It’s been a tough few years at Yahoo. In 2012, former Google CEO Marissa Mayer was named CEO of the longtime internet mainstay, which some experts say would mark the start of a dramatic turnaround. Instead, Mayer did a few bad things (including his callous characterization of layoffs as a “remix”) and helped sell the company to Verizon before jumping into Lumi Labs.
Now a subsidiary, Yahoo has continued to fend for itself, its heyday of the late ’90s fading in the rearview mirror. Considering this tortured history, why would a software engineer want to work there? The answer is quite simple: Despite its crises and mismanagement, Yahoo remains a major technology brand and its products continue to serve millions of people every month. In other words, it’s a chance to work with projects that have an impact (even if that impact isn’t as great as, say, Google).
There’s also a sizable amount of money on the table, according to salary information crowdsourced from levels.fyi. Yahoo’s software engineer salary at the “interim software engineer” level – roughly equivalent to that of a master’s degree or some development experience – can earn a salary, development options. purchase of shares and bonuses that match those offered in other companies. Consult the table:
Compare these Yahoo salaries to Apple’s ICT2 roles (that is, the lowest rung of the software engineering ladder), which pay an average of $ 118,810 in base salary, as well as job options. annual share purchase valued at approximately $ 27,119 and a bonus of $ 14,619. At Google (Mayer’s old haunt!), New software engineers (eg, those who just graduated from college) at the L3 level earn an average of $ 124,009, with annual stock options of $ 42,660 and a bonus of $ 21,417.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is offering engineers at its lowest level “SDE” an average annual salary of $ 105,747, $ 28,650 in inventory and a bonus of $ 21,378. At level 60 (slightly above), salaries climb on average to $ 114,747, with stock options valued at $ 27,674 and a bonus of $ 16,716.
According to Glassdoor (which also crowdsourced its data), the average software engineer at Yahoo earns $ 124,023 in base salary, along with an annual cash bonus of $ 10,876 and a stock bonus of $ 10,919. This roughly matches the data presented by levels.fyi (especially considering that Glassdoor’s data encompasses engineers with varying levels of experience and salary points).
All of these tech companies pay significantly more than the tech industry’s “average” salary. According to Dice’s latest salary survey, average annual salaries in 2018 remained stable at $ 93,244, a mere 0.6% increase from 2017. Indeed, some 68% of respondents to the Dice’s survey said they would change employers to receive higher pay.
However, when it comes to big tech companies and talent retention, it’s probably not about low pay. While these massive companies offer the opportunity to work on big projects, the levels of bureaucracy can drive ambitious tech professionals crazy. A company like Yahoo can present good learning opportunities for a newly created software engineer, but after a few years they may feel the need to jump into something new.
