It’s sometimes taboo to say it out loud, but we’re all doing our job for a main purpose: earning a living! Yes, it can be an opportunity to grow personally, to improve, to make contacts, to develop a passion, but anyway: we wouldn’t probably commit to a 9 to 5 and serve a company if it wasn’t to get a salary in the first place.
In this article, I share tips on how to estimate your value on the market as a developer or in other IT jobs (web developer, application developer, software engineer, analyst, data engineer, cybersecurity… in fact, most tips could apply to any job in any field), even if you have a Junior profile, starting after your studies or a career shift.
These tips are not bound to a particular country, that’s why you won’t see any figure here. But you will get tools to know the average salaries in the area you’re looking to work in.
Finally, I’ll give a few tips on how to negotiate your salary.
Estimate your value on the market as a developer
Before negotiating, you should get an idea of what you can ask. I think it’s important to know your average worth. You don’t want to undersell yourself, of course. But asking for a pay that is way too high might make you miss an opportunity. A little too high won’t scare an employer, twice too much could.
Know the field: the job, the companies, the skills
A first important step is to know the job market. Some positions used to be very difficult to fill, but more people have shifted to a job in IT in the meantime. Depending on the exact technologies or skills expected by the company, you can leverage a higher salary if they are scarce and match your skillset.
The type of company also plays a role in the salary ranges. Not only its size but also the sector and the kind of services or goods it provides can have an influence on the salary.
The situation of the company can also influence what they’re ready to offer: if they’re is a really good financial situation, if they’re at the startup stage or are a multinational…
What job do you apply for?
First, the job. As a developer, you might take various positions (full-stack, DevOps, web, industrial applications, mobile, automation engineer, analyst…). Salaries may vary between a front, back or full-stack position, or between a job to develop web applications and one to develop middleware for industrial machines. If you take a chance on various kinds of jobs, you should collect data on the different positions.
Usually, jobs will get you a higher salary either if they’re super specialized with skills that are not easy to find, or if they require to have a wide variety of skills (or learn a lot of them quickly).
The visibility and the value given to the job can also play a role. Developing internal software or developing applications that will be sold to external customers has a different impact on the company. It doesn’t always influence the salary, but it could.
What are the characteristics of the company?
First obvious criteria is the company size. Contrary to what you might think, bigger companies don’t always pay more. Small and medium size companies sometimes have more flexibility regarding what they offer, compared to big companies with strict patterns. Smaller company might also value their employees more or take more time to select very good candidates. A start-up company may have less means… or they will take more time to find a candidate with the right mindset and invest in them, or they could benefit from governmental helps which allow them to pay better.
The sector might be way more important than the size. Pharmaceuticals, energy, financial… are usually dealing with big, very lucrative projects. Companies working with the public sector benefit some financial helps and are steady. It’s difficult to give an exhaustive list as many parameters are to take into account, and situation may differ from a country to another, but those are criteria you want to think about when estimating the means of the company, and then how “generous” they may be.
A note about consulting companies… Working as a consultant in a company might be interesting in terms of job content and diversity of missions. Regarding salary, you won’t always be paid based on your actual capabilities (how fast and good you deliver, your abilities, your knowledge…) but more regarding how much the company can invoice your services to the companies they make contracts with!
In my experience and what I hear from other people in IT, salaries for juniors in consulting are often very low compared to in-house teams, but consulting might really pay off when you have some bankable expertise in a specific field. Your years of experience in IT, your degrees… will have a lot of importance if you want to negotiate here. When working in-house, a company can easily see the worth you add to a team on the longer run and invest in you, but in consulting it’s about making the biggest profit for each project in the here and now. So, don’t compare salaries between consulting and internal development jobs.
Also, companies in niche sectors are seeking for specific expertise, so you want to take that into account. Which leads to the next point…
What are the skills they specifically ask for?
