<p>how much can one except in an entry-level Software Engineering position to make as a salary, and if they graduate mid year (January) instead of June when most people do</p>
<p>I've heard a lot of numbers but what can one really expect?</p>
<p>Let's say you also have 2-3 months of 1 co-op or internship experience somewhere, a career skills and practice course while on study abroad, and fluency in English and native Russian, and also have learned Japanese and German language (proficiency)
gpa that is 3.5+</p>
<p>Same as all the other BS in CS graduates - $60k per year.</p>
<p>And if they try to offer you $50k to $55k, say, “What do you take me for? I can’t even tie my shoes in the morning for that kind of money. Let’s get real or quit wasting my time.”</p>
<p>Check the BLS OOH. I don’t see how anybody else’s guess could be better.</p>
<p>Starting, you can expect around $60k, as BigAarst suggested. That number will go up around big cities and down in rural America (tracking the cost of living).</p>
<p>I’m not trying to scare the OP or hijack this thread, but one of my closest guy friends graduated with a BS in CompSci. After hunting for a job for a couple months, he’s working an entry-level job for a mediocre hourly wage… nowhere close to the $50-60K as most people say a CompSci grad would make. Could this simply be his lack of work experience/he probably didn’t take on any internships during his undergrad? At most, he worked a previous job doing something computer related but it was a few months at most.</p>
<p>I don’t think his lack of an internship or previous work experience would have done it. I’d be curious to know if he went to a relatively well-known university, if his GPA was over 3.0, and if he was willing to relocate to find a job. Any one of those three things could prevent someone from hitting the average salary.</p>
<p>Yes, I am willing to relocate…and hopefully I do get well over a 3.0 (i had 3.84 in high school)</p>
<p>I plan to relocate anywhere and just work for the best possible salary for up to maybe 5 months (not that I would tell the employers that), living cheaply, and then use the saved up money I made to relocate to where I actually want to live and search for work there. Then I would also have had experience and the second first job would be easier to find. Good plan?</p>
<p>The details could use a little work… make sure you have a job offer on the table where you want to live before you quit and relocate. It’s a lot easier to find a job if you currently have one than if you are unemployed.</p>
<ul>
<li>I had no prior programming experience before college</li>
<li>I had not one AP credit</li>
<li>I was not a “full” CS major…a Math/CS type</li>
<li>Did not have a high GPA</li>
<li>I never had an internship</li>
<li>Undergrad at Michigan State…not top-10 or even top-20.</li>
<li>Worked 1 year for the College of Medicine developing/administering their patient database system. Only worked 15 hours/week…LIED on resume/interviews and said I was working 32 hours.</li>
</ul>
<p>Got a job right after undergrad with Westinghouse Energy Systems in Pittsburgh, PA. Never been unemployed since.</p>
<p>There are many opportunities for software engineers in the Silicon Valley. However, I would highly recommend that before you move here, you have a job lined up (because the cost of living is high). If you don’t have a job lined up, you should at least have some kind of track record (e.g. have developed a popular app, web site, or contribution to an open-source project), so that people are aware of you and can help you find a job, give you angel funding, etc.</p>
<p>The hot subfields of software engineering in the Silicon Valley include smartphone app programming, social network programming, and some cloud computing/virtualization.</p>
<p>You can always try the aerospace/aeronautical industry. As planes get high tech, I am pretty sure the demand for software engineers are going up. Try JPL (Pasadena, California; but they just got a budget cut, I’ve heard ~300 employees getting laid off), Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX. Don’t always assume software engineering is for games and social media.</p>
<p>"After hunting for a job for a couple months, he’s working an entry-level job for a mediocre hourly wage… nowhere close to the $50-60K as most people say a CompSci grad would make. "</p>
<p>The $50-$60k number assumes the person is working an as engineer of some sort. What you’re saying is that he wasn’t able to get a job as an engineer, and took some other lower paid job.</p>
<p>Internships, GPA, etc. have little to no bearing on the salary you are offered. They will help you get a job offer though. Employers don’t adjust salaries based on GPA.</p>
<p>Not at all. When I asked if it was a well-known university, I literally meant has the average person in the United States heard of it. I was curious if her friend got his BS in CS at some place like DeVry University. If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t surprise me if her friend couldn’t secure a real job because he doesn’t have a real degree.</p>
<p>One data point: my son graduated in May with a BS in aerospace engineering from a third tier engineering school. He was offered a full-time job as a software engineer with a start-up in San Francisco, at a starting salary of $75k with relocation costs, full healthcare benefits, a new laptop and iPhone and of course, stock options. He did work as a paid intern for the same company ($1000/week for 10 weeks) the previous summer. They never asked him his major, what school he attended, whether he had a degree or what his GPA was. He was hired based on experience with smartphone apps and other programming project experience in school and out. They also gave him a programming problem to work through (like a skills and problem-solving test) prior to his internship. I have no idea if this is standard throughout the industry or not.</p>