Software Engineer's Salary?

Sean^DCT4

Next May I will be finishing my Computer Science & Software Engineering degree.

My questions are:

• How much on average am I likely to be paid?
• What's the max / min salary likely to be for a graduate with just 6 months work experience during the degree?

I have no problem with interviews and have good communication skills which seems to be a hindrance for stereotypical and fellow CSSE graduates.

irishguy

Sean^DCT4 wrote:

Next May I will be finishing my Computer Science & Software Engineering degree.

My questions are:

• How much on average am I likely to be paid?
• What's the max / min salary likely to be for a graduate with just 6 months work experience during the degree?

I have no problem with interviews and have good communication skills which seems to be a hindrance for stereotypical and fellow CSSE graduates.

Between 26,000 and 29,000 seems to be the going rate for a graduate programmer. Some places pay more if your good

Paulj

i'm finishing this year in the same area and i've seen jobs offering from 25k-33k.

Sean^DCT4

Paulj wrote:

i'm finishing this year in the same area and i've seen jobs offering from 25k-33k.

Fairly disappointing starting off salary to be honest, I didn't pick a CSSE degree solely for the money as I have had a very keen interest in computers since I was in primary school..
But after the amount of work and effort that goes/went into those 4 years in college as regards the level of mathematics and computing it's hard to swallow when you compare it to courses like Arts etc.

I suppose if you show a high-level of ability you will reap the rewards not before long..
So much for the days when you heard of 'corporate plucking' of students from college's before they finished their course

DublinWriter

...plus you'll find it very hard to get your initial job.

I know many recent CS graduates are working as first line call-takers on IT Helpdesks. Horrific.

Agencies will be useless to you initially, so don't waste your time with them.

Keep an eye out for companies recruiting directly.

MrJones

corporate plucking me eye. we got that line when we
started soft eng degree as well. tbh since the downturn around 2000-2002, its become harder for graduates to walk straight into a dev jobs. also the salaries are n't as good. but as you gain experience, the salaries will increase fairly well.

Sean^DCT4 wrote:

Fairly disappointing starting off salary to be honest, I didn't pick a CSSE degree solely for the money as I have had a very keen interest in computers since I was in primary school..
But after the amount of work and effort that goes/went into those 4 years in college as regards the level of mathematics and computing it's hard to swallow when you compare it to courses like Arts etc.

I suppose if you show a high-level of ability you will reap the rewards not before long..
So much for the days when you heard of 'corporate plucking' of students from college's before they finished their course

Paulj

Sean^DCT4 wrote:

Fairly disappointing starting off salary to be honest, I didn't pick a CSSE degree solely for the money as I have had a very keen interest in computers since I was in primary school..
But after the amount of work and effort that goes/went into those 4 years in college as regards the level of mathematics and computing it's hard to swallow when you compare it to courses like Arts etc.

ya i agree with ya there...a load of work goes into it...but at the end of the day i don't think i could even see myself doing anything else. Hopefully the job will be someway motivating, whereas if I was doing something else it wouldn't motivate me to do anything. Also, bear in mind this is only the starting salary, if you're good it will go up quickly or at least thats what i gather from talking to some companies.

comer_97

I'm not being smart but you will be very lucky if you get a development job straight out of college no matter how talented you are. Most people end up going into technical support.

And 25 - 29K might not seem like much but it is a wage you can easily live on and the real money in computers comes with experience.

You will notice as each year goes by that your wage will go up well, not necessarily by staying with the same company.

The banks have great graduate programs, which are worth looking in to.

Stark

If you pick a company with a good performance program, that money could easily shoot up within your first few years.

Paulj

comer_97 wrote:

I'm not being smart but you will be very lucky if you get a development job straight out of college no matter how talented you are. Most people end up going into technical support.

I wouldn't agree with that, i've got a couple of offers this year. I applied to loads of companies and did a good few interviews and a few of them worked out. All of those were software development jobs.

Of my mates in my class, most people that put any effort into getting a job has one or else wants to do something else (such as postgrad). Its a comp. eng course, maybe its different for comp. science courses - i dont know.

Sean^DCT4

DublinWriter wrote:

...plus you'll find it very hard to get your initial job.

I know many recent CS graduates are working as first line call-takers on IT Helpdesks. Horrific.

Agencies will be useless to you initially, so don't waste your time with them.

Keep an eye out for companies recruiting directly.

Oh great. Didn't think i'd walk into any job but working as a telephone-answering-trained-monkey is not what I envisaged!

I just had a brief look on monster.ie and jobs.ie loads of jobs in the region of 40-50k BUT with 2years experience.

