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It's a good time to be a developer

Data from recruiting firm Riviera Partners shows that software developers are making good money, especially in the early days of company financing.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
Dave Rosenberg
2 min read

One of the myths in Silicon Valley is that it's somehow super-cheap to build a company. Much of that theory is based on the fact that you can get a lot of very high-quality software very cheap or free, thanks to open source and cloud computing. But getting beyond a prototype of a product takes a lot more cash.

To build a quality, sustainable product and have a business that scales, you will sooner or later have to hire people, and in the Valley that usually means engineers. And engineers aren't cheap these days.

The infographic below from Riviera Partners, a high-tech recruiting firm, shows that engineers are actually quite expensive. The infographic data is based on year-to-date 2011 and encompasses engineering developer placements across the United States.

I spoke yesterday with Riviera's founder and managing partner Michael Morrell who told me that the firm has seen developer salaries increase 7 percent to 10 percent over the past two quarters and that senior engineers are finding themselves with multiple offers. This is a change from the past several years where salaries have been stable within 2 percent to 4 percent.

According to Morrell, the past three quarters have also seen high-end developers focus more on salary and less on equity; they're willing to take more stable positions at later-stage companies to have a guaranteed income.

Overall, Morrell said he believes it's a great time to be an engineer looking for a job but also cautioned that becoming a sought-after resource means that you show commitment to your work and not jump around positions without reasonable cause.

 
Engineering Salaries: The rise of the developers
Riviera Partners