Aside from the year, that is so similar to my first SE job:
East coast but not big city: 1999 $48k, 2000 $52k
I suppose inflation has been mild. Showing up in the height of the Y2K/web frenzy sure helped. I got myself a nice embedded RTOS kernel developer job before even finishing my degree. Meanwhile, everybody else was running off to invent web development or repair COBOL.
People graduating just a couple years later slammed into a dead market.
East coast but not big city: 1999 $48k, 2000 $52k
I suppose inflation has been mild. Showing up in the height of the Y2K/web frenzy sure helped. I got myself a nice embedded RTOS kernel developer job before even finishing my degree. Meanwhile, everybody else was running off to invent web development or repair COBOL.
People graduating just a couple years later slammed into a dead market.