, the US, or UAE might be putting away a couple of thousand a month. Even an average skilled worker in the US probably *saves* more in a year than their counterparts are able to *earn* doing similar work elsewhere.
Talent is not the same though.
Thank you! I think it's very important and awesome of you to share this information. I once worked in India and noticed strangers casually asking each other what they did for a living and how much they made. I realized immediately that no one back in America had any idea how to negotiate for a salary because they didn't know what anyone else made, and I returned to America with a mission to do my little part in changing this cultural habit. Well done.
Interesting, I didn't realize that was specific to American culture 🤔
I'm sure many cultures are uncomfortable talking about salaries, but apparently, not all of them.
In Japan, a fresh grad engineer will make around 25,000 USD a year. Each year they might get a 2-5% raise. That’s it. No other incentives.
In Brazil, as a Middle Level Fullstack developer, I make 13000 USD a year give or take, each year you might get 100 USD raise if you get a good company.
@@HowlingBird Damn that's messed up. You need to move to America
Strange. Everybody thinks of Japan as equal to Switzerland.
Looking this video from Italy, knowing the average paycheck for senior engineer, it's really hard.
Congrats to you my friend for your astonishing achievements.
Congrats to you, especially this quickly out of college. As a UW engineering grad (MSE) and a Seattle/Bellevue resident for the past 16 years, I gotta say this huge imbalance of salary compared to other industries in the area has had a hugely negative effect on cost of living. I've worked in manufacturing in the area for the length of my career and that level of pay is only for directors and VP's of those companies. Sad to say, but the huge influx of tech jobs in my beloved WA state is what will eventually have me relocate in the very near future.
You’re a an engineer with a masters? If anything you’re part of the problem as I’m sure you’re making bank dude.
@@Astrothunder_ Not when you're a single income family living in Bellevue. I'm barely within the middle class range, and single family homes are going for well above $1 million on average over here. It's truly insane.
@@ericwood9961 I live in Bellevue but do industrial real estate. The pay is pretty good and not labor intensive.
Such a motivational video that makes you work on your skills and crack that META's Interview. Thanks for the clarity !
You got a 25% salary raise for a promotion? That's insane, congrats!
Thanks! I was pretty surprised by how large the change was tbh 😂
It really worked for me after I look and try some tutorials, yours is the one that worked. Owe you a lot.
that sign in bonus of 83K is more than a lot of senior dev salaries in EU
That's what socialism gets you.
Everyone complaining about how little their geographical area and companies pay, I’m a lead technical recruiter in California. Yes, it’s true that tech giants pay a lot. However, keep in mind:
1. All other industries in the United States don’t pay this high. It’s a niche for FAANG and tech start ups to pay out, which also contributes to mass layoffs when the company under performs ie, they can only afford to when the stockholders are happy. It’s a volatile and stressful risk if you have a family to provide for.
2. Cost of living is insanely high in Northern California. You have to make $200k USD to live a decent life so it’s unrealistic to compare their salary when it costs 100x more for the same standard of living as you’re getting. If you make less than $150k there, you’re sharing a small apartment, not living alone and not close to owning a home.
3. Stop bitching, increase your value add.
I agree that we should stop bitching and add our value add. However you don't get job stability when you have a normal/low pay somewhere else. So, it's better to get a high pay even when the job might not be stable.
Hey Conner you seem like such a good dude man. I wish you all the success in the world. Keep putting out great content!
Thank you! 😊
Why would a good dude work for one of the world's evilest companies?
@@mark_fi for money duh, and tech exposure is unmatched.
@@harshpatel105 "the money doesn't smell", - right 😁???
I agree I think everyone should be open to talking about their wages. It does more harm than good with everyone keeping it to themselves
Totally agree salary transparency is sooo important. You're doing the world a huge favor by normalizing talking about pay. I also have a video where interviewed Meta employees how much money they make. The salary info people shared kinda blew my mind.
omg this makes me so much more motivated to get my work done
I worked at FIS (US company noted on Nasdaq, fintech stuff) branch in Sweden. After 10 years of experience as a C++ and Python dev I earned about $5000 per month lol (plus 16% pension saved in my name per month or something like that). The numbers you mention in the video are insane. Although I guess in the US expenses are absolutely ridiculous. Especially in California you pay as much taxes as we do in Sweden but you don't get free healthcare or tuition. And housing over there is insane of course. I had a $600 per month rent for a 3 room apartment.