I tend to think that, the more specific the job offer/job requirements, the higher the pay you can get from it. If you place a spontaneous application, it’s thus important to get information about all the technologies used and how much they expect developers to know.
The number of skills itself is not what matters the most. It’s mainly the scarcity and the return on investment that do. For example, basic JavaScript, HTML and CSS won’t have a heavy impact. But if you have solid experience in, let’s say, Microsoft Azure, and the company is about to switch to the cloud on Azure, that’s a big advantage on your side!
For each skill required or even “nice-to-have”, try to think if a lot, some or very few developers have it, and what it brings to the company (how often it’ll be useful, what financial opportunity it gives them…). Also be aware of how much you know about it, because basic knowledge or mastering won’t weight the same.
Also, “business” knowledge of specifics of the sector (financial, pharmaceutical, retail, transportation…) is a plus, because the company will need less time to explain the core business. And don’t forget about soft skills, especially those that are rare and that you can demonstrate with real-life examples.
What to do with all this information?
With this in mind, I would advise you to create a file (like a spreadsheet or even a plain text file), and gather information so you can cross them easily. When applying to a job, you can check the various parameters (job type, company size and sector, skills…) to make an estimation, using all the criteria that you tick, but also taking into account your points of improvement!
Alright, but how would you make that estimation if you don’t know the figures first? Let’s find some salary estimations with the following tips:
Check info on salaries on the Internet: what and where?
It’s really difficult to put a precise figure on each parameter I mentioned in previous point. But you can get an average idea when comparing with what other people earn.
Local discussions threads on salaries
I found this awesome thread on Reddit about salaries in Belgium, and you might really want to find something similar for your country or area. People share their full salary package with their experience, the kind of company they work at, and so on. This is already great information, but the comments on each salary description are also super useful (the goal of this thread is to rate how good the salary is). You can easily search by job.
Check websites that show salaries
In some countries, it’s common to state a range of salary on job offers, which is a great source of information. Have a look at offers, even when you’re not interested, and take notes of salaries. After checking some, you might notice patterns, like: “Ok, that sector offers on average 50k/year more than others” or “Alright, offers with that skill requirement tend to be higher” or “Meh, companies of that size offer low salaries“.
Read and listen to developers online
Another source of information might be blogs and podcasts. Be really careful to choose blogs written by authors who work in the same country as you, because there are huge differences from one to another. Also, always keep in mind that people expressing in public might change the data a bit for click-baiting or to create drama or sell products (like, would you admit you have a low salary if you were selling a training to developers to tell them how to negotiate their salary?).
That’s another advantage of being curious of your field news. *Personal anecdote* I was once listening to a podcast about women in technologies, because I’m interested in diversity in IT. They were interviewing someone from my country. She made a career shift to IT (like me), we were about the same age, approximatively as many years of experience in non-tech field, both no CS degree (I could really compare myself to her!). In this interview she openly told her salary, it was golden information for me!
As soon as someone is open enough to discuss salary, I write it down in my notebook with some information on the experience of the person, their exact job… Even after a few years of experience, I still find it insightful to know at which rate company hire juniors.
That leads to another good way to get insight about salaries…
Talk salary, talk money!
That’s also very culture specific, but in some places it’s taboo to tell what your earn and ask others about it. Please, don’t be afraid to talk salary! In cultures where we don’t discuss salary openly, it’s way more difficult to dare negotiating and get the best of it.
There’s no use in comparing with others with envy and jealousy, but comparing to understand why you have more or less than someone else if great information. If you don’t want to openly talk salary with colleagues, or even with mates from other companies, you’re only serving the company and you’re doing no good to yourself or to others. Sometimes there’s no explanation to the differences, and you’ll just discover that you may ask for more. Totally worth the discussion!
When you feel at ease with someone in your field, don’t hesitate to raise the topic (just avoid telling your salary to the client-side if you’re working in consulting, this may cause a lot of drama, no good for you 😅).
I had the chance to meet three IT people with whom I could discuss it, and even though I couldn’t perfectly match my profile and theirs, it helped me realize a few things about my current salary at that time, some realities of the market (which companies give better pays in my area for example), and it gave me enough confidence to ask for what I thought I deserved… and get it.
Any recruiters in your friends?
If you have the chance to have a friendly relationship with some IT recruiters, ask them to give you an estimation based on your profile. They could drop some interesting information. Some won’t want to give you a figure but they can still tell you how good your profile is, or tell you what’s lacking to make you earn some more, or which companies are best to target…
Recruiters have a high interest in getting a good pay for you: they’ll earn a commission based on the salary agreed with your new employer. So no doubt they won’t be happy if you undersell yourself. You might even be lucky enough to have the recruiter negotiate the salary or at least the range for you.
Contact insiders
That’s a pretty bold move to use with caution! Talking money with friends and colleagues is difficult, raising the topic with strangers is really tricky. Take this path only if you’re really confident about it and are a great communicator. And establish a contact to make a first idea about the person before asking about money and other touchy topics.
Making contacts with people inside a company (via LinkedIn for example) could lead either to some very useful information, to no answer or to offended reactions.
There’s very little chance I would personally use that technique, except if the “insiders” are people I’m already in touch with, but I drop the idea for those who are at ease with such communication, or because in some cultures it might appear as something really normal. I’m curious to know if that would feel right or weird in your own culture?
Specialized websites about salaries
There are two categories of websites I can think of. First, the websites which allow you to get an estimation of what people earn in a particular field earn. They are specific to a country (that’s why I can’t give examples, but just check Google for “salary comparative” or “salary estimation”) and it’s always interesting to make an estimation on different websites because they could be based on different criteria and source information on different databases. Some have very specific questions about the company you’re targeting, some are more superficial.
If you can find one specific to IT, that’s even better. Don’t hesitate to drop a list of good websites relative to your country in comments for other fellows.
Another website, which I believe exists in almost all countries, is Glassdoor. There, you can find salary ranges and reviews from current and former employees of a specific company. The bigger the company, the more comments and data you’ll see. Keep in mind that reviews are often left by people with grudge (but still, interesting to read, especially if one info is often mentioned). The most interesting part is the salary per job type.
Also, in some case you could be able to grab additional information about the company with a little research. Check press releases, other job offers, news…
Just a few ideas:
- You may find how much income their projects generate (for example I found randomly the range of income by project at a company by reading a job offer for a project manager, while I was a candidate for a developer job). You wouldn’t ask the same salary to a company getting $50K projects or $1 billion projects, right?
- You could discover that their employees are on strike a lot (bad conditions, low salaries, weak packages, difficult to get a promotion, inequity in salaries…).
- You could also discover that they have a bad financial situation.
Apply, try, correct!
Take chances, because even if you don’t believe you could get a job, or you’ve seen a job that doesn’t perfectly meets your ambitions, it’s always good training to apply, go through the process, and get salary offers! Don’t stop until you get an offer, even if at some point you don’t think you’ll want the job.
I’m not saying you should apply to anything randomly, but there’s no better way to test your estimation than by asking for the salary and discovering recruiters’ reaction!
Negotiate your salary in IT
With all that in mind, you should be able to evaluate your worth and know what range of salary you want to apply for. Now, it’s time to ask for it!
Be confident
Don’t fake it, but take the time to convince yourself you’ve got something companies need. A lot of people don’t realize that, unless it were 100% automated, no company can make profit without employees. You’ve got more strength than what you think, and companies need staff.
To be confident, you have to know exactly your weak and strong points. Being self-aware is a great skill. Knowing what you have to work on shows the recruiter you’re likely to improve with time and are ready to accept feedback.
Know what you want to ask for
Decide on a figure or a range before the interview. If you get asked while you didn’t prepare (you wouldn’t expect to be asked on a first phone call for example), just tell them you will think about it and come back to them. Or, you might ask if they have a budget, which in some cases would give you a range as a starting point (still, no rush, you have the right to tell them you will think it further).
