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<p>Congratulations, yes, if you have the credentials, you get paid well! Who the hell would have guessed. I’m glad we can all finally share some common ground on the subject.</p>
<p>I don’t know of a single person who got an offer from Google/FB that was lower than $100k (and I know several people who got offers). It’s not unattainable.</p>
<p>It may not be unattainable, but it is closer to a best-case offer than an average-case or worst-case offer.</p>
<p>I looked back and I think I see why some people were skeptical of what I said… When I said private I meant to distinguish it from government, not to say it was not publicly traded. I’m not entirely sure what word I should use to describe that.</p>
<p>credentials meaning you can pass the tests and interviews to be given an offer. </p>
<p>Fresh grads right out of school make 6 figures at Google and Facebook. Earlier posts were saying yea right. In reality it’s very true.</p>
<p>Anecdotally, several groups at Amazon make college hires offers in the lower six-figures range (especially when you factor in the signing bonus and RSU grant). Of course, Amazon is very competitive in its hiring. Presumably, it offers as much as it does because Microsoft and Google are offering comparable amounts.</p>
<p>That said, Seattle is a high cost of living area, and an average annual salary of $125,000 over the first four years of employment may be comparable to $80,000 out in the woods somewhere (sure, it’s a little better than even that, since you can always work in Seattle and then move to the woods later, taking your savings with you at the higher rate; but the exact economics of cost-of-living differences are a separate discussion).</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for your input and suggestions. This question was actually asked for my son who still has plenty of time to think about this - he is currently a junior at UMd. He is thinking he’d like to stay in the defense industry (this is also his internship experience) and we’re just curious what to expect as a reasonable offer. At this point, he doesn’t seem too interested in working for google, microsoft,… as he does have a lot of other interests he likes to pursue and isn’t sure a career in those fields would allow for that as much. Additionally, he REALLY enjoyed his defense work so far and his research is along those lines.</p>
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Ah, it’s great to know that computer science majors from MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Georgia Tech, and Berkeley graduates all make, on average, less than 6 figures. It must be those unknown and obscure colleges that are putting out all those 6 figure students that no one has heard about yet! Please keep me updated on which colleges these are, since you know so much about job salaries.</p>
<p>The people who get hired by Google/FB are probably not average.</p>
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<p>You’re just ■■■■■■■■ now, right? Do you think the average Berkeley student ends up at companies the caliber of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft?</p>
<p>I don’t consider myself much above average but have turned down multiple interview requests from Amazon, Google, and the like (I guess designing consumer electronics user interfaces is not a popular major :)). Talking to their headhunters reveals that sure, they pay darned well for experienced people but if you live in Fly-Over country and have a nice house and a working spouse, you will likely lose money like you would not believe by moving to the west coast. </p>
<p>I also know people fresh out of college that were hired into those places and while they were good, they were not ‘exceptional’.</p>
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<p>I’m not sure what you’re implicating, but UC Berkeley is the second most recruited school for computer science.</p>
<p>Also, checking the careers page on Berkeley gives an average salary of $80,000 and here’s part of the jobs listing:</p>
<p><a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/EECS.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/EECS.stm</a></p>
<p>ACTA Inc Engineer
Amazon.com Software Developer
Amazon.com Software Development Engineer
Amazon.com Software Engineer
AppDynamics Inc Software Engineer
Apple Computer Inc Electrical Engineer
Apple Computer Inc Software Engineer
Barracuda Networks Software Engineer
Box.net Software Engineer
Centrify Software Engineer
Charles River Associates Inc Analyst
Cisco Systems Inc Customer Service and Sales
Cisco Systems Inc Not Specified
Cisco Systems Inc Software Engineer
Equilar Inc Software Engineer
Facebook Software Engineer
Goldman, Sachs and Company Analyst
Goldman, Sachs and Company Technology Analyst
Google Inc Other
Google Inc Product Manager
Google Inc Software Development Engineer
Google Inc Software Engineer
Hewlett-Packard Verification Engineer
Infomatica Software Engineer
Intel Corp Design Engineer
Intel Corp Other
Intel Corp QA Engineer
Intel Corp Software Developer
Intel Corp Software Engineer
JustAnswer Junior Engineer
LinkedIn Software Engineer
Lucasfilm Animation Ltd Technical Assistant
Lyris Inc Other
Marvell Semiconductor Inc Other
Microsoft Program Manager
Microsoft Software Developer
Microsoft Software Development Engineer
…
.</p>
<p>Also, are you also saying that the average Stanford, Cornell, and MIT student don’t get hired at one of those companies either? You must be delusional.</p>
<p>@ken285 So sorry for this late reply… I was assuming the pay would be the same because you only mentioned choice of location in your post (post #16)</p>
<p>Software engineers from my school (Univ. of WA) regularly get offers from Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Facebook all of which pay over $100k base salary (not including signing bonus, annual bonuses, and RSUs). I know Microsoft pays the same for hardware EE/CEs as well, though most companies that hire hardware engineers pay significantly less (60k-80k).</p>