Thanks for sharing this! 😁 This really sheds some light on some of the differences that need to be considered when comparing pay by region. For instance, my rent was about 4x that, tuition for a 4 year CS degree can be anywhere from like 30k to 200k USD (although usually on the lower end of that if you stay in state), and healthcare is certainly not free (although like I mentioned in the video Meta does have pretty solid insurance for its US employees). At the end of the day, I do think the US is probably the place where software engineers can save the most money, but salaries alone definitely don't tell the whole story.
Taxes are generally lower in America and that's why pay is so much higher. The market just has less government involved friction.
And we prefer it this way.
@@farzana6676 that used to be true. but california for example (including federal and state taxes) now has higher income tax (highest tax bracket), corporate tax and capital gains tax than for example sweden. also there is no gift or estate tax in sweden whereas in the US it’s like 40%. furthermore, the regulatory burdens are higher in california than in almost all european high tax countries. what used to be the land of the free is low the land of the highly taxed and highly regulated.
@@Bcutter Yeah I agree but that's only California and New York. That's why there's a mass exodus out of these two states.
That's why this dude got this job in Seattle Washington where there are zero state taxes(he probably pays around 25% in total federal taxes & social security.)
Great thing about America, if the liberals make some shitty regulatory and taxation policy, you just move to another State. You won't believe the numbers of Californians and New Yorkers coming to Texas and Florida. It's crazy, everywhere I look it's Californians here in Austin.
@@farzana6676 yeah i think that’s what’s gonna happen in the future. california and new york will be drained of all entrepreneurial or ambitious people. and i agree, that is what is great about the US. let the stupid states suffer the consequences of their poor decisions
This is mind blowing to me. Even with cost of living it's amazing how much more money people make at those silicon valley companies over some dude with an IT job in PA. He got a salary increase 4 months after starting then got a huge promotion 6 months later. Every company I worked at that would be impossible no matter what you did not to mention how much the stock options are worth.
Do bear in mind that getting into Meta is like getting into an Ivy League. Very few can get in. You have to be very smart and hardworking to get these quick promotions and raises as well.
IT is a fundamentally different career than software engineering. It's basically the same difference as there is between being a plumber and being a civil engineer. Both are important, just not much overlap in skill set or what kinds of projects they work on.
@@iThoughtOfaUsername Right but I am not just talking about a DBA or SYSAdmin...I am talking about people with software engineer titles at different companies I have been at that still fall under an 'IT' umbrella at some of those places(the pay structure is really similar). Not small places either....some are large cap companies ...sometimes 100+ billion market cap.
With that said obviously Facebook is recruiting very high talent but still blew my expectations away how fast they promote and how aggressive the salary increases are.
@@edthelazyboy Definitely they are hiring from good schools with a very tough interview process but I'm trying to put this into perspective. He's still a new grad who's not making that much less than most Senior Software Engineers in my area when you account for cost of living. Thats just really impressive and it means Meta has insane FU money to throw around at hiring. I mean he started full time August 2020 and left 10 months later. Meta hired a college grade an $85k signing bonus who left 10 months later. Just a different world there.
Ayeee great video again man. Keep up the great work. Always super insightful
Thanks for always supporting! 😀
very honest video. loved the way he gave details. California pay has always been inflated compared to rest of the US and the world. In London where I live 70k is like a very big salary and taxes are very high as well. The houses are shoe boxes and cost a fortune.
Thanks. Great video. I'd love to hear more about salary progressions in other companies.
I can’t really speak for others since I haven’t worked at many other companies, but levels.fyi is a great free website to check out with salary information for most tech companies 😀
This was a really well made educational video and thank you for sharing!
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
I think you should be able to talk about anything, even salary. A low salary doesn't mean anything bad. People can still be happy and that's the thing that counts. I don't need 1000's of dollars as salary when I work very little and still have money left to do some fun stuff.
Great content mann! Keep it up!
Thanks!
Wow this is a big eye opener. Great video
Great video, good info, pay was quite high, wondering how all things are at "Meta" now with all the layoffs coming. Stock has really tanked badly
Thanks! And yeah, I would imagine even before layoff rumors the general vibes were probably pretty bad given how much the stock price impacts income 😞
I’m not sure how I found this channel, but damn! Great job man! I hope you’re enjoying your new job.😊
Thank you, it's been really great so far 😊
Thank you for sharing, Conner!
I learned python from Udemy, now learning c++, my question is how much difficult is coding test when they select the resume, what previous record they check or current coding task
And yes your salary is super good 👍
It’s hard to quantify the difficulty of the questions, but for the most part they are testing knowledge of data structures and algorithms. There are plenty of websites online with example interview questions (AlgoExpert, Leetcode, etc.).
@@ConnerArdman thank you for reply
Thank u so much ❤.. I am watching from India🇮🇳, this is very informative.
Thank you for this information!
Thanks for sharing, looking forward for more content!
bhaha its literally insane how much software engineers get paid. Its literally pointless to go into any other field at this point. Even docs are not making that much after 14 years of schooling and these 4-year bachelor's degree people are compensated so highly. Gota love our society.
I wouldn't say it is pointless to go into other fields. If you're purely optimizing for income, then sure software engineering is probably the highest ROI from college. That said, I think there are a few strong counterpoints:
1. The income ceiling for some other careers is much higher. It's far more likely for a doctor or lawyer to make 500k-1M+ than a software engineer.
2. Professions like medicine allow you to make extremely good money from pretty much anywhere (at least in the US). Software engineers only tend to make this type of money in San Francisco, New York and Seattle, all very high cost of living areas.
3. There have been pretty good studies showing that happiness derived from income doesn't grow linearly. There's usually pretty sharp diminishing returns once you have enough money to afford necessities and a few reasonable "splurges". For instance, if you could make 100k doing something you love or 250k doing something you hate, I think most people would be much happier doing the thing they love. Of course it's easy to say that coming from a lucky field where the thing I love doing happens to pay really well, but I think it's generally true. I've seen a lot of people come into software engineering just to make money and they end up burnt out pretty fast. I also know many people who chose other fields that pay well, but maybe less than software engineering, and for most of them that was probably the right choice.
All that said, it's an amazing field to be in and I am extremely fortunate/grateful that the thing I fell in love with doing happens to also be a lucrative career 😊
Yep, good content. I can tell just keep the money flowing independantly,
This is awesomely transparent and super helpful! $75k signing bonus though?? I mean, I believe you, but that is an absolutely astronomical number. That is well over the annual gross salary for a low-level dev in the Midwest.
Yeah it’s pretty ridiculous. At some point I think Facebook learned they can attract talent away from other big tech companies without increasing salaries much (i.e. long term expenses) by just giving a big signing bonus. It’s just a recruiting expense to them. For a while they even gave out a good number of 100k signing bonuses to returning interns.
@@ConnerArdman Holy smokes…I could pay my house off instantaneously.
With that said, the tech space is a little shifty right now. Especially for the big companies. I am terrified of jinxing it, but - I am in love with my role to the point that, even while making far less that amounts referenced in this video, it would take a lot to make me jump ship. The fit is a dream, they value people, and I feel a bit safer than I might at Google.
I know it’s contextually fuzzy, but what are your thoughts on that sort of value? I’ve been a freelance dev for over a decade and just two years ago devoted myself to a stellar edtech company.
Once you can afford to pay your bills and live a comfortable life, I'd value the other benefits a lot more personally. It sounds like you've got a pretty great gig! Also, once you account for the cost of living in the Midwest vs. SF/Seattle/NYC, the pay difference is much less. For example, that $100k signing bonus wouldn't even be a down payment on a house here unless you want to live in a rundown 1920's shack or have a 1hr+ commute to work.
It really motivates
Thanks for sharing
Thanks for watching 😊
My salary of a full time self-driving cars machine learning developer with 2 years experience in one Russian company is 32k USD/year. And I have masters in data science and two publications. International salary gap is overwhelming.
Putin wants to have a word with you
Be careful. You badmouth Putin's economy 🤣
Most of Russian tech bros are leaving anyway. Get out while you can.
@@farzana6676 I don't know where to go. I don't want to go to any city that is in autocracy, or joined anti-Russian sanctions, or has lower living standards than Moscow does. I can't find any city that satisfies my 3 simple requirements.
@@luck3949 Your problem is anti-Russian sanctions. You should support anti Russian sanctions like Gary Kasparov and move to America.
@@farzana6676 supporting anti-Russian sanctions contradicts my moral standards, and is therefore not an option
Good content 😊
Thank you!
You know what makes me feel good, I didn’t go to college and got hired at a paper mill as a production tech. I worked my ass off and really learned the skill and task at hand and moved up the ranks quickly. I live in Buffalo New York where the cost of living is pretty low. After 2 years there I was making 140k a year. I am hourly and work about 60 hours a week so I do make 15-20 hours a week overtime. Now if you stayed at Facebook for a long time you would blow my salary away but I also get cost of living increase every year and a lot of benefits including 2 bouns’s a year which comes out to be 20-25k a year. So all and all my main point is hard work and a beastly motivation in life can get you far. You don’t need to be an engineer to bring in a 150k a year salary. But awesome video and congrats for your success 👍
That's awesome, big congrats on all your success! I couldn't agree more. I think there can be an over-romanticizing of tech/engineering when in reality there are tons of other ways to make a great living 😊
@@ConnerArdman at the end of the day in 20 years my salary probably won’t break past 200k but your will probably be more like 500k lol. Congrats to us both. Anyone reading this, all it takes is hard work and a mastery of a skill set & never taking no for an answer.
@@nicholasbarrett7131 in my experience the biggest issue we have with most companies nowadays is hard work + skill is not rewarded.... HR seems to be the biggest issue in my eyes
if you are friends/drinking buddies/related i have seen more people get promotions wage increases etc... also the belief that degrees equate to being a more likely skilled employee
i make good money but I'll be honest cards had to all line up in order for this to happen and I ended up being in the right place at the right time...
@@wnxdafriz The great thing about America is that you can always change jobs or change States. There are just so many opportunities out there. From Austin to California, to Miami.
Good info. I watched lots of other videos on FB salary, and all talked about 500k ~ 600k TC/year. Your number looks much more reasonable to me, and also more aligned with my offer (I declined it though)
What is TC?
@@farzana6676 total compensation
@@jakstrike1 That's crazy. Even IB and Hedge Fund associates don't make that.
This guy only worked a little over 1 year. You’re watching videos of people who have been working 5-10 years
My brother in law works in Meta right now. He’s told me that the employees should be paid more for the amount of work they do. The perks are nice though. But the pay for the amount of work could be better.
are you kidding me??? these techies get paid more than nurses!!! how is that even right?! techies should be paid less....i mean RNs don't make bad money but they definitely deserve some of these good perks that these techies have like free food in the office, free health/wellness money for the gym, etc!!!
@@11pinkie11 more demand more value techies should earn kore because engineers and scientists are at the centre of the world without them no industry could stand.they also have more knowledge and brain than some mere nurses lol.🤣
@@AmritenduRana31082000 theyre more lifeless than nurses. they are literaly robots
Hey amazing video, makes me feel optimistic. I am currently in a full time career and am looking to learn software engineering. Which program/degree/certificates would you recommend to get started? Any word on the meta blueprint program offered through coursera?
It depends a lot on you and your learning style as well as your goals. There are some great coding bootcamps out there, although I can’t really recommend one specifically (that’d be like asking which university I recommend, there’s just too many). If you want to self-study, I really like ProgrammingExpert. Of course disclaimer there, I work for the company that created it, but I had no involvement in that product and have no financial incentive towards people buying it.
If the goal is just to learn, I’d go the online course route. If the goal is to make it a career, then you’ll need to decide for yourself, but it can be very hard to get interviews without a related degree/bootcamp/experience. It’s not impossible, but that’s just something to keep in mind.
I don’t know anything about the Meta coursera course, although in the past I’ve found most educational products put out by non-education organizations to be pretty subpar. It could be good though 🤷♂️
Great video!
very insightful , tnx
Hello Conner Ardman we are waiting for your next video please make as soon as possible.☺☺☺
I had no idea that you went to UW until I saw your certificate in the background!
Did you major in cs? I’m currently an upcoming Junior in the Informatics major and was wondering if it was too late to transition from UX Design to programming (understanding that I can’t change majors due to low acceptance rate and will likely have to self study in addition to the cs courses available to INFO/ non-cs majors).
Really encouraged to see a fellow husky growing on RUclips!!
I actually majored in Informatics as well! I just focused on taking all of the programming classes in INFO and I took basically every CS nonmajor class. It’s definitely not too late to make that switch if it’s something you want to do. Really 14x and data structures (373 I think?) are the only CS classes you actually need to get a job, but if you have time to supplement that with a few others it would obviously be great.
Go Dawgs! 🐶
@@ConnerArdman Wow. You don’t know how much this encourages me lol. Will subscribe for more content! Best of luck dude!!
Hi Connor,
Great video thanks so much for sharing that !
Little question here 🙋🏻♂️
Do you think that a developer without a degree but with a Bootcamp certificate and a year of experience as a software developer could get such a salary also ? Is there a link or an average salary we could check somewhere ?
Anyways thanks again a lot in advance
Waiting for new videos 👏🏽👏🏽 !!
Thanks for the kind words! As far as I know having a CS or related degree doesn't have any impact on salaries at most big tech companies. Landing interviews might be more difficult, but once you do I wouldn't expect your education to directly impact potential salaries.
Wow, they pay so well! I"m an old X software engineer of long ago (no longer in the field) but how good of a resume do you figure one must have to get hired at FB? Obviously, they are looking for the cream of the crop! Also, being so young and having a lot of funds around how did that make you feel after a while?
Yeah the bar is definitely high for hiring, but it's hard to quantify and they are much more interested in your ability to solve technical interview questions than the resume itself. That said, a huge portion of my coworkers either went to a highly ranked CS university or came from another FAANG company, so the resume certainly helps (probably just for getting the initial interview though).
As for how the income made me feel, that's an interesting question. Initially, there was definitely a shock factor that was pretty exciting and validating. Although that quickly wore off and it just felt "normal". I'd say the only feeling I'd associate with it is the feeling of freedom and security. I don't really need to worry about paying rent or buying food, and I have the freedom to not say no to things purely out of financial necessity (at least within reason obviously). There's definitely a point where I don't think it has any measurable impact on my current life though. I'd basically live the exact same way making 100k as I would making 250k, just without the benefit of potentially retiring early.
Watching these numbers makes me conclude living in the Seattle area is hugely expensive!
Hey! I wanted to ask, what is the programming language you use?
$118k, which you made in your first year, is twice what I make as a CS grad/software engineer in Sweden with 10 years experience, and I pay 65% tax on that, when you account for the 25% sales tax on everything I buy. No signing bonus or stock options. I do get a bonus but it’s only around 3k per year and of course the government steals 2/3rds of that. A lot of that is due to Sweden having a shit currency though. I’m in the process of moving to Denmark where I can still only get $103k per year but still a lot better than this shithole.
Salaries and taxes between the US and Sweden aren’t really comparable, because there are so many other factors at play. For example, my university degree to be qualified for this job cost ~$130k, where it would be free in Sweden. Expectations for vacation days, parental leave, etc. are much lower in the US than Sweden. Rent in Seattle is -50% higher than Stockholm from what I can find online. Healthcare is extremely expensive here, and that can even be true with the very good corporate insurance. That’s not to say it isn’t still amazing money, because it is. But it doesn’t go nearly as far as you’d think either.
Hi Conner, great video. Inspired me to pursuit a career in a big tech company.
Or maybe just to not live in shithole country....
@Cornner : How is the working rhythm at Facebook ? Is it very fast paced ? Or is it laid-back ? Do you work more than 40 hours per week ? (overtime, no extra pay) ?
Generally speaking, it is considered a pretty fast paced company. That said, I think that is much more team and individual dependent than anything else. I had great work life balance, and basically never worked over 40 hours in a week (and usually worked well below that).
And no, you don't get paid for overtime. It's a salaried job, so you don't track your hours in any official way. You're paid to get the job done, not to sit in a seat for x hours per day.
These numbers don’t say anything if not also cost of living is revealed. An 8000/month can make you a poor sucker if your house sets you back 5000/month and a loaf of bread cost 10 bucks.
The cost of living in Seattle is high, but not nearly as high as the bay area. There's no state income tax which helps a lot, and you can easily get your rent in the 2000-2500 range (or lower with roommates, or much higher of course if you get something super nice). I'll probably make a video on my exact expenses eventually, but even on the intern salary I think most reasonable people without outside major expenses would still be able to save a good percentage while living well in Seattle.
because back in the day there was more violence and worse security so telling everyone how much money you made could make you a target to get robbed
Yeah it is getting almost impossible to get away with anything!!
Hello, I have been offered a software engineer tier 2 position at meta but it’s less than 65,000. How would I negotiate my salary?
Thanks you so much Connor
I would like to know what type of project to make as a front-end to get my resume shortlisted
I m currently making e commerce in mern stack but doubt that going to be enough to stand out
Honestly I don’t think it matters too much. Unless you’ve turned a project into a legitimate business or something else super impressive, specific projects probably won’t make you stand out more than others. Just do projects that you find interesting and that use a similar tech stack to the companies/roles you are applying to. Bonus points of course if you are creative and do something other than the common generic projects.
I missed why you would leave such a good paying job?
Interesting video! How many hours per week does one work in a position like your's? I think that information would also be interesting to know
I have a video on this, but I really didn’t work that much tbh. I probably averaged around 30 hours a week, and I don’t think I ever worked over 50 hours in a single week. That said, it can vary a lot from person to person and team to team. I certainly knew people who worked 40-60 hours every week.
Intern pay at facebook is wort as maybe principal engineer or technical architect in indonesia, of course i understand that you high paid porposionated with the company profit and you skills, also the company cultures. But damn man
Great inisghts. I am curious if there is any data on non tech oh hybrid roles salaray
Yeah levels.fyi has data about a bunch of different roles. For non-engineering roles in tech (pm, design, etc), the salaries tend to be fairly similar but with less stock/signing bonus. Outside of the tech org (ops, recruiting, sales, etc), it can vary a lot by role, but most are significantly less than engineering.
