How Can Software Engineers Set Their Salary Expectations?

Salary Negotiations: Insider Secrets

Recruiter reveals insider’s secrets to getting paid what you want.

With software engineers in such demand, how can they assess their market value? A Forbes post based on a Quora question suggests asking the market directly.

Though you can find salaries posted at sites such as Salary.com and Glassdoor.com, they likely aren’t for your particular city. And salaries differ market to market.

The Forbes post suggests interviewing at companies until you have three to five offers, then comparing them.

That, of course, raises the question of what you plan to do with this information. Are you truly seeking out a new position or just shopping around? It’s one thing to be gathering this information to negotiate a higher salary with your current employer. But by going through the interview process and not taking the job, you’re likely to burn bridges with these potential employers — and possibly your own company, notes a U.S. News & World Report article. Even if your company agrees to a raise, you might have set in motion a plan to force your exit.

It might be a better idea to talk to several local recruiters and people in similar positions to put a dollar value on your skills.