How much 3 software engineers earn around the US

Name: Martin Yanev

Age: 26

Identifies as: a white man

Works for: a global electronics company

Training: bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aerospace engineering, second master’s in computer science

Years in the field: 3

Did you negotiate your salary? I always negotiate. I saw the listing for this job on Indeed, and it included the salary range. I asked for the maximum salary offered, plus $5,000. Then they offered me the maximum salary already written, which I accepted.

Usually, if a job posting doesn’t include salary ranges, I’ll look up average pay for that job in the state and negotiate for the maximum.

How do you feel about your salary? My salary isn’t very high, but it isn’t very low. It’s fair. It’s exactly what I should get based on my experience in this area.

I used to live in the United Kingdom for three years, and before that I was in my home country of Bulgaria. The difference from being in Bulgaria to the U.K. to the U.S. by salary and standard of living is huge. In the U.K. I was making $40,000 a year, so this is a huge jump. I’m happy about it.

What are your long-term salary goals? Living on $80,000 here in Kentucky, including my side job, I feel comfortable. I can save enough money to achieve my goals and do everything I want to do in the next five years. My goal is to some point make more than $100,000 a year. I’d feel successful if I managed to do that.

Name: Sarah

Age: 27

Identifies as: a white woman

Works for: a software startup

Training: self-guided online courses, computer software engineering boot camp, six-month paid software engineering internship

Years in the field: 2

You went to college and worked as a speech pathologist before teaching yourself to code. Why did you change careers? I earned a bachelor’s and master’s in speech pathology and worked as a speech pathologist for two years. As a speech pathologist, I had to take two jobs, one that paid $26 an hour and another that paid $34 an hour, in order to make a full-time wage. It was hard work and long hours. At the end of the day, I didn’t enjoy the work and needed a different path.

How do you feel about how much money you make? A year ago I was hired at $80,000 but recently got a $13,000 raise, so now I make $93,000 a year. I also earned a $2,500 performance bonus.

At $80,000 I was pleased but still ambitious to get more. Now at around $95,000 with my bonus, I’m really proud to be making what I make. Had I continued as a speech pathologist, I would be lucky to make $80,000 a year after 20 years.

Did you negotiate your salary? I negotiated my pay from $72,000 to $80,000. Based on what was available online, I felt I should be getting more. My brother was also working his first software engineering job and earned $100,000 straight out of college. It was a bigger company in a different market, so you can’t directly compare the two, but I felt like I deserved more than that $72,000. What does my brother have that I don’t?

I brought those online averages up during the negotiation and asked if they could go higher, which they did.

What’s your best negotiating tip? Always negotiate, even if you think you got the upper range of what’s available. Someone else will always negotiate, most likely a man, so you shouldn’t miss that opportunity.