You make more money than me with 15 years of experience. Well done!
yeah, it's videos like this that make me think this guy is in the very small minority rather than being the norm.
I would like to give you a video content idea. You can make an interview simulation just like you are doing with Clement :) It will be amazing for your subscribers.
You mean to do another coding interview or are you suggesting something different than that?
@@ConnerArdman I mean you should do interview with your subscribers.
Ah I see, that could be a fun idea! I'll write that down as a potential video idea for the future. Thanks! 😊
Thats awesome mate, thank you for sharing Facebook sounds cool, , thanks for sharing, quick question is it possible land a gig at Facebook (Meta) without a CS Degree but holding a Frontend and AlgoExpert Cert. Is it possible for one to get a shot to an interview as a SWE with the CS degree, if so how can one go about it, and during your time at Facebook did u work with any SWE without CS Degrees?
Yeah I worked with plenty of people without CS degrees. Many had related degrees (math, engineering, etc.), but there were a few with completely unrelated degrees. Getting interviews in this case can be difficult, but it’s not impossible. If you’ve had other developer jobs or went to a bootcamp, focus on that with the resume. If not, try to make some impressive projects to focus on. Really the goal is just to find a way to demonstrate that you can be as productive of a software engineer as someone who has a CS degree.
@@ConnerArdman thank you so much
@@ConnerArdman extremely inspiring as I'm someone that just completed a bootcamp and algo expert member
how did you find the List of salaries that your peers are making? if you can share Link or if it's hosted somewhere please share it will be a great help.
When I was an intern someone started a Google Sheet and shared it with all of the interns. I don’t think I have that anymore, but it had a few hundred return offer details for different positions. From my experience levels.fyi is very accurate though.
What? I live in east europe ..the most people are making around 400$ a month this means 4800$ a year. While that we import most of the goods and they cost even more. Take the iphone in usa here is like 20% more so yeah. I'm glad you guys have a decent life but I pity us.
Please why did you left the company ?
could we have episodes say why you left/quit?
Are these salaries come before taxes? E.g., if i saw a position on Glassdoor or Indeed with an annual salary of 120,000$, does it mean that the company pays 10,000$ a month net or gross?
Job postings in US show yearly salary before tax.
@@nessat1783 got it. Thanks 🙂
I am interested what is your Take-Home pay, because in Serbia, when we are signing contract, we are agreeing on take-home pay, and not payment before taxes.
If you are located in California, I calculated around $150,000 take-home pay. Is that correct?
I live in Seattle, so taxes are lower than California. I usually end up paying about 25% of my income in taxes.
@@ConnerArdman Awesome, thanks for reply :)
Thanks for sharing , that's really cool , can you provide us please on how to apply in facebook internship (especially for non US residents and if there's any more relative details) and tahnks ☺
It isn't any different than any other company, you just apply on their website or through a recruiter/career fair if you have one. I think the applications for most tech internships tend to start opening up around September when all of the US universities are back in session. From there it's just about your resume and a few coding interviews.
@@ConnerArdman thanks a lot sir 😊 hopefully I can catch up to you in your new company if you ever have internship positions :D
Mate I earn a fourth as junior dev of what you did as an intern..
Are you sure sharing your information is legal, and that you didn’t sign anything anywhere saying otherwise?
Yes. In the US, it's generally illegal for a company to prevent employees from discussing wages and whatnot due to the National Labor Relations Act as well as some state laws. I also never signed anything saying otherwise even if that would be enforceable. I'm always _very_ careful with contracts that I sign. This video is also a few years old, so if they cared they would have done something about it by now lol.
Disclaimer: I'm obviously not a lawyer, this is just my interpretation of how things work.
Why did you leave? I am very curious\
You do love white and blue so much. No wonder
I didn't realize Facebook refreshers were so low.
I had only been at the company for 4 months, so I don’t know if these refresher numbers are a great data point to generalize. I think in general they give pretty standard refreshers.
Were you at the Menlo park campus? As someone who is an electronic engineer just outside the bay area this is interesting. Thanks for sharing
I was in Seattle, although my understanding is that at the time offers were the same between Seattle and MPK. I _think_ Seattle salaries are like 5% lower than MPK now, but I'm not completely sure. Whatever the difference is, it definitely doesn't account for the difference in taxes and cost of living.
@@ConnerArdman that makes sense. Thanks for the info!
I need to apply to Facebook! Crap. I never followed through with recruiters from Amazon/Facebook/Google and I have a computer science degree from the same school, UW. After 13 years of professional experience, I have never made anything remotely close to what you made in your first year. Well, I am not dead yet. Graduated near 2008. This video makes me equally sad and motivated, such strange emotions. Lol
I mean my base salary has exceeded what you mentioned, but total compensation. I think you missed the part of the stock options not actualizing? Since it was on a 4 year vesting cycle? Or I'm likely mistaken?
Could you please provide your cost of living at the time for context? Otherwise, I'm afraid, these numbers are not comparable at all.
Yeah I want to eventually make a detailed video breaking down my expenses/cost of living. But the short version is that living in Seattle I paid no state/local income taxes. Rents in areas near the tech offices for decent apartments tend to be 2k-3k if you don't want a roommate (although of course they can get cheaper or way more expensive). One nice perk of working at companies like Facebook is you don't really need to pay for much else if you don't have any other major financial responsibilities. Food was free 5 days a week (excluding covid times when the office was closed of course), healthcare/insurance was very good and close to free, they paid for our gym memberships, and they paid for our public transit cards so living near downtown it was easy to not own a car. I'd say all in, I probably spent 3-5k per month during my time at Facebook as a full time employee, with some months higher than others. I probably could have gotten that lower if I really tried, but that was a spending level I was pretty comfortable with.
@@ConnerArdman How many hours did you put in per week? Great salary though regardless but if you were doing extremely long days all the time then it makes sense.
I didn’t actually work that much honestly. Most weeks I worked around 30 hours, just with an occasionally more stressful week if I was launching some new feature. I don’t think I ever worked more than ~50 hours in a single week though.
This is very, very team and individual dependent though. There certainly are people working 60+ hours a week, but I never felt a need to. I probably could have really grinded to get even higher bonuses, but I was more interested in my sanity.
It also comes down to time management. I tried to be really good at not wasting working hours. I actually have a whole video on that if you’re interested 🙃
@@ConnerArdman Fair play then. I can imagine some working 15hour days though. In that case the money isn't that good when you consider the hours. Excellent in your case though!
I really like your videos
Thank you!
Can you please share how you get an internship at Facebook. Does it require experience, good grade or something else??
There are a lot of paths to getting the initial interviews (applying online, referrals, career fairs / recruiting events, etc). Prior internships, research, teaching, etc. type positions are definitely helpful, but not required. In my case, I met a recruiter at a university career fair and got the interview. Beyond that, it is almost entirely just about interview performance. I don't think grades matter much at all. My GPA was on my resume, but they never asked about it or to see my transcript.
How do you feel about Meta firing 11,000 staff members?
Reason people don't share salaries sometimes is because is stresses people like myself out who own a business and take risks as well as the huge start up cost. Tech workers are paid to much, plain and simple.
Dang as a remote Software Engineer I make pretty much that much and I live in a super low cost area. My salary is low around 83k but our bonus is well over 90k. We make more in bonus than salary. Any good .NET engineers want a job? Seriously! We are hiring!
That’s amazing, congrats and thanks for sharing! 😀
thats awesome. Are these numbers before or after tax?
@@shigor Before
@@shigor After tax its around $300 left over.
Wow. This isn’t typical for an average CS undergrad, is it?
I guess it depends on what you mean by "average". This is pretty typical (although still a bit on the high side) for big tech companies in Seattle, New York or The Bay Area. At the "target" CS universities in the US, getting these jobs is fairly common. At schools that are less heavily recruited from, it's a lot less common to land these jobs, but it's still possible.
Outside of the major tech hub cities, compensation tends to be a lot lower, but the cost of living also tends to be a lot lower. Of course this is still a range and it has plenty of outliers. I've heard everything from new grad software engineers in the US making like $40k all the way up to $300k+ at some hedge funds. I'd guess if you took the median of all of them, it would be somewhere in the $80k-$120k range though, because the vast majority don't live in these expensive tech hubs and don't work for FAANG-like companies.
Hi Connor, thought you worked for Clément
Yeah I left Facebook to work at AlgoExpert almost a year ago now 👍
Hi there what in your idea about self taught developer can get job as software engineer
Self taught developers absolutely can get jobs as software engineers, but it is much harder. You will be competing with people from bootcamps and universities, so you have to find another way to stand out. I think going from self-taught without a degree to a FAANG or similar job is pretty unrealistic, but you can certainly work your way up to it over time.
Why quit if you are making all this $$$?
