Programming coordinator salary: Program Coordinator Salary in California – $49,500

Program Coordinator Salary in California – $49,500

Mint salariesProgram CoordinatorCalifornia

Average salary

$49,500/yr

Based on 1,332 income tax records

$21,000

$92,000

Age:

Average salary by age

18-25

26-35

36-45

46-55

56+

$21,000

$92,000

How much do Program Coordinators make?

The average total salary for a Program Coordinator is $49,500 per year. This is based on data from 1,332 TurboTax users who reported their occupation as Program Coordinator and includes taxable wages, tips, bonuses, and more. Program Coordinator salary can vary between $21,000 to $92,000 depending on factors including education, skills, experience, employer & location. Read more

Learn more about Mint Salary

DATA PROVIDED BY

Based on income reported to the IRS in box 1 of W-2.

From consenting TurboTax customers

Similar Occupations

Program Coordinator salary by location

View as a list

Program Coordinator salary by company

Employer

Average salary per year*

Salary range**

City Of San Diego, California

12 income tax records

$81,500/yr

$65K – $106K

The Board Of Trustees Of The Leland Stanford Junior University, California

10 income tax records

$67,500/yr

$60K – $93K

Permanente Medicine, California

14 income tax records

$62,500/yr

$52K – $84K

ADP, California

12 income tax records

$51,000/yr

$24K – $74K

University Of California, California

89 income tax records

$50,000/yr

$25K – $70K

State Of California, California

32 income tax records

$50,000/yr

$33K – $66K

City Of Sacramento City Hall, California

10 income tax records

$48,500/yr

$41K – $51K

Program Coordinator demographics in California

76% are single

24% are married

23% have kids

30% own a home

Effective Tax Rates for Program Coordinators in California

1,332 full-time salaries from 2019

FAQS

The average salary for a program coordinator in California is $49,500 per year. Program coordinator salaries
in California can vary between $21,000 to $92,000 and depend on various factors, including skills, experience, employer, bonuses,
tips, and more.

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This data is exclusive to Mint Salary and is based on 1,332 tax returns from TurboTax customers
who reported their occupation as program coordinator.

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The following companies offer the highest salaries for program coordinators in California:
City of San Diego ($81,500 a year),
The Board of Trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior University ($67,500 a year),
and Permanente Medicine ($62,500 a year).

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The following cities offer the highest salaries for program coordinators in California:
Redwood City, CA ($61,500 a year),
San Francisco, CA ($56,000 a year),
and Oakland, CA ($54,500 a year).

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*

Total salary amounts here include total taxable wages, tips, prizes and other compensation. Salaries here are not representative of the total population and may reflect different levels of experience or education. Learn more

**

Total salary ranges shown here exclude outliers.

Program Coordinator Salary (October 2022) – Zippia

Updated August 22, 2022

$45,068yearly

To create our salary estimates, Zippia starts with data published in publicly available sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (FLC) Show More

$21. 67 hourly

Entry level Salary

$31,000

yearly

$31,000

10 %

$45,068

Median

$63,000

90 %

How much does a Program Coordinator make?

Program coordinators make $45,068 per year on average, or $21.67 per hour, in the United States. Program coordinators on the lower end of that spectrum, the bottom 10% to be exact, make roughly $31,000 a year, while the top 10% makes $63,000.

Location impacts how much a program coordinator can expect to make. Program coordinators make the most in Hawaii, Alaska, California, Oregon, and Nevada.

Highest Paying State

Hawaii

Highest Paying City

San Francisco, CA

Highest Paying Company

Meta

What Am I Worth?

Highest Paying State

Hawaii

Highest Paying City

San Francisco, CA

Highest Paying Company

Meta

What Am I Worth?

Highest Paying States For Program Coordinators

The darker areas on the map show where program coordinators earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

• State View
• County View

Average Salary:

Program Coordinator average salary by State

Rank	State	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Count
1	Hawaii	$76,825	$36.94	165
2	North Dakota	$49,349	$23.73	290
3	Oregon	$51,340	$24.68	706
4	Idaho	$47,450	$22.81	393
5	Alaska	$64,516	$31.02	112
6	Connecticut	$50,174	$24.12	575
7	Nevada	$50,249	$24.16	282
8	Kansas	$44,204	$21.25	739
9	Rhode Island	$46,289	$22.25	222
10	District of Columbia	$56,106	$26. 97	235
11	New York	$48,568	$23.35	2,343
12	Iowa	$47,899	$23.03	433
13	Wisconsin	$45,584	$21.92	783
14	Illinois	$47,773	$22.97	1,646
15	Oklahoma	$43,581	$20.95	647
16	Arizona	$45,502	$21.88	902
17	California	$55,135	$26.51	1,788
18	Texas	$45,759	$22.00	2,651
19	Pennsylvania	$45,441	$21.85	1,507
20	New Mexico	$43,113	$20.73	511
21	Colorado	$45,416	$21.83	927
22	Washington	$48,483	$23.31	595
23	Florida	$45,287	$21. 77	2,162
24	Ohio	$43,801	$21.06	1,225
25	North Carolina	$42,893	$20.62	1,264
26	Nebraska	$42,570	$20.47	322
27	New Jersey	$45,131	$21.70	1,174
28	Alabama	$40,036	$19.25	918
29	West Virginia	$41,123	$19.77	211
30	Minnesota	$42,175	$20.28	957
31	Arkansas	$38,610	$18.56	698
32	Virginia	$45,330	$21.79	756
33	New Hampshire	$41,039	$19.73	288
34	Tennessee	$40,580	$19.51	730
35	Massachusetts	$44,153	$21.23	992
36	Wyoming	$41,800	$20. 10	51
37	South Dakota	$37,323	$17.94	223
38	Utah	$39,397	$18.94	481
39	Mississippi	$39,686	$19.08	292
40	South Carolina	$40,417	$19.43	559
41	Michigan	$39,626	$19.05	990
42	Maryland	$44,295	$21.30	608
43	Georgia	$40,692	$19.56	1,292
44	Delaware	$36,503	$17.55	328
45	Kentucky	$39,080	$18.79	413
46	Montana	$35,615	$17.12	226
47	Maine	$35,913	$17.27	195
48	Missouri	$39,154	$18.82	590
49	Louisiana	$37,010	$17. 79	372
50	Vermont	$38,204	$18.37	77
51	Indiana	$36,605	$17.60	723

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Top Program Coordinator Jobs Near You

Highest Paying Cities For Program Coordinators

Rank	City	Avg. Salary	Hourly Rate
1	San Francisco, CA	$58,491	$28.12
2	Washington, DC	$56,147	$26.99
3	Eugene, OR	$51,902	$24.95
4	Olympia, WA	$49,391	$23.75
5	New York, NY	$48,731	$23.43
6	Chicago, IL	$47,958	$23.06
7	San Antonio, TX	$46,317	$22.27
8	Arlington, VA	$46,179	$22.20
9	Madison, WI	$45,614	$21.93
10	Phoenix, AZ	$45,589	$21.92
11	Philadelphia, PA	$45,577	$21.91
12	Tampa, FL	$45,571	$21.91
13	Colorado Springs, CO	$45,537	$21.89
14	Baltimore, MD	$44,385	$21. 34
15	Boston, MA	$44,083	$21.19

Here Are The Five Most In Demand Cities Right Now:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Washington, DC
3. Eugene, OR
4. Olympia, WA
5. New York, NY

Program Coordinator Salary Details

Average Program Coordinator Salary Graph, Trends, and Summary

What is a Program Coordinator’s Salary?

Average Salary By Related Titles

Job Title	Annual Salary	Monthly Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
Community Service Coordinator	$40,227	$3,352	$19. 34	56,595
Residence Coordinator	$40,272	$3,356	$19.36	39,271
Family Services Coordinator	$42,856	$3,571	$20.60	112,789
Residential Coordinator	$39,577	$3,298	$19.03	47,261
Volunteer Coordinator	$39,894	$3,324	$19.18	42,569
Resource Coordinator	$40,658	$3,388	$19.55	49,620

Here are the five companies hiring the most now:

1. Centene Jobs (88)
2. Playworks Jobs (238)
3. The Ohio State University Jobs (102)
4. University of Washington Jobs (144)
5. Washington State University Jobs (65)

Which Companies Pay Program Coordinators The Most?

The highest paying companies for program coordinators are Meta and Apple according to our most recent salary estimates. In addition, companies like City of Detroit and City of Seattle report highly competitive wages for program coordinators.

How Much Do Program Coordinators Make In Different Industries?

Here are some examples of how much a program coordinator salaries can based on different industries:

1. The government industry pays program coordinators an average salary of $51,387

2. The education industry pay $46,880

3. The lowest paying industry for program coordinators is the professional industry. Program coordinators in this industry earn an average salary of $44,757

Highest Paying Industries For Program Coordinators

Rank	Industry	Average Salary	Hourly Rate
1	Government	$51,387	$24.71
2	Education	$46,880	$22.54
3	Health Care	$46,794	$22.50
4	Non Profits	$46,547	$22.38
5	Professional	$44,757	$21. 52

High Paying Program Coordinator Jobs

Program Coordinator Salary Trends

The salary for a program coordinator can vary depending on the years of experience that a person has, from entry level to senior level. Data on how experience level affects total compensation is provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as part of their National Compensation Survey, which is based on factors such as knowledge, complexity, contacts, and environment.

Entry LevelAvg.salary$31k

Senior LevelAvg.salary$51k

Program Coordinator Salary By Experience Level

Average Program Coordinator Salary Over Time

Compare salaries for individual cities or states with the national average.

Recently Added Program Coordinator Salaries

Program Coordinator Salaries FAQs

What State Pays Program Coordinators The Most?

Hawaii pays Program Coordinators the most in the United States, with an average salary of $76,825 per year, or $36.94 per hour.

How Do I Know If I’m Being Paid Fairly As A Program Coordinator?

You know if you are being paid fairly as a Program Coordinator if your pay is close to the average pay for the state you live in. For example, if you live in Alaska you should be paid close to $64,516 per year.

What Type Of Program Coordinator Gets Paid The Most?

School Coordinator gets paid the most. School Coordinator made a median salary of $48,327. The best-paid 10 percent make $58,000, while the lowest-paid 10 percent make $39,000.

What Is A Good Starting Salary For A Program Coordinator?

A good starting salary for a program coordinator is $33,000 in the United States. That puts you in the 10th percentile of annual income for a program coordinator in the U.S., which is about what you would expect if you were new to the field. The average salary for program coordinators is $46,309, but that normally requires some level of experience to achieve. Furthermore, a good starting salary for a program coordinator can vary by state.

Have more questions? See all answers to common community and social services questions.

Search For Program Coordinator Jobs

Updated August 22, 2022

list of promising professions and the average salary of IT specialists by city

Everyone keeps saying that IT has big salaries. This is true, but the IT field is very extensive: it includes not only system administrators and programmers. We figure out how much the owners of popular IT professions receive and what affects it.

🚀 Data Analyst

👨‍💻 What does he do.

This specialist collects and processes data to solve problems related to the development of the company and product. He can work in IT, marketing, management, consulting, finance – any field where they systematize, research and work with big data.

He studies what competitors are doing: how they launch a product, reduce or increase prices, whether they develop new sales channels. Processes data from colleagues from other departments: for example, asks the technical support department what technical errors users encounter. Develops a user path, puts forward hypotheses and tests them.

This specialist is meticulous, logical and consistent, not rushing to conclusions. He has a broad outlook and systems thinking.

💸 How much does he earn.

The average salary is 97,161 rubles. A novice specialist earns from 50,000 rubles per month. Medium level — from 85,000 to 300,000 ₽. Experienced — from 150,000 to 400,000 ₽. The salary of an analyst depends on his qualifications, specialization, duties and the city in which the vacancy is open. Leaders in terms of income: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk.

0007 What does it do?

The tester checks whether programs, sites and applications work correctly. Finds problems, puts them in a report and passes them to the developers to fix everything. Then he checks again, and so on – until it is perfect.

He is attentive to details, assiduous, able to look for mistakes in everything. If not for the tester, everything would work somehow – or not work at all.

💸 How much does

earn? In the regions it is lower – 90,000 ₽, and in large cities – higher: in Moscow – 136,000 ₽, in St. Petersburg – 129,000 ₽.

Manual testing engineers earn less than automated testers: ₽75,000 and ₽131,000 respectively.

The average salary in July 2022, according to zarplan.com, is 101,557 ₽. Leaders in terms of income: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara.

Source: Habr Career

🚀 Developer

👨‍💻 What does 9 do0008

Responsibilities depend on the scope, the purpose of the brand, but basically Internet marketers develop strategies – plans for how the product will gain popularity on the Internet. To do this, the specialist uses various techniques and tools, such as SWOT and ABC analyzes, the BCG matrix. The results of the strategy are measured in concrete terms and think over how to improve them. For example, CPL is cost per lead, CTR is click through rate.

He analyzes competitors and studies the target audience. To do this, it tracks posts, customer comments and responses. Explores gender, age, education, interests, income, desires, fears of consumers.

💸 How much does he earn.

The average salary in July 2022 is 92,678 ₽. Experience plays a big role. A beginner who has recently completed courses or mastered one of the advertising tools, worked as an account manager or digital salesperson, earns an average of 80,459₽.

The average income of a specialist with two or three years of experience is 120,689 ₽. He owns contextual and targeted advertising tools, such as Yandex.Direct and VKontakte. Can set up end-to-end analytics, understands SEO principles. Already worked in companies or agencies.

