[seanmcdirmid]

Developers in China fare much better than in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, or Korea, for sure. They get paid more (relatively speaking) and are pretty desirable on the dating market. If you tell someone in Beijing "I work for Microsoft", you get a much better response than if you tell someone the same thing in Seattle!

I'm hardly pro china, but the society has been pretty aggressive in courting SEs and paying them well (if they are good, of course, there is a huge low end that is quite different).

Now, there is a lot of pressure to move into management, from family and peers; this reduces the number of senior practicing SEs dramatically, and is a huge problem, but a different problem.

[rconti]

But that comparison about a Microsoft employee isn't about being an engineer. It's about "I work for Microsoft" == "old and crusty", "coasting" in Seattle. In Beijing it might be more impressive because it's a well-known prestigious company.