Just for a piece of context, this year, the base salary for right out of college software engineers at Google is ~$110,000. I would be very surprised if over the course of 10 years just $60,000 was added to a salary.
That seems about in line with the Bay Area. Around 5 years back it was ~ $90k. A lot of people include their signing bonuses and RSUs in their salary "number". RSUs have also become more significant recently versus pure salary increases.
Today I'd say the total comp for an undergrad SE (with experience beyond classes, top 10 school) in the Bay Area would be around to $180k, perhaps more depending on skill level. This is at Google/Netflix/Facebook with the latter two probably paying more.
Even if you were to switch jobs every year you'd ultimately move horizontally at some point. They would bump up your stocks and give you a huge sign-on bonus. The base salary is hard to negotiate because it's fairly regulated.
amazing. 4x what I was paid out of university, and still more than I've been paid since
If you are in Silicon Valley and at uni, I guess whether you get into Google etc. or not will make a massive difference to your future. It could determine if you have enough money to but a house, have kids in the area in the future, etc. All down to a few interviews.
1. Except the economy is global. And people do remote work.
2. The 110k salary person will come out ahead of the 50k salary person in net worth, assuming both manage their money well, despite the cost of living difference. This is due to the value of their house, ability to invest in stock, etc.
A lot of people bash on Google's interviews and say things like "memorizing algorithms" is easy and how that doesn't signal engineering skills.
However, they fail to see that the hiring process obviously works for Google and it is definitely not "easy". If it were easy, they'd be doing that too and making over 200k at a young age.
Today I'd say the total comp for an undergrad SE (with experience beyond classes, top 10 school) in the Bay Area would be around to $180k, perhaps more depending on skill level. This is at Google/Netflix/Facebook with the latter two probably paying more.