[dennybritz]

Unfortunately salaries in the bay area seem to be inversely proportional to age ;) That's only half kidding. Many companies are willing to pay premiums for what I'd call "future potential" of new hires. With 30 and supposedly 5-10 years of work experience you'd be expected to already have "proven" your potential. Your degree will matter a lot less than what you've actually done in the past. If you don't have much to show for your experience it may well be that you'd actually be offered less than a promising candidate right out of college. However, $100k seems about average. There are people who are offered 150k (+ 100-300k stock grants) out of college at some of the "hottest" startups.