Tracking salary trends is important for companies and job seekers, especially when we’re talking about one of the most in-demand sectors: Tech.
Job Seekers have the upper hand right now. Unemployment is low, and businesses are hustling to fill open positions. But while job seekers definitely need to know their worth, companies must also know what to expect to pay for these positions.
When candidates and companies possess this information, it makes our job and yours easier, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges out there. It’s not easy to standardize so many data points across industries and experience levels.
In response, we’ve developed a tool to aggregate public-facing salary information with our own data, which we collect from over 500 individual surveys with job seekers and over 300 specific engineering hires that we have facilitated. And with this data in hand, we can discuss what we’re seeing across the Tech sector, as well as salary ranges for the top positions in Tech.
This helps all of us make informed decisions. It also helps us help you.
What We’re Seeing in TECH
Tech job seekers used to be pigeon-holed. For example, if someone only knew PHP or .Net, that’s what the company recruited them to do. But this is no longer the case, especially with the exponential growth of open source software and the engineers to build that software.
Hands-on roles in Tech are more in demand than ever. Five years ago, a tech candidate might have been pushed into management. Not anymore. Being able to build things is most valuable. And product is king.
We’ve seen salaries spike for all engineering roles, but salaries for Java engineers have started to outpace those of .Net engineers and other open source engineers (think Ruby, Python or Full stack).
For Tech candidates overall, making an impact is key. Top-tier candidates may want equity, and might be willing to take less salary if they know their work will make an impact on the world.
Meanwhile, Cloud and DevOps positions may not get as much attention as software engineering roles but they’re one of the fastest growing areas in the sector.
Final Thoughts
Tech candidates need to know their worth—and so do the companies hiring them. We’re about transparency, setting expectations and making sound decisions.
Further, Tech candidates want to have an impact on the world, and we want to ensure they find positions that enable them to do so.
Hirewell is Your Partner in Understanding the Current Salary Trends for the Roles Your Organization is Looking to Fill
We’re also here to provide you with the insights you need to make smart decisions.
Want to know the salary trends for other specialties? View our posts on Sales, Marketing and Human Resources hires.
Finally, our data is specific to Chicago, but if you want to compare data in Chicago to other cities, we recommend you visit Nerdwallet’s cost of living calculator.