I am from India and I like the way you explain things. I calculated your salary in Rupee it's horrible!!!
Yeah man, I am from Pakistan. This amount is horrible!!! SE salaries, here, are very low comparitively.
I’m not sure the comparison makes perfect sense, because the cost or living in US tech cities is so much higher. That said, the cost of living difference almost definitely doesn't account for the whole difference in pay 😔. Software engineers in the US do just tend to make a lot more than in most other countries, even those with higher costs of living.
@@ConnerArdman Yeah man! This is right too. But, here in Pakistan, some of the fresh graduates start their first job at just $4600/year. There is no comparison with US
@@ConnerArdman I think the quality of life you live in USA will cost the same in India. We think the cost living in India is low because we compromise with the quality of life. If we live with the same quality it will cost the same as USA.
Hi I wanted to know, on average, how many hours you worked per week?
Probably around 30. Occasionally more, occasionally less, but never more than ~50 in a single week. It’s very individual/team dependent though. There certainly were people working way more than me.
I had to pause the video after hearing the intern salary
What's the after tax income, that's important. Also expenses in sf Bay Area, thanks
I live in Seattle, so there are no state income taxes. Here’s a good calculator for take home pay that’s been fairly accurate in my experience: smartasset.com/taxes/income-taxes
I paid roughly 25% of my income in taxes, but it’s hard to get an exact number because I never spent a full calendar year working at just Facebook.
Expenses in Seattle are also a lot lower. As a single person without other major financial obligations (medical expenses, bad debt, etc) I found I can live very comfortably on about $3000-$4000 per month. If I had to I could probably get that down to around $2000 living with roommates and lowering my standard of living. I don’t think I could spend much more than around $5000 a month living reasonably, but again ymmv based on your life situation and spending habits. I might make a breakdown video of my expenses if there is enough interest, but generally it’s probably in that range.
The bay will eat one up lol. Nice place to live tho
Why he quit Facebook, the salary are awesom
the reason they pay you leave, is if they didn't you would just use all you PTO then quit
is a software engineer or developer same or different? what software did you work on there, can you say?
The terms are pretty much interchangeable. There is some interesting history there, because in some countries the term "engineer" can only be used if you have a specific certification (similar to how you must pass The Bar Exam in the US to be an attorney). Because of this, I think the term developer tends to be more common outside of the US, while engineer seems to be the preferred term in the US where such requirements don't exist. At the end of the day, it's the same job though. I've never seen a company hire both software engineers and software developers as different positions.
At Facebook I worked in the privacy organization. I'm actually not too sure what I can/cannot say (I don't think I signed any NDAs, but honestly I don't remember fully), but broadly speaking I worked on internal tools used by legal/policy/etc. to manage and mitigate any privacy incidents that might happen. For the most part I worked on the frontend, so I built user-interfaces that these people would use for their day-to-day work.
@@ConnerArdman thanks
Is the reason you quit because of stress/burnout or was there a different reason?
No it wasn’t. I never really worked all that much to be honest. I left to join AlgoExpert, mostly because I was really excited about the opportunity and it aligned with my personal goals a bit better. I have a full video explaining that thought process 😀
@@ConnerArdman i see, thank you for sharing
damn that is a lot of money! how long was this guy at work that he ate 3 meals there a day. Is this hard work, do I need to go to school and learn how to use the internet lol. He quit this job?
Most of the time I worked at Facebook the office was closed due to covid, but I think breakfast ended at 10am and dinner started at 6pm. So theoretically you could work 10-6 and eat all 3 meals at the office. In my case when the office was open, sometimes I would go home early and then come back for dinner (I lived within walking distance of the office).
As for hard work, that is pretty subjective. It is hard in the sense that it is intellectually stimulating and requires a skillset that relatively few people have. But it certainly isn't hard in the same sense as like a construction job being hard. Schooling wise, these jobs generally require either a computer science degree or some similar experience such as a software engineering bootcamp.
And yes, I did leave Facebook. Nothing against the company, it was an awesome job, I just had an opportunity that felt better for me / more aligned with my personal goals.
It's always the people that make a boat load of money that are eager to say , "I think we should all share our salaries"
I will share my income with you aswell if you want :)
Im making ruffly 22k(euro) a year in Austria as a Student (Socialwork).
Holy damn you totally finessed them , quit right after the pay raise and left w 200,000+ jeeeeez
😂 It’s actually pretty common to leave right after promotions. It gets you one last bonus, and it sort of “locks in” that higher level if you were to ever come back. It sounds like a funny time to leave, but logically it’s the time that makes the most sense.
Rich people here
😀