Hi all,

I'm currently holding a good job writing software for a respectable MNC. I was recently called up by a very well connected head hunter looking to recruit for another MNC.

Now, I've put on my resume that I am looking for around 120k per annum which comes up to around 10k per month. She said the client's max budget for software engineer was 9k/month. I was getting a bit annoyed at people calling me up for interviews and tell me at the end that they think I am a bit expensive or that my salary is on the high side, when I stated it clearly on my resume.

I then asked her back, what was the highest salary she got for placing a software engineer, and she said it was 14k/month. I'm quite convinced this is very few and far between and I'm quite convinced it is quite difficult to break the 10k/month mark being a software engineer in most companies.

I'm sure there's some kind of a ceiling pay limit to each role in every company and I might be quite close to it already. Is it time for me to forget about being a software engineer and try to pursue a different role? I'm in my late 20s only and my manager says there's still plenty of time for me to continue on as a software engineer until I get sick and tired of it.

This post has been edited by normaldude: Jul 21 2009, 07:36 PM

how long have you been in your current company?

4-5 years

This post has been edited by normaldude: Jul 19 2009, 09:18 PM

Is this your first job?

3rd job

job hopping pays (a lot), huh?

dude, don't get stuck by pay grade or demoralized by statistics given from recruiters or sites like payscale.com. While it might be true, it excludes other software engineers (who are basically programmers) who have contract jobs, side income from app store, etc. From my experience there are lots of them.

You obviously know programming, and one of the best advantages we have in this industry is freedom. Free to learn and produce in any language and freedom from the shackles of corporate bullshit. Friend of mine has a 9 to 5 job with salary of CAD50k, but his contract jobs give him another 20 and they keep coming. Even though he is 35, he doesn't want to have a managerial role in his company as his true passion is in coding and ladder climbing is the least of his interest.

The way I see it, there is no real caps to what our income can be. A lawyer needs a license to practice but we don't (generally). Our P.E equivalent could be all those good recommendations in your linkedin, your involvement in open source, your technical blog, etc. The things you can do, span from consulting, selling a software, a 100 hundred line code snipplet, anything. Our industry is far from being traditional and we just can't treat it like any other industries.

Anyways, if coding is still your passion for the not so distant future, here is a couple of sites for contract jobs/outsourcing:

http://www.elance.com/
http://www.guru.com/emp/index.aspx
http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/default.aspx
http://www.odesk.com/w/

@kenji1903 - job hopping pays a bit, but still have to be careful not to overdo it

@elpee - great post. I've done some local contract works in my previous company but found it to be distracting to my day job. As for writing code for people outside the company (even in my own time) or any open source contribution, it generally requires my company's management approval to avoid any potential conflict of interest. I had to sign an agreement on this. I do have a couple of web sites running on adsense, generating a small profit since this is not contributing code to any 3rd party.

for software engineer whats the highest salary he/she can earn per month ?

how good u r in prgrmming skills? just doing prgrmming job?not cover any other areas like system architecture?SA?

wow...9k per month...wondering when i can get d same salary laa....

I don't know the market rate, but my company refuse to admit that such limit exists. The head hunter I talked to admits it is possible athough more difficult to find software engineer jobs of 10k and above.

Good enough to cari makan . I lead a small team of software engineers here. I mainly design, develop and support solutions to customers. I don't code 100% of my time, but still try to spend a significant amount to do or to coach someone to do it. As for the system architecture role, its done outside of Malaysia. It's still a technical role and maybe there's a higher pay scale, but will still be under a manager.

---

Added on July 20, 2009, 12:20 amIf you become my boss, you can get more than that easily

Don't need to be envy, maybe your time not yet come only. After all, I started my career with a below market RM 1.5k salary only and was thinking the same thing as you around 8 years ago.

This post has been edited by normaldude: Jul 20 2009, 12:20 AM

just need experience dude..
my office mate working as software engineer earn 12k per month

in malaysia, is quite difficult to over 9000 for software engineer.

for every "YES I EARN OVER 9000 AS AN SE" you have 10,000 others keeping quiet earning 3K.

want to go higher, best to try oversea, esp in niche are like ERP programming, hardcore RPG.

i think abaper can earn that high. not too sure whether contractual basis or permanent.

ahjames,

Average people are not rich. Rich people are not average.

<<want to go higher, best to try oversea, esp in niche are like ERP programming, hardcore RPG.>>

Then again, can you be ABOVE AVERAGE at oversea?? Can you compete?? Especially, in this case, you need to be above average just to be hired and paid average salary,

Dreamer

well dreamer, Ts mentions he is late 20's and aiming 10K/month. in local market terms thats high end , and definately above average.

with less chances here, oversea is a definate consideration.

I'm not too keen on going overseas to work because the cost of living is higher overseas and would not like this thread to head into that discussion. I probably should say "Breaking the 10k mark as a software engineer in Malaysia".

I've always said in interviews with other MNC companies that what I am asking for is only around 2,000 euros which in reality might not even be able to get a fresh grad in europe. Of course they will say that a number of other candidates locally with similar experience as myself may demand lower than what I ask for to try to push down my asking price. That's their decision of course, and for me I'm definitely not going to job hop for a lower pay.

It really amaze me that they try to bargain after telling me that how great the company is, the x number of employees they have, the lots of business, the rapid expansion in KL, but balk at the asking price. I mean, if your company is so great and hiring so many people, why is it a problem to hire 1 less person? Although the budget might be 9k, I doubt ALL the other software engineers actually get this amount and its normal to have a mix with the majority being within the 5-7k region, which leaves a 2-4k balance budget for each candidate they hire.

TS have u tried "solution architect"/"technical architect"?

btw a lot of company have salary scale and they tend not to hire ppl in at the very top end of their scale. cos when increment time very troublesome due to u alrd hit the limit in that scale.

I LOL'ed hard at this! srsly! LOL!

There are always people who slips through the cracks. Like this stupid manager I know, lazy prick who doesn't know jack about the business, can't lead, can't learn, always blaming people. He earns more than 10k per month.