Do You Earn Less Than a Silicon Valley Intern?

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In case you didn't feel bad enough already, let's talk about how much money Silicon Valley interns make. I'll give you a hint, it's pretty close to double the average national wage. Here's a handy list of all the actual salaries made by interns by company:

The median monthly base salary for an engineering-focused summer intern at some of the big technology companies is $6,800. Annualized, that's $81,600 a year, according to data collected by Rodney Folz, a former University of California Berkeley student and soon-to-be Yelp intern. The national wage index is $46,481.52, according to data last compiled by the Social Security Administration in 2014.
 
I earn less these days, but I guess I'm not working at all atm.

I used to make that much yearly, for an intern that is pretty outrageous.

But I imagine there are not many interns in those spots to begin with.
 
I make more than that, but those prime *engineering* intern spots are few and far between, these boys and girls are prime talent. Most rank and file interns make barely above $10/hr.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.
 
Meh, saying their 1 month summer salary is $7k isn't really translating that into a monthly salary of that amount. I mean I can teach 2 classes during summer school and yeah I make more than they do over the summer.
 
I do real estate in that area. If you're not making 100K+ don't even bother trying to live in those areas. $300/mth HOA fees, $1000+ rent for 350sq/ft. The only market more expensive in the US is Manhattan.
 
My engineering internship for a company in Texas was 18.50/hr IIRC. Most of that went to paying for school though. I'd been working for Walmart before then and had no money/lots of debt.
 
Jeremy C said:
I do real estate in that area. If you're not making 100K+ don't even bother trying to live in those areas. $300/mth HOA fees, $1000+ rent for 350sq/ft. The only market more expensive in the US is Manhattan.
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That really puts things into perspective.

350 sq/ft for $1000+ that is the size of a large bedroom.

Ya no thanks!
 
nvgrim said:
When the cost of living in silicon valley is double or triple the national average these wages mean nothing.
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I am amazed at how often the cost of living is left out of discussions like these. I live like a king where I am at on my current salary, but I would be a pauper in Silicon Valley at the same.
 
micro-apt.jpg



Decent sized bathroom..
 
nvgrim said:
When the cost of living in silicon valley is double or triple the national average these wages mean nothing.
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108k (at pintrest) is pretty damn good for an intern. 72k for FB isn't bad either. I suspect most interns have a roommate or 2 and I know people who made a hell of a lot less that lived in SF (though not as engineers). Bottom line is the vast majority of people on this forum would never be accepted as an intern at these companies. Their selection process is very rigorous and you'll be lucky to get beyond the 2nd or 3rd phone interview.
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
That really puts things into perspective.

350 sq/ft for $1000+ that is the size of a large bedroom.
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That's a little less that the size of my master bedroom/bath/closet :)
We have more that 2x that space per family member in my house :)
 
Makaveli@BETA said:
That really puts things into perspective.
350 sq/ft for $1000+ that is the size of a large bedroom.
Ya no thanks!
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Yeah, but they're only there for the summer (in most cases). If you're living in a place for 3 months, you can easily live in 350 sq ft. If they're hired full time, