Game programmer salary in California?

Started by
2 comments, last by hplus0603 2 years, 7 months ago

Hi there,

I have about 1.7 years experience in the game industry. 2.7 if you count the year I spent as an indie developer, 3.7 if you also count the year I spent as a simulator developer.

As a programmer (game dev or otherwise), I have about 6 years experience in total, most of it in C++.

So I would say that I'm an intermediate programmer.

I don't live in California, but I'm going to be interviewing for a game audio programmer position there (remote work). It's a big wealthy company, not a little startup.

I know Glassdoor has average salaries, but it doesn't really tell you the whole story. Maybe there's really senior programmers filling out these surveys, and it's pumping up the average, I don't know.

Anyway, in your opinion, what should my salary expectation be here?

Advertisement

totesmagotes said:
I know Glassdoor has average salaries

That, and other salary sites, are probably your best bet. Google your question again, look beyond that one site, and average the results you get.

-- Tom Sloper -- sloperama.com

@totesmagotes With six years of experience, you'll likely fall into the “senior developer" category. (Generally, there are five main categories: intern, junior, senior, staff, principal, although the exact mapping to experience varies by company – Microsoft calls many people Principal; other companies save that for only their most experienced two or three people in the organization. Also, sometimes it's “technical director” instead of “principal,” and sometimes TD is a level above principal, and really large companies have fellows, too.)

A typical software developer in the SF Bay area in the senior category makes about $175,000 per year, plus some kind of bonus or stock grant or options (depending on the company,) plus health plan paid by the company for the employee. Some companies also pay a significant percentage of the health plan for your possible dependents/family – depends by company. Some companies also offer matching money for a 401k savings plan, up to some per-year maximum. At the “senior” level, you'll get somewhere between 10% and 40% of your salary in “other” compensation (at places like Facebook, Google, and Amazon, this will be RSUs and a 401k match option; at a start-up, this will be options to purchase shares, where the shares are not worth anything yet but could be worth much more later, which is hard to evaluate in isolation.)

I would expect larger companies in California, like Roblox, Unity, and Electronic Arts, to be largely competitive with this, assuming the bar for hiring is similar to those big companies. Also, it is not uncommon for companies to pay a signing bonus, although you may have to ask for it to get it. Typically, you'll suggest that you need the money to “situate your family” or “find a place to live” or perhaps “afford to exercise the options," but it's all really just additional cash to make you make a decision (and it's taxed as ordinary income.)

enum Bool { True, False, FileNotFound };

This topic is closed to new replies.

Advertisement