r/cscareerquestions • u/CSCQMods • Sep 16 '26
[OFFICIAL] Salary Sharing thread for NEW GRADS :: September, 2026
MODNOTE: Some people like these threads, some people hate them. If you hate them, that's fine, but please don't get in the way of the people who find them useful. Thanks!
This thread is for sharing recent new grad offers you've gotten or current salaries for new grads (< 2 years' experience). Friday will be the thread for people with more experience.
Please only post an offer if you're including hard numbers, but feel free to use a throwaway account if you're concerned about anonymity. You can also genericize some of your answers (e.g. "Adtech company" or "Finance startup"), or add fields if you feel something is particularly relevant.
- Education:
- Prior Experience:
- $Internship
- $Coop
- Company/Industry:
- Title:
- Tenure length:
- Location:
- Salary:
- Relocation/Signing Bonus:
- Stock and/or recurring bonuses:
- Total comp:
Note that while the primary purpose of these threads is obviously to share compensation info, discussion is also encouraged.
The format here is slightly unusual, so please make sure to post under the appropriate top-level thread, which are: US [High/Medium/Low] CoL, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Aus/NZ, Canada, Asia, or Other.
If you don't work in the US, you can ignore the rest of this post. To determine cost of living buckets, I used this site: http://www.bestplaces.net/
If the principal city of your metro is not in the reference list below, go to bestplaces, type in the name of the principal city (or city where you work in if there's no such thing), and then click "Cost of Living" in the left sidebar. The buckets are based on the Overall number: [Low: < 100], [Medium: >= 100, < 150], [High: >= 150]. (last updated Dec. 2019)
High CoL: NYC, LA, DC, SF Bay Area, Seattle, Boston, San Diego
Medium CoL: Orlando, Tampa, Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Riverside, Minneapolis, Denver, Portland, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Austin, Raleigh
Low CoL: Houston, Detroit, St. Louis, Baltimore, Charlotte, San Antonio, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Kansas City
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Region - US High CoL
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u/GivesCredit Software Engineer Sep 16 '26
• Education: CS + Stats Bachelors, well known but not top university
• Prior Experience: 4 internships at no name companies + 1.5 years cofounding a startup
• Company/Industry: large enterprise company
• Title: SWE I
• Tenure length: 2 years
• Location: Bay Area
• Salary: 120k
• Relocatio//Signing Bonus: 0
• Stock and/or recurring bonuses: 13k
• Total comp: 133k
Probably looking to job hop soon - I lead a (small) team and own an entire ~15m ARR product with no promo or raise yet
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u/pacific_blues_4016 9d ago
Hey, congratulations on your work. I got an offer similar to this in the bay area. How are your living costs on that salary? Did you end up finding housing near your workplace?
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u/Calm_Stable3067 Sep 17 '26 edited Sep 17 '26
- Education: CS PHD from top tier UC (6 years) very successful later half
- Prior Experience:
- $Internship: startup+ FANNG
- Company/Industry: AI
- Title: Staff scientist
- Tenure length: 0
- Location: bay area
- Salary: 700k
- Relocation/Signing Bonus: 110k total
- Stock and/or recurring bonuses: 210k cash
- Total comp: 900k cash (recurring, includes bonus)
4
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u/dats_cool Software Engineer Sep 17 '26
What does your day to day look like at that level of income? Like the tech skills required and responsibilities. That's utterly insane to get right out of school as a 20-something. Literally neurosurgeon pay.
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u/mixedupgaming 17d ago
6 year phd so likely they’re 28-29 Insane salary as you say but at that point they actually have a similar amount of years in school as some doctors haha
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u/dats_cool Software Engineer 16d ago edited 16d ago
Doctors have 4 years in medical school then 3-7 years in residency. It's completely different.
Plus you get paid for doing a CS PhD, something like 35-45k a year - so no loans vs 200-400k in medical school loans.
I can't think of anything that has a higher ROI than a PhD in CS with a spec in AI/ML.
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u/Lumpy_Procedure5838 Sep 16 '26
Education:
Exp:
- T20-30 BS Data sicnece, T20-30 MS CS
Company:
- School research(non cs) data engineering + 1st author paper
- Small startup internship
- Big tech internship
Title:
Tenure:
- SWE
Location:
- 5 months
Salary:
- Bay area
Relocation/Signing Bonus:
- 166k (i think this means base?)
RSU/bonus:
- 11k/20k
Total comp:
- 100k over 4 years(38/32/20/10 split) with 15 % of base bonus
- 260k first year 220-230k ish recurring
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u/sushigobl Sep 17 '26
• Education: CS Bachelors, one of the mid tier UCs
• Prior Experience: 2 internships at mid sized companies (utilities and space) + 5 months in defense
• Company: Large enterprise company
• Title: SWE I
• Tenure length: 4 months
• Location: Bay Area
• Salary: 130k
• Relocation/Signing : 23k (10k for relocation and 13k for signing)
• Stock and/or recurring bonuses: 0 stock and 5% target bonus
• Total comp: 159k
1
u/Fantastic_Wolf677 Sep 19 '26 edited Sep 19 '26
- Education: BS in CMPEN at a state school
- Prior Experience:
- $Internship: Did research for 2 years, 1 Internship at a mid-level startup, 1 internship at a F50 company
- Company/Industry: Large Automotive enterprise
- Title: AI/ML Engineer
- Tenure length: 0
- Location: Bay Area
- Salary: 160K
- Relocation/Signing Bonus: 15,000$
- Stock and/or recurring bonuses: at least a 10% guaranteed bonus every year; can go up depending on financial success.
- Total comp: starting at 191,000$ first year, then down to at least 176,000$
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u/Severe_Sir_3237 25d ago
Education: CS Bachelors + CS Masters, well known but not top university
Prior Experience: 2 years of part time software engineering experience during my masters
Company/Industry: Fintech at a Hedge Fund
Title: Software Engineer
Tenure length: few months so far
Location: New York City (Manhatten)
Salary: 150k base
Year end bonus based on performance: up to 35k (all cash)
Total comp: 185k
1
u/Vaibhav__T21 Sep 16 '26
Education: MS Popular Private Uni
• Prior Experience:
$Internship: Big Tech $44/hr
$Coop: Big Tech $61/hr• Company/Industry: Tech
• Title: Data Engineer
• Tenure length: 4 months
• Location: NYC
• Salary: 167k
• Relocation/Signing Bonus: 8k
• Stock and/or recurring bonuses: 0
• Total comp: 175k
-4
u/genzwithbigdreams Sep 16 '26
Education: CS Bachelor's, Canadian uni
Prior exp: 5 internships both big companies and small, FAANG
Company: Tech Startup
Title: FDE
Total FT exp: 1y10mo
Location: SF Bay Area
Salary: 250k
Relo/signing: 10% (25k)
Stock: 500k/4y paper value (startup)
TC: 275k first year, 250k recurring
1
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u/Brief_Form_4773 Sep 16 '26
Grad season already, feels like just yesterday I was filling these out, time flies
5
u/Leshot Sep 16 '26
- Education: Bachelors in computer science, mid tier school. Honestly probably lower.
- Prior Experience:
- 2 years of internships across 3 companies
- Company/Industry: semiconductor(validation)
- Title: Hardware Validation Engineer(programming, hardware validation)
- Tenure length: 1.5+ years
- Location: Austin
- Salary: 100,000
- Relocation/Signing Bonus: 15,000
- Stock and/or recurring bonuses: $28,000 granted across 4 years, but company stock has 5x since joining, over $100,000 now. 7% bonus every year, typically a bit more, plus LTI of around $3000/yr
- Total comp: 117,500 (although I factor in the increased stock gain into my day to day calculations when considering other employment).
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Region - US Medium CoL
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9
u/MarkZuccsForeskin New Grad Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 16 '26
- Education: CS Bachelors, No name university
- Prior Experience: 5 internships at known companies across many industries
Company/Industry: FAANG
(not zon)
Title: SWE I
Tenure length: 0 YOE
Location: Texas
Salary: 130k
Relocatio//Signing Bonus: 25k
Stock and/or recurring bonuses: 100k rsu/ 4 yr vest
Total comp: ~180k first year, ~150k reoccuring
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u/Hour-Inevitable-544 Sep 16 '26
where in Texas is there a FAANG? Austin? Genuinely curious cause I’m in Houston and there’s nothing here :((
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Sep 16 '26
[deleted]
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u/SufficientTry3258 Sep 16 '26
117k for a principal level is criminal
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u/Aggressive_Top_1380 Software Engineer Sep 16 '26
The title means something slightly different at my company. Principal = a mid level role, equivalent to SWE 2 in most other companies.
0
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Region - US Low CoL
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11
u/drbiscuit832 Sep 16 '26
• Education: BSCS at flagship state school (no notable ranking)
• Prior experience: 2 internships at current company
• Company/industry: Consumer electronics company
• Title: SWE II
• Tenure: > 1 year
• Location: US South
• Salary: $98.5k
• Relocation/Signing bonus: $10k signing
• Stock and/or recurring bonus: None
• Total comp: ~$110k factoring in 12.5% 401k match4
u/income-percent-bot Sep 16 '26
Your income of $98,500 is in the 78th percentile — above the median. This is below average for Software Engineer II (SWE II). Adjusted for US South's high cost of living, this is equivalent to ~$107,065 in an average-cost area. Source: income percentile calculator I'm a bot. Reply with !optout to stop receiving responses.
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u/Pencil_Pb Sep 16 '26
- Education: BSCS at no name state T100 school. Previously BS+MS civil engineering at a T10 school.
• Prior Experience:
• Ed tech co-op: $35/hr
• insurance/Financial services internship: $24/hr
• Company/Industry: insurance/financial services F100 company
- previously civil engineer for ~ 5 years with PE license
• Title: SWE II
• Tenure length: ~1 year
• Location: Ohio
• Salary: $93k
• Relocation/Signing Bonus: $0
• Stock and/or recurring bonuses: Target 3% bonus
• Total comp: ~$96k3
u/No-Indication-9346 Sep 16 '26
Education: BS CS major, private university
Prior Experience: 2 internships (including 1 at current company)
Company/Industry: Fortune 100 Energy / Non-Tech Enterprise
Title: System Development Engineer 1
Tenure length: 0 years (New Grad)
Location: South US
Salary: $88,000
Relocation/Signing Bonus: $5,000 (grossed-up)
Stock and/or recurring bonuses: ~$12,000 annual cash bonus.
Additional benefits: Fully funded healthcare, 7% 401(k) match, and a 100% company-funded pension plan (vests at 3 years).
Total comp: ~$100,000 (Base + Bonus)
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u/humanapoptosis Sep 21 '26
How tf is even the lowest paid US new grad in this thread making more than me with 3.5 YoE? I thought the job market was supposed to suck. Is there a selection bias where people with bad incomes are too embarrassed to post or am I genuinely getting cucked?
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u/sehr_cool_bro 26d ago
I do get the feeling that 100k salary is the new 70k in 2026. If it's not then we're screwed because inflation has been pretty high for years. But yes as a senior dev in e-commerce w/ 13 years experience (locally known state uni, masters degree), I'm making 160k per year at a relatively small but national company in Michigan. I am surprised by the number of people making 130k+ entry-level, which took me 10 years of work to achieve. Six figures of any kind was considered a very high salary when I started in CS.
So I think it's a bit of both.
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u/income-percent-bot 26d ago
Solid! At $160,000, you're in the 91st percentile — ahead of 91% of earners. Source: income percentile calculator I'm a bot. Reply with !optout to stop receiving responses.
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u/Sea_Pirate_6292 29d ago
Education : B.S in Computer Science (Non target school) - May 2026
Experience: 3 Internships (1 with a FAANG)
Industry/Company: Big 4 Consulting
Title: Software Engineering Analyst
Tenure: < a year (New Grad)
Location: Arlington, VA (HCOL)
Base Salary: 95k
10k Sign on bonus
105k first year.
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22d ago
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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '26 edited Sep 17 '26
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