[patio11]

The average starting salary for a senior Ruby developer has climbed to $94,000 ($107,000 in Silicon Valley). Compare that with the average salary for a junior Ruby developer, $70,000, ($80,000 in Silicone Valley).

These numbers strike me as wildly below current market rates in the Valley, based on my discussions with people in it trying to hire. I'm willing to be wrong on that.

[dadkins]

Would you mind being a little more specific? It's hard to get any solid numbers out of anyone, and the article provides some. If those are off, what do you think the current market rates are?

[patio11]

North of $100k for someone so recently out of undergrad that touching their degree would smudge the ink -- more for a good school or a candidate who looks particularly qualified. (i.e. Has done anything in life other than gotten good grades.) $120k+ for 3 years of professional experience with Ruby. I don't know what you'd define expert as but no plausible definition makes $107k sound reasonable.

[rmc]

Technically the market rate is what you can get, not what you'd like to get/give. If a company has a budget of $80k and goes out to the market and tries to get a developer, and fails, then the market has decided that $80k is too low. Otherwise you'd be able to buy the labour at that rate. If companies cannot hire at a rate, then that is by definition below the market rate.

If you can get a job at a rate that seems "too high", then that's the market rate.

[alinajaf]

May be true of the valley, but the numbers here are about right for full-time work in London. If you want cheap tech talent, come to the UK!

[dsolomon]

Here in the DC area tech talent is cheap. You can get senior developers for around $60K.

[SomeCallMeTim]

Seriously? Why wouldn't they move somewhere else then? They LIKE living in DC?

[vbtemp]

No, he's not serious. Actual salaries are double-to-triple what he's saying.

[tocomment]

Wow, where would you find triple? I've never heard of a developer making 180K in DC.

[doktrin]

$180k+ isn't inconceivable, but it's certainly approaching a salary range typically reserved for Architects and team leads (in my experience).

It's fully realistic for non-management senior engineers to earn up to $150k, however.

[rdl]

We really should be talking about total compensation, not just cash salary. $180-250k isn't unreasonable cash+%+bonus for a sales engineer or consultant who puts in huge hours, or for a senior developer with bonus/stock/etc. I think a lot of people at Google end up hitting $180-200k based on total compensation once they're at the 5-10 year of experience tiers.

[vbtemp]

Right, 180K for any developer is high (hence the double-to-triple estimate). Not inconceivable for an architect or manager though in certain companies, which is a possible career path for any developer.

[tocomment]

So how does a senior engineer graduate to architect?

[dsolomon]

Yes, I am serious. Welcome to the world of being a contractor working for the government.

[doktrin]

I think part of the disconnect here is due to the fact that the development community in the DC area is really quite broad.

On the one hand you have startups & companies with Bay Area caliber talent, including more high profile ventures such as OPower and Living Social. On the other end of the spectrum are budget web-dev PHP shops that maintain web pages for government agencies.

Nonetheless, I've never heard of salaries as low as those you're quoting - and they're most certainly not the norm.

[vbtemp]

Good point, but remember that between hot-shot startups (e.g., livingsocial as the poster-child) and budget PHP gov't website shops are the contractors that design a lot of aerospace guidance and control software for NASA, the Navy, etc... Also NSA is a huge employer, and a lot of contractors for the NSA and NASA (among many other agencies) have extremely technical and high-level software and hardware engineering positions.

[vbtemp]

Then I'm sorry to say it but you got absolutely shafted, and may want to consider looking somewhere else...

[dsolomon]

Sadly I am serious. It helps to explain our 150%+ turnover rate at 34 months into a 60 month contract, but high turnover is good for profits.

[vbtemp]

Huh? Where on earth do you get that number?

[dsolomon]

Our Deltek system.