How much does salaried iPhone programming pay?

[pinsrw]

Hi all,

There are lots of job ads for iPhone programmers, but I'm curious how much these jobs are paying or rather what the base rate is when you remove the additional cost of living for a given region and experience.

For instance, an NYC job would be +30k above the norm simply because of cost of living (so I hear). Also as regards experience, my impression is that a senior engineer will get perhaps 30k to 40k more than a junior person. And of course, big companies pay more than tiny ones.

I tried a quick search on realrates.com, which people formerly utilized to report their salaries anonymously but I get no hits for iphone jobs. Maybe there's a newer website for that?

Thanks.

[anonymust]

Well my guess would be a programmer gets paid somewhere between $9-$15...

I watched something on TV a few months back on the staff at Rovio (The guys who made you Angry Birds) and they get paid

A reliable developer with at least one year of experience generally could expect to make a full time salary in the $80,000 - $100,000 range

[Source: http://answers.onstartups.com/questi...ile-developer]

[ArtOfWarfare]

I'm being paid $16/hour as an iOS/Android developer with one year of college + a few years of indie iOS experience.

[dejo]

Originally Posted by anonymust

Well my guess would be a programmer gets paid somewhere between $9-$15...

I watched something on TV a few months back on the staff at Rovio (The guys who made you Angry Birds) and they get paid

[Source: http://answers.onstartups.com/questi...ile-developer]

If you believe programmers are being paid $9-$15/hour and also agree that are getting $80,000 - $100,000/year, then you would have to realize they would have to work at least 5333 hours per year to do so. Do you think that's the case?

[balamw]

Originally Posted by dejo

If you believe programmers are being paid $9-$15/hour and also agree that are getting $80,000 - $100,000/year, then you would have to realize they would have to work at least 5333 hours per year to do so. Do you think that's the case?

Put another way $15/hour full time (40hr/week 50 weeks/year) is ~$30K/year.

B

[TouchMint.com]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

I'm being paid $16/hour as an iOS/Android developer with one year of college + a few years of indie iOS experience.

Not to be rude but it does not seem like very much atleast in the USA. Are you located somewhere else? Is this some kind of internship? do you mind if I ask for what company?

Like others have noted I hear programming starts at about 80k a year. I think the least ive seen for ios is around 60k a year. The fact that you are doing both iOS and Andriod means you should be above that base.

[ArtOfWarfare]

Originally Posted by TouchMint.com

Not to be rude but it does not seem like very much atleast in the USA. Are you located somewhere else? Is this some kind of internship? do you mind if I ask for what company?

Like others have noted I hear programming starts at about 80k a year. I think the least ive seen for ios is around 60k a year. The fact that you are doing both iOS and Andriod means you should be above that base.

It does seem low, but it's the highest offer I received.

It is a co-op, which is essentially a longer than usual internship.

I've signed an NDA that disallows me from sharing the company I work for. (I think it might also cover my pay amount, too, now that I think about it... Eh, I'm not concerned about that.)

[TouchMint.com]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

It does seem low, but it's the highest offer I received.

It is a co-op, which is essentially a longer than usual internship.

I've signed an NDA that disallows me from sharing the company I work for. (I think it might also cover my pay amount, too, now that I think about it... Eh, I'm not concerned about that.)

Hey no worries man I am still jealous of you. I wish I could do what I love every day at work. Instead I just develop as a hobby hoping someday I can go fulltime for myself or maybe a company.

[solderguy1]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

It is a co-op, which is essentially a longer than usual internship.

I've signed an NDA that disallows me from sharing the company I work for. (I think it might also cover my pay amount, too, now that I think about it... Eh, I'm not concerned about that.)

Coops were 6 months back in my day. I'd say work hard and learn all you can. Plus network all you can, try to LinkIn with everyone. Senior mobile developers in Silicon Valley earn about 130k, so life could get comfy in a couple years.

[larswik]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

I'm being paid $16/hour as an iOS/Android developer with one year of college + a few years of indie iOS experience.

That seems so cheap. I started as a video editor, Film was my major in college and I started in 98' with my first full time job at $15 ($30K a year) plus medical and dental. This required no where near the education that programming takes. It's hard to live on $30K. 1 paycheck rent the other bills and then its the new month. Plus you do ios and andriod.

[KarlJay]

16/hr doesn't seem low... it IS low. Most likely this is a short term deal. People will do a short (1 year or so) job in order to get the resume in shape for the next step.


After serving out a year or two of this, he's likely in line for a large raise.


Also, he mentions 1 year of college. The common exchange rate seems to be around 1.5 years = 1 year of college. So if you have no 4 year college degree, you can exchange 6 years of work experience.

However, I've seen SF Bay Area ads asking for 2+ years and an app in the store.

The common standard is 4 year degree and 2 years experience.

Average tech job in SF Bay Area is $100K, iOS demand seems to be above average right now.

[ArtOfWarfare]

Hm, well I'll be starting my second co-op search in a week or two (and doing it from either May-December or July-December, depending on if I have enough money to keep myself in school through Summer 1... It's looking like I'll be cutting it too close to tell right now.)

My boss has said I'm in line for a large raise if I come back for my next co-op, but I'd rather see what other companies are like... Kind of hoping for a co-op at Apple... I get the idea I couldn't have anything better than that on my résumé when I start looking for a job after school.

[KarlJay]

Part of this is really area dependent. It's really a supply/demand thing. Once more companies decide they want apps the demand goes up. At the same time, all the people that jumped on the bandwagon, 10% of them end up being real programmers and many of them will end up in the job market.

Right now, theres clearly more demand than supply. Given the update rate of iOS, this is likely to continue. Every time Apple does a major update, the supply goes down and later the demand goes up.

[firewood]

Originally Posted by ArtOfWarfare

I'm being paid $16/hour as an iOS/Android developer with one year of college + a few years of indie iOS experience.

A developer with several years of iOS+Android experience might get well over $100/hour contracting in Silicon Valley. If your apps have been visible and successful, even more.

[dejo]

Originally Posted by firewood

A developer with several years of iOS+Android experience might get well over $100/hour contracting in Silicon Valley.

Sorry if this comes off harsh to others out there but I'd like to add something to firewood's statement:

A good developer with several years of iOS+Android experience might get well over $100/hour contracting in Silicon Valley.

If your skills are mediocre, you should expect your compensation to be similar.

[firewood]

Originally Posted by dejo

If your skills are mediocre, you should expect your compensation to be similar.

Even that depends on supply and demand.

There have been periods of time in Silicon Valley when even mediocre programmers were getting their salaries bid up, and conversely, times when lots of good programmers were out of work, and not for lack of looking. Right now, demand for iOS experience (more than 1 year, apps in the store) is high, even higher for mobile developers with both iOS and Android experience.

[KarlJay]

Years ago during the DotCom bubble we had "weekend warriors" getting high paid jobs and they did have much of a clue.

At Visa we had an SQL Server and one program needed 1 table from the server. The programmer opened up every table, didn't bother to check if his program was already running or not, didn't tell the user the program was running. The user would wait, click again, wait, click again... it brought down the server.

During a 'gold rush' everyone becomes an expert. Businesses need someone that can slap something together, quality, skill takes a back seat to simply having something that appears to work well.

Moreover, the people in charge of hiring usually don't have a clue. If you fit a mold, they assume you have skills.

Mediocre skilled people usually know what they are, and usually hide these facts as best they can or find a union job.