Now without opening a pandora's box.. How the hell dya get those 2 years of experience?
If you go into a SW Eng or similar job interview and say you've had 2 years experience working as a "first line call-takers on an IT Helpdesk"
I'm sure you'd have a great chance of getting that job

I know you have to start at the bottom rung but is it possible to get a fairly decent job in SW Eng. or something similar without being the next Bjorn Stroustrup or John Carmack?

Paulj

Sean^DCT4 wrote:

I just had a brief look on monster.ie and jobs.ie loads of jobs in the region of 40-50k BUT with 2years experience.

I'd keep away from monster.ie, seems to be fairly crap. I got very little relevent information from there. Irishjobs.ie and grad ireland seem better. From what i can see anyway the companies that go to the careers fairs seem to be hiring (strangely enough! ). But what i mean is they'll hire you without the experience, they go to the college careers fairs cos they're looking for graduates. Also, check the notice boards in you college for jobs posted up and contact your careers office cause they might be able to forward on any information they get from companies who are hiring graduates. In UL they do this automatically for the 4th years. Attend company presentations in your college during your last year if they're on. Get your CV sorted out early and send it to any companies that interest you. You need to start all this crap early (december of your last year). That seems to be when the first of them start hiring.

DublinWriter

Sean^DCT4 wrote:

Now without opening a pandora's box.. How the hell dya get those 2 years of experience?

That's always been the great dilema about having a career in I.T.

Unlike most other regulated industries (medicine, law, etc), there is no defined career path at the beginning.

All that hype about the lack of I.T. Graduates is exactly that - hype, mostly propagated by colleges because of the falling numbers of people that are taking up I.T. courses with them.

As I mentioned, keep an eye on Friday's Irish Times. You'll often see small Irish software companies looking for people fresh out of college.

Don't let salary motivate you in the first two years. Make sure you get working with a technology 'with legs' that will be in demand.

As well as the Helpdeskers I mentioned, I've known several graduates be unlucky to start off doing Cobol/Mainframe/AS400 type work in big organisations and never develop portable skills.

damnyanks

If money is what motivates you leave Ireland and goto the states or UK its better pay.

It's all about standard of life at the end of the day and potential earning power within 5 years. So what if you don't get 40k on your first job. It's what you can earn down the road.

A FYI: Stay in development and you'll be unlikely to reach the higher scale of the pay salary any time soon(Higher being 100k mark). Development isn't a money spinner for companies

goldilocked

DublinWriter wrote:

All that hype about the lack of I.T. Graduates is exactly that - hype, mostly propagated by colleges because of the falling numbers of people that are taking up I.T. courses with them.

Surely falling numbers of people taking up I.T. courses is going to result in fewer I.T. Graduates?

irishguy

I have said this a few times here, there is no problem getting a job in IT as a grad. I am finishing this year and have been offered 3 Jobs so far and i am still getting phone calls/emails from companies offering me interviews. All you have to do is between October and January apply for every IT job/Grad program on Grad Ireland and go to one of the university career days. Look at your universities careers site. Loads of jobs out there for people with at 2.1 or 1.1 and who aren’t lazy or shy

TempestSabre

irishguy wrote:

...who aren’t lazy or shy

Can't be many who put that on a CV.

DublinWriter

goldilocked wrote:

Surely falling numbers of people taking up I.T. courses is going to result in fewer I.T. Graduates?

You are indeed correct!

Cantab.

I'm starting in a graduate trainee software role next Monday on €31k with a well-known Dublin company. I've an electronics background.

jank

I've known several graduates be unlucky to start off doing Cobol/Mainframe/AS400 type work in big organisations and never develop portable skills

Mainframe seems to making a bit of a comeback from what ive heard..


Anyway im not in deveoplment myself, my job is more hardware/server/network related but Saleries I think have gone up a good bit in the last 24 months.

When I graduated 2 years ago..well really last year as i did a postgrad for a year a good salary was 25-26k now it seems to be around the 30-32k mark. Thats not bad at all and not to be sneezed at.

I got a job doing tech support stuff but kept my options open and got a much better job experience wise. Anyway the moral of the story is you have to look around, There are plenty of IT jobs out there at the mo IMO.

WizZard

Compared to 3 years ago IT/Software development jobs are fairly numerous these days.
As someone said if you've got the common-sense to put your CV out at the right times and contact companies you will get a job. The earlier you do this the better position you will be in with regards to salary.
I wouldn't be picky about salary if I were you, as long it's relevant experience -which is all that matters in the long run.

easyontheeye

lads,

the way it is, get your experience in the first 2 yrs and specialise early on in an area, but also keep some skills generic, your aim is to hit the contract rates, great money, you aint ever gonna make the big bucks in development and thats a fact in the industry! But forget the starting out salaries, just becuase you start on 31k does not mean it is going to increment as quickly as someone who started on 25k with another company, chase the experience and technology not the starting salaries...i did and im very very happy!

rsynnott

Ideally, get some experience while you're still in college.