Technology

Were people getting paid $81k in 1990? This site shows that 95th percentile in 1990 was $58k, and doesn't have more granular data than that above the 95th percentile. So someone making $81k was definitely a 5 percenter, maybe even a 2 percenter.

I think it's the same in all developed nations; constantly needing more skills to achieve the same standard of living. I think a lot of it is from nearly all resources getting more expensive to extract (oil, wood, iron, etc) due to us having already extracted all the low-hanging-fruit, and needing to move on to more resource-intensive methods like offshore-drilling, fracking, importing lumber long distances from harsher climates. The other drivers are the attacks on labor and executives/shareholders taking more profits for themselves instead of paying their workers more.

There never was a social contract, there never was anyone bound to look after your interest. That is why unions are the answer.

My union got me a raise. And I have a pension of all things. Crazy. In 2025!

Unions are great.

Try a $48-64k job and get some experience.

Try renting an apartment in Silicon Valley with a $48k/year paycheck in your pocket.

The starting salaries justified the crazy cost-of-living in a city that wanted $5000/mo for 800 sqft. Now the question becomes how you afford to get the experience in a job that pays below the regional pricetag.

Try a $48-64k job and get some experience.

Boomer out of touch take.

Damn. That'd be crazy if anyone was actually hiring anybody with no experience.

I know multiple group chats of people who graduated fresh from college, not even 20% of them have jobs a year after grad. And this is spread across comp sci, cybersecurity, and mech eng.

The entry level job is dead. Every company thinks they can replace the menial shit that entry level workers do to learn with AI slop.

What sucks is that was the starting wage when I got into the tech industry back in the early ‘00s

It's weird that so many replies are attacking you when you are factually right. The industry has always been this way. And some kid with a GED and 3 years of CompSci from their community college is not going to land them a 165k dream job right after graduation.

I think some people have been living in a fantasy world or believed every headline they saw.

Probably not the hottest of markets right now (not just because of Trump and company) and I was in a similar boat when I graduated. My first job was Best Buy (not Geek Squad unfortunately) then tech support then a reporting analyst. Took probably 4 years for me to get into a job where coding was the main aspect.

That being said, I feel bad for any new graduate except for maybe lawyers.

Some big tech companies pay that, theoretically, in total compensation for entry level. These companies make about $1 million per employee.

My first tech job out of college was $55k.

Average in my area for new grads at best is like $85k.

My highest paying was $195k as a Senior and my average is probably $150k as a Senior / Lead.

None of this was big tech though.

Who is making $165k out of college?

Computer science and engineering grads at the top of their class at top schools who choose not to go to grad school. This thread claims to cite Department of Education data to show median salaries 3 years after graduation, and some of them are higher than $165k. Sure, that's 3 years out, but it's also median, so one would expect 75th or 90th percentile number to be higher.

Anecdotally, I know people from Stanford/MIT who did get their first jobs in the Bay Area for more than $150k more than 10 years ago, so it was definitely possible.

But this NYT article has stories about graduates from Purdue, Oregon State, and Georgetown which are good schools but also generally weren't the schools producing many graduates landing in those $150k jobs as that very top tier. I would assume the kids graduating from Cal Tech, MIT, Stanford, and UC Berkeley are still doing well. But the middle is getting left behind.

I don't make quite that after 8 years of doing this stuff. That being said, I dropped out of college twice. Maybe $100k of debt is what I need to close that $25k difference lol

Oof