If you’ve been following news from the tech industry over the past few months, you’ve no doubt noted that some of the biggest names in tech have unleashed thousands of layoffs in a bid to restructure and cut costs. Despite that turbulence, many tech professionals would kill for the chance to work at a huge tech company, especially younger ones who are trying to establish themselves.
But how much do the biggest tech companies actually pay? For an answer, we can turn to levels.fyi, which crowdsources compensation data. (Yes, crowdsourcing isn’t always the most scientific means of determining something, but we tend to trust levels.fyi due to its sample sizes and its reputation within the industry.) Here’s a breakdown of what more junior software developers can pull down:
Keep in mind that, according to Dice’s latest Tech Salary Report, the average tech salary hit $111,193 in 2023, down slightly from $111,348 in 2022. That’s a key reason why many tech professionals want to find themselves seated within an enormous office building at, say, Microsoft or Google: in addition to potentially working on projects used by billions of people, you can also make quite a bit of money, especially when you factor in bonuses and stock options.
However, not all jobs are created equal, and mastering some tasks and skills will boost your earning potential. According to the Tech Salary Report, data- and cloud-related skills are among the highest-paying for tech professionals, which makes sense when you consider all the companies rapidly attempting to crunch huge amounts of data in the cloud.
As you might expect, length of tenure in the tech industry is critical, as well. For example, those tech professionals with 3-5 years of experience in the tech industry averaged $75,550 per year, according to the Tech Salary Report—but that rose to $113,842 with 11-15 years of experience. Again, specializing in a skill such as cloud architecture or training A.I. models can radically boost your compensation, especially given the number of companies out there desperate for those kinds of talent.