An internet marketer with three to five years of experience often leads a team. Knows how to select tools and promotion channels for projects with a large budget. On average, he earns 229,885 rubles.

Source: Habr Career

The main thing about salaries in IT

• Experience affects income: specialists with three years of experience consistently receive more than newcomers who have recently completed courses. The city is also important: in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities, salaries are higher.
• Specialization in some professions also plays a role: for example, UI/UX designers earn more than web designers. And Java programmers are more than those who code in C.
• Data Analysts average $97,161 and Test Engineers $101,557. The average income of developers is 167,045 ₽, web designers — 88,862 ₽, online marketers — 92,678 ₽.
• If you want to get any of the listed specialties and earn more, complete the Skypro courses. We will help you learn relevant skills from scratch, build an impressive portfolio, prepare for interviews and find your dream job.

The story of an IT specialist who grew to $20K in 6 years: “Developers avoid communication with the customer, but for me this is a salary increase factor”

Earn $20K in Ukraine is real. But it’s not enough to just be a developer and write code. So says an IT specialist who went from $600 to $20K. We spoke with him anonymously about how his career developed and why communication with the customer, which developers so avoid, became the key to success for him.

Illustrations by Katalina Mayevskaya

Programming since childhood, but never thought about whether I want to do it for money

I started programming when I was 9: my father told me to learn. Then I didn’t really like it, because it didn’t work out very well. Dad suggested that I should go to a programming class. I enrolled in the Palace of Pioneers, where there was a three-year course for children. But in the first year, they were taught to type text in Word, relatively speaking. On the second day, programming began, but I never waited for it.

Until about 15 years old, I didn’t do any serious things in IT: I wrote programs like “Guess the number” and all that. When I was 15, I suggested to the local Internet provider that they have payment by card on their website (before that, you had to pay through the terminal). For some reason they agreed. I fulfilled what I promised and received 500 hryvnias.

Then I entered the KPI at the Faculty of Engineering, metrology. For the first three courses, I was not interested in IT at all. And after the third year, I went on Work&Travel to America. There I had earnings of $1800–2000 after all taxes. To go there, I borrowed money and then gave away almost everything that I earned. But I liked the process of earning so much that when I returned to Kyiv, I started looking for where and how to get a good salary. Then, with great surprise, I learned that IT pays well. I remembered that I can program. At the university, I was just creating an unmanned aerial vehicle with other guys. I spent a lot of time on it, but then I didn’t think about whether I wanted to do it for money.

First job in IT and lead experience at 21

First company — outsourcing
Position — developer, team leader
Salary — $600–2400

I found my first job as an Embedded developer in an outsourcing company. It was small, at that time there was no one to do presales, except for the CEO. When he didn’t have time, it was assigned to me, because I had good English. I then realized that in just an hour of negotiations, it is possible to convince foreign customers to sign a contract for a large amount. And they gladly gave it back – they really liked the Ukrainian prices. Even despite the fact that the company’s external rates were high.

Once after a successful pre-sale – and it was a big contract – the customer set a condition: whoever led the pre-sale should also be the team leader. Only on this condition were they ready to cooperate. I agreed and so after 9 months of work as a developer I became a lead. I led a team of 5 people. The client was an American product startup that makes a radio communication system.

The project lasted a long time, from the moment it started, I didn’t conduct pre-sales anymore, so it got boring. I wanted to somehow develop, I then programmed for a maximum of half an hour a day and then with someone in a pair – I helped others. I thought that I needed to go to a large company.

Yes, and I thought about payment. At the start of work in this company, I was paid $600, at the time when I left – $2400. At the same time, I was the lead of a fairly large team in Embedded development. It seemed to me that this was unfair. I knew for sure that my subordinates get paid more than me, simply because they had 7-8 years of experience. And then I was 21 years old, and the company believed that since I was a young specialist, I didn’t have to pay much.

In general, in terms of communication and personal attitude towards me, there was never any prejudice. The company had an awesome atmosphere, I was appreciated and supported. I spoke on behalf of the company at conferences, helped with hiring – I conducted interviews, and sometimes pre-sales for potential clients, short, not the same as before. But when I came for a salary increase, the management said: well, you understand, the situation in the market and all that.

By the way, when I was looking for a job later, I had a not very pleasant situation because of my age. I then compiled an impressive resume – I did a lot of things. And there was nothing there that would indicate my age. One company invited me for an interview for a lead position. When I arrived, the first thing they asked was how old I was. And then the communication went on in a frivolous tone, they did not perceive me as a good engineer or in general as someone who could help them significantly. Then, by the way, they said it directly. Like, we definitely won’t hire you, simply because the engineers you have to manage are over 40 and they won’t perceive you as a leader.

The client paid the amount of my 10-month salary to hire me directly

Second company – grocery
Position – service station
Salary – $5000-7000

As a result, I received an offer from a large company for $4200 and agreed. I already signed a contract, but just then the customer of the project, where I was the lead, contacted me directly. He was pleased with my work, asked me to cooperate directly with their company. Then they offered me, it seems, $5,000 and a ponytail. They also had to pay a large amount to the outsourcing company in order not to violate the contract. Usually, in many contracts there is such a clause: the client does not have the right to hire anyone from the outsourcing company with which he cooperates for a year, even after the termination of the contract. But this can be changed by agreement of the parties. So they came to the conclusion that the client had to pay as much as my 10-month salary at an external rate in order to hire me directly.

I worked with them for three years. I liked everything, despite the fact that I worked, in fact, in the same company with the same team. But there is a huge difference between working through an outsourced manager and working directly with investors. Our communication immediately moved to another level, we began to communicate openly.

I don’t know exactly how it is with other outsourcing companies, but in mine, for example, it was like this. The customer came once a quarter. Each time, a demo was arranged for his arrival. We prepared for the demo for two weeks, abandoned all our tasks and made a beautiful show – just so that the client could see that everything was great.

After I got a job with them directly, they immediately told me: “It seems that you are doing a lot of garbage for our arrival.” – “Yes, that is right”. “We don’t need any of this, we only need results.” In general, everything was immediately set up in a more productive way. By the way, this became very annoying for the management of the outsourcing company. Especially when I started hiring employees myself.

I became a service station, and the client handed over the entire outsourcing project to my team

After the client took me home, we opened a small office in Kyiv. There were web developers, testers, interns. But the Embeded developers of this project still remained with the outsourcer. We did not have our own employees who would deal with hardware. Moreover, I also spent several more days a week in the outsourcer’s office. Rented a job there.

And when we started hiring Embedded interns ourselves, the outsourcing companies realized that we were taking their bread. And they began to invent a lot of paperwork. Like, let’s share the responsibility: we are responsible for this, but we are not responsible for this, you have to work it out for yourself. In general, it was uncomfortable and at some point it began to slow down the process. They seemed to put sticks in the wheels.

And then the investors asked if I could hire an Embedded developer. I immediately asked: “Is this in addition to the existing team or instead?” – “Let’s see”. After I agreed, they wrote a letter to the outsourcer: “Hello, you have three weeks to fully hand over our entire project.”

Luckily, the Embedded Interns I hired turned out to be great. They then saved me. We took over the project very quickly – in three weeks. The project was well documented, and it was not something supernatural. But the interns, of course, did not know a lot of things, and some of the nuances of the work were lost. Nevertheless, we switched because the interaction with the outsourcer was inefficient.

I worked as a service station, my tasks were exclusively managerial. I talked with developers, with Chinese contractors, from whom we ordered the production of hardware. He made global reports – on financial expenses, technical achievements. We discussed some solutions with investors, they are technically savvy, good guys. They liked the way I talk about our results.

Compared to outsourcing duties, I have added an HR function. There were no more technical tasks, I managed the team in the same way, helped others solve problems. But besides that, now I was engaged in hiring: I was looking for people, doing performance reviews, and so on.

The company was bought by a large corporation, and I began to dream of running away from there

At the end of 2019, this company was sold to a large American corporation, which took over the management. And I began to dream of running away from there as quickly as possible.

Although I had not programmed before, I was still fully involved in development: I discussed technical issues with specialists and everything else. After we were bought, I began to spend 5-7 hours a day in rallies. It used to be that the whole calendar was divided into meetings: a report to the financial director, a report to the commercial director, a report to the marketing team, a discussion of quarterly problems with global HR, a discussion of global strategies for 2028. In short, I began to hate my job. I spent a lot of time on phone calls. They also demanded that the call was always with video. It was terrible.

As I mentioned, the salary in the second company was $5K with a tail. After taxes, 5% was $5K net. When the company was bought, they began to pay me $7K with a small tail, in general, it came out to $85K per year. Well, they were not going to raise it further. As soon as we were bought, all financial matters were taken over by the corporation. And, frankly, it was difficult to even discuss it with them.

I still had shares in the company, and when I sold I received money, but not much. It was done so cunningly that they gave me 5% of the shares, but they were stretched out for 10 years. That is, I received 0.5% of the company’s shares every year. I managed to work for 1.5 years before the company was sold. That is, by this time I had accumulated 0.75%. It was small money — $40K or $50K, a one-time payment.

Developers in my team received regular Ukrainian salaries – $2-4K. When we were bought, I made a plan for hiring, we needed more specialists, their salary should have been higher. And in the corporation they say: “Why is the salary growing, why can’t we continue to hire for $4K?” Well, employees, for example, for $2,000 – it happened so by chance: someone rated themselves badly or because of English, I won’t say anymore. And everyone in the company kept saying: why is it so expensive? Let’s get cheaper, let’s cut costs, let’s get smaller. They even cut some of the people they considered superfluous. In general, they were absolutely inadequate, but the company is gigantic, with huge capital. I felt uncomfortable on every call. It’s like I’m reporting to a kindergarten teacher.

Created a “pocket” company for Americans in Ukraine

Third Company – Grocery
Position – RnD Manager
Salary – $20,000 + annual bonus $60,000

Just then – it was 2020 – a recruiter from an American company offered me to work with them. He found me back in 2019 after a big conference in Europe on Embedded Development, where I spoke. The company was surprised, they thought that I was working in America. They asked on what terms I would be interested in cooperating with them. Was offered the position of technical manager. I said that I want to move to the States.

Then our communication somehow died out. They asked if I would agree to work remotely. And then an idea came to my mind: I offered them what I did for the previous company.

I said that I can assemble a team in Ukraine if the company can give tasks that we will perform without being tied to an existing team in America. The salary of an Embedded developer in New York is $20-25K per month. In Kyiv for $5K you can find an awesome engineer. I gave them a three-month plan for hiring, for renting an office. In general, we signed a short-term contract, where it was stated that they would allocate funds to me, I would rent an office, I was looking for people. If I hire at least 4 people, then we sign a long-term contract.

At the price of two developers in the USA, they received 8 specialists in Ukraine

The company is engaged in Embedded development. There are 12 developers in the American office, all over 40. Most of them have been working for more than 10 years in one company. Employees who have been in the industry for a long time are valued here, because there are many technical restrictions associated with legislation and standard requirements. You can’t even explain them with common sense, you just have to do it this way and that’s all – and you need to know this.

In three months I hired the necessary employees for the company, found an office, bought everything for it, and now I manage the main development. We offer solutions, make prototypes. We produce all this in China or in Ukraine, if these are simple boards. We have a full development cycle: we make hardware, software, accompanying software, documentation. In general, all inclusive.

For American employers, we are, in fact, a pocket outsourcing company, so they save a lot of money. For the price of two American developers in Ukraine, they get a team of 8 people. Why in America, developers have to be on staff, they require medical insurance, a giant vacation. They need to pay benefits. For example, when there was a lockdown, some employees there were sent on forced leave, while they had to be paid 75% of their salary. It’s just that there are laws that protect the rights of employees, and our rights in Ukraine, to put it mildly, are not protected. But the company gets a full-fledged remote office here. Additionally, it only covers the costs associated with the transfer of equipment, as well as the time costs for customs clearance.

And the fact that New York is not some special IT region also played a role. There are not many programmers there – few people want to do it for some reason. Therefore, it is really difficult for a company to assemble a good development team on site.

In addition, as investors say, in America, all young developers on the market want to work in IoT, do mobile development, do something cool on the web, fashionable, stylish, youthful. No one aspires to Embedded at all. And when employers found out that I was doing this, they said it was strange.

By the way, we regularly meet with our American colleagues, communicate 2-3 times a week, discuss technical solutions, show the result of our work. Some of the guys there even start to worry. They think that their company opened an office in Ukraine in order to move all the development here and close the office in New York. Some of these fears are justified, theoretically, employees in the States can be reduced, but so that the development is completely closed – this will not happen. Sometimes it happens that you need to debug on the spot, you have to come and feel something installed.

$20K is not a gigantic salary for them

As for duties, in the last company we had a formal director who dealt with legal issues, paperwork, accounting and other things. Here I took everything upon myself. The only thing is that I use the services of a law firm, because I can’t handle everything right away. I do my own bookkeeping. As it turned out, the bookkeeping of the sole proprietorship is once every three months, clicking twice and that’s it. LLC accounting is a little more complicated, but I think that you can also figure it out. In fact, these are the duties of the director of a small office.

There is only a nuance with the vacation. In some positions, it happens that when you take a vacation, you miss some part of the work. That is, you do not do it after the holidays. But in my case it doesn’t work like that. If I take a vacation, I just postpone tasks for later. When I return, I must do everything that I missed. And it will really be worse for me from vacation – after that I have to disassemble everything in an emergency mode.

I have no shares or options here. There is a fixed annual bonus — $60K. All in all, that works out to $20K per month + $60K for a total of $300,000 per year. For them, this is not a gigantic salary. In addition, initially they thought that I was in America. That is, they were ready to pay me such a salary.

My move to America was discussed at first, but now these conversations have come to naught. They need me here, and I understand that. I would like to live in another country. But I would move only if something changes a lot here, taxation somehow changes dramatically, if life becomes completely unbearable. Then maybe.

I hardly increased my expenses

Regarding personal expenses. My IT friends don’t know how much I earn, only that I’m a manager. And so they often say: if I cut $10K, then I could do this and that. .. It has nothing to do with reality. Of course, all this can be spent. But I have practically not increased my expenses in any way.

I invest all my money in an index fund through Interactive Brokers. There it turns out 6.5% per annum in dollars. This allows you to block dollar inflation, keep money in a relatively stable place – even the account itself is insured for $500,000. Shares are not insured, but they are grouped, from several companies in different industries at once.

I practically don’t spend much money. For a family of three, we spend $2,500 a month for everything — renting an apartment, entertainment. I keep $30,000 in the bank for unexpected expenses and that’s it. I rent an apartment for $500, I drive an old car that is 15 years old, and then more for picnics, I get to work by subway.

I don’t buy anything expensive, in general, once upon a time I also thought that if they paid a lot, then the expenses would change a lot. But in fact this is not so.

I do not want to return to writing code in any case

I have not written code for three years, but I continue to resolve technical issues with developers. Requires previous experience. Previously, my team and I were developing for Linux, microcontrollers. Then I wrote the code myself. Well, it just so happens that I never wrote much.

I don’t want to go back to writing code any more. Maybe it’s selfish, but let others work. To be honest, I like to delegate tasks much more. Let’s say a company needs to solve some problem on microcontrollers. I find a cool specialist who has been programming for a specific family of microcontrollers for 10 years non-stop. I discuss the problem with him, he researches with the team for 2-3 days, brings me results, we discuss them for 15 minutes. That is, I spend only 15 minutes of my time. We propose a solution, draw up a plan together with him. Then he goes on to dig his microcontroller, and our company implements what is needed and gets money from it, sometimes big profits.

I think that I can be much more useful in this way, because I use the expertise of other people. I hire specialists who are great at something. I know all this very superficially. What we are doing now, I have never touched with my hands. I don’t have a very good idea of ​​how some of the tools that developers use are arranged there. But the architecture of the project, the connections between the modules and how they are sold, who needs them and why they are needed – this is what I do on a daily basis. It is most important.

Sometimes you need to maintain a very ancient legacy – this is a customer requirement

It happens that a company develops a new module. It’s cool, it uses new technologies, but at the same time, the company has also supported the old module for more than 20 years, and there is a business reason for this. For example, there is a large client who is willing to pay big money for this old product. And this benefits the company, as someone has to support it. Therefore, my task is to convey this to the developer and explain that, in addition to interesting, cool and modern super technologies, we must dig a 20- and sometimes 30-year legacy.

To be honest, I am ashamed to tell candidates at interviews about this. Sometimes people ask me what controllers we work with. I say: with the 51st controller. This is the Intel 8051, which has been on the market for 40 years. And people’s eyes widen. Yes, we don’t work on it that much, but sometimes you need to get into an old project: update something or fix a bug.

The need to support such an ancient legacy does not depend on our desires, but on the needs of customers. There are customers who have our equipment installed and they only want support. They do not plan to change anything for their own reasons. In addition, there is a legal requirement that if more than 50% of the system is updated, then a complete revision must be made. And this can be financially expensive for large companies.

Let’s say if a fire safety system is installed in a large skyscraper, then it can cost 2-3 million dollars. It will be more profitable for the company to constantly maintain it than to change it to a new one. For support, she will pay about $50K per year. The inspector will come, twist, reflash something and that’s it. It’s much cheaper than a complete revision, redoing the entire system. And then there are systems that are installed in airports or stadiums. There, even one module cannot be taken and changed so easily. Everything is strictly regulated by laws.

To increase your income, you need to be closer to capital and understand business

In the last three years I have been far from direct development, now I do not program at all. But I would like to emphasize that developers have the opportunity to offer something to management. Most of the guys I’ve worked with don’t think about it. IT people often troll that in the Soviet Union people stood at the machine, they didn’t see anything. I worked, came home, watched TV and went to bed. Programmers are no different now, they do the same thing, they just don’t watch TV, but play PlayStation.

People are afraid to communicate with a manager, they are happy when in a large company they work in a team of 30 people and they do not need to talk to a client. Like, cool, I’m sitting, clicking my code, and I don’t need to communicate with the customer. And for me, communication with the customer was the only and main factor in increasing the salary. Here, in the first company, I grew from $600 to $2400, because I gave them away, I said: “I want more.” And they are like this with a creak, but they raised it.

The most important thing is to be as close as possible to capital, because whoever has the money orders the music. A person who works, let’s say, in a large outsourcer, writes code, does what the tech lead told him to do. The tech lead does what the manager told him to do. The manager does what the delivery manager said. And he, in turn, does what the customer tells him, and a little bit what came to his mind. A little bit of what the investor said, and a little bit of what the top manager from the outsourcing company asked for. In general, I believe that a developer needs to be interested in business processes: not only how to do it, but also why. Ask why, why, and what result will we get from this?

Yes, if you do this, it will be to the detriment of technical skills. But, if people want to significantly increase their income, advance in their careers, they need to do it. Nothing without this. If a person does not understand why this or that product is being developed, why this or that business process is needed, at the same time he can implement something very high quality – this is just a linear developer.

For me, the biggest impetus in development was the pre-sales. When I arrived, I was a June, I was hired for 600 dollars, just enough for food. I then conducted pre-sales, and we, of course, did not name the amounts. But it was obvious that these were big contracts. And the customers listened to me. Although often my opinion was based on the research that I conducted half an hour before the presale. The most important thing is to present everything beautifully, to tell, to explain why.

We had only clients then, Israelis who loved to play golf. And they wanted to create a cool system for the fields – with a bunch of devices, IoT and everything. We signed a small separate agreement with them on the pre-sale. In this case, my task was to show the amount of work. And in the end it turned out to be colossal, and the clients abandoned the idea of ​​doing the project. Here it was important to correctly understand what exactly people want to implement. Showing them that they can’t do it is also okay. It is not always necessary to please the customer, to say that for your money we will work as much as we like. It will be more valuable if you tell them: with your budget, this is unrealistic, sorry.

If a person wants to remain exclusively a developer, I think there is a certain salary ceiling for him. If at least the role of a lead on the project is not supposed, if it’s just a senior developer who will do tasks in Jira, then I don’t think that in Ukraine they are ready to pay more than, say, $7K for this. This is based on our employment. I currently have a limit of $6K per developer. And this salary assumes a high level of English and 10 years of experience.

It seems to me that if a person already has all this, he should work a little on his soft skills, presentation skills and at least try to take a managerial position. His technical experience isn’t going anywhere. Yes, it will not be as strong, but it can be used more effectively. You can become a team leader with 5-7 engineers. They will be your hands, eyes, sometimes brains, and it will be more effective than if it were done by one person. Well, I think so.

Embedded developers are now paid the least

Recently, due to the fact that almost everyone works remotely and the demand for IT services in general has increased, a lot of American and European companies have started working directly with Ukrainian contractors. If earlier an American company, when it needed to cut costs, hired an outsourcer who had a great English-speaking manager, now everyone understood that there is nothing wrong with remote work, and they began to hire people outside the United States or in another country where the company is located.

But this does not apply to Embedded development. Here the equipment is complex, expensive, sometimes it is in a single copy. It is almost impossible to organize work at home. Therefore, for an Embedded development company, remote contractors are an almost inaccessible option. They continue to work through outsourcers with offices. And in America, they all also go to the office.

I do not claim to be complete, but I have been hiring for 3.5 years and I can say that before the coronavirus, Embedded developers were the most highly paid, valuable and needed. They asked for a lot of money, there were many demands on them. Really hard to hire. But, for example, Python-, Front-end developers came in piles for a free internship.

Now everything has turned upside down. Developers who are not tied to an office can work directly with foreign companies, and they are much more willing to do so than before. But you need to understand that in Embedded everything depends on the decision of customers – whether they are ready to put up with the inconvenience of remote work. If yes, this opens up great financial opportunities for specialists, if not, the opposite is true. I looked at the salary survey on DOU, it shows still high salaries for Embedded, but it’s not true, I don’t see it. It turns out that now Embedded developers with knowledge of English, technology, 10+ years of experience are asking for $3000-3500, $4000. To ask for $6,000–7,000 is already rare, unlike on the web and mobile.

But if you are now looking for, say, Senior Python or Senior Front-end on React, there are no experienced candidates for salary less than $5000 at all. No one will even blink an eye in your direction and will not answer anything.