Also know that you can have second thoughts. I already called back a future employer to tell that I hadn’t thought enough about it and asked for higher salary even though we had an oral agreement. I got what I asked (not saying this works every time, but just that it’s not crazy to do so).
If you can demonstrate that you have what it takes to fulfill the job, especially emphasizing on what’s hard to find on the market, you have some power in your hands (hence the need for confidence and self-awareness). If the company chooses not to see it or take it into account, you have the choice to run away, or take the job and look for a better opportunity at the same time.
As a general rule, I would strongly advice against saying what’s your current salary, at least not until you got an agreement. You might be underpaid at your current job, you don’t want to bias the offer you’ll receive.
The package
In some countries, in order to compensate for high taxes, you get a salary-package with lots of advantages besides the monetary salary. For example, a company car. It’s nice, but always think that money can buy anything (like, your food, your rent, your medical bills, and many trips to Japan), while the car is just a car. It lowers your charges but always make sure that the actual money you get covers your needs! Don’t lower your salary expectations because you’ll receive a nice car or other perks.
Also, when comparing salaries, always take into account the package, especially when it’s heavy (for example full medical coverage, really big annual compensation, tax-free fees…). It makes the calculation a bit trickier, but if you loose all advantages to a small money raise, it’s probably not in your interest.
Raise versus a new job
Apart from a promotion to a new job with more responsibilities, it’s pretty difficult to get a solid raise when staying at a company.
I think most companies tend to think that employees won’t quit because that’s a big effort, which might be true for most of them.
That’s why it’s really important to negotiate from the start a salary which makes you happy, if you intend to stay in the company on the long term. That’s a mistake to take the first opportunity you are given if you’re not happy with the pay (except if money is an issue at the moment for you, sometimes you don’t have the flexibility to refuse).
Also be aware that you can try to negotiate an offer. There’s usually a margin of negotiation and very few companies will give you their best shot at first.
If you can’t get what you think you deserve in your current company, you might give it a try at others. You can just apply for one or two positions, check if they’d be willing to give you the amount you want. Sometimes you’ll figure that your current salary is pretty decent, other times you’ll realize that you were taken advantage of.
Maybe you’re overestimating, and that will make you less frustrated in your current job. Maybe you can meet an opportunity to earn a better wage, and go for it!
A company would never expect you to leave your current job for the same or a lower pay, they know they will have to pay more for your experience. That said, you have no obligation at any given time of the recruitment process to tell your current salary, you may politely decline (“Sorry but I prefer to keep this information to myself.”) if you fear it could encourage them to lower their offer.
The career shift
Career shifts are a pretty recent phenomenon and you find very few information about it regarding what it means in terms of salary!
I changed career around my early 30s. It was really hard for me to know what salary I could ask. I knew pretty well what I was worth in my previous career, but it was a totally different job than now. Comparative websites and salary emulators wouldn’t work for me because I was at the same time a Junior and not a Junior…
I had 10+ working years’ experience, but 0 in IT. No one, nowhere, tells you how to calculate the worth of your previous work experience. And I must admit, the worth might totally differ from one sector to another.
That previous experience brought you some knowledge and some maturity, it should be accounted in any case, but of course not at the same rate as 10 years’ experience in IT.
Self-awareness is again important because you have to know exactly what you got from that past career, how useful it is in your field, and how likely it is to find those assets (hard or soft skills) among “real” Juniors (that is, students just out of school).
For example, if you’ve worked 10 years in companies, you’re really likely to know a lot about the internal workflows, real-case issues, ways of working, to have some sector-specific knowledge, to have more maturity than a 20-years-old. Be aware of it so you can express it clearly when applying.
I hope this post was useful, please add your tips in the comments section and drop your remarks and questions so I can improve the article or make new ones to help you!
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