What is a Computer Programmer's Salary?

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is Dave Casuto and I am the director of San Francisco Computer Tutors here in San Francisco, California. In this video, we're going to talk about careers and salaries in the computer industry. So, this you know a little bit of the disclaimer that from region to region within the country, salaries are going to vary. So, a place like New York or San Francisco, more metropolitan areas, salaries are going to be a little bit higher. So, just the information I'm giving you based on the area that you live. So, some of the places that, excuse me, some of the industries that you can be in, in terms of with computers is you can be a graphic designer, you can be a web developer, web designer, you can be a system administrator, you can be a network administrator, cross the board. So, let's go ahead and start with, the starting salary for a web developer if you are an employee can be anywhere from 50 to 60,000 dollars a year. If you're working as an independent contractor, it can be anywhere from 30 to maybe even 50 dollars an hour. Now, just remember that when you're working as a freelance for any of these positions, you are paying your own taxes, you're providing your own benefits and things like that. So, at the end of the year, you are paying those taxes back whereas when you're an employee your employer will pay for those taxes. Now, the network administrator position, that's something that's expected to grow 50% over the next 10 years because everybody, everybody is part of a network, okay? You have the Internet, you have networks in terms of corporations, linking their offices with each other. So, a network administration position is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. And those salaries are slightly higher than web positions starting off, and they require a little more skill, math about 70,000 dollars a year, okay, starting off. You'll also got hardware designers, okay? Hardware designers can make, I mean with enough skill, you can make easily over a 100,000 dollars as a hardware engineer. When you're working in software, at the higher end of things also, about 80 to 100,000 dollars a year, starting off slightly a little bit lower but when you have again, a master's degree in computer science, you'll find that your salary will go up higher and higher. So, some other positions, you got database administrators. That's sort of mid-range, probably about 70 to 75,000 dollars a year, and again a master's degree helps on that. And then we're also looking at graphic designers. Okay, graphic designers, there's a lot of variation there and here in San Francisco there are so many graphic designers. So, of course when there's so many, the employer pretty much, you know, has the advantage of it. So, with that advantage, sometimes the cost will go down a little bit because there's so much of a large poll of applicants. So, it could be anywhere from, you know, 30 to 35 starting, to maybe even 50 or 55 starting. But when you're really really good and you got a lot of experience and a big portfolio then you know, you can go up to 80 to a 100 dollars an hour. So, think about all these things, get your portfolio together, get some more schooling and get out there and network. Alright, well, hope you had as much fun as I did. Feel free to contact me anytime at dave@deyec.com and you can check me out on the web also at deyec.com. Thanks and have a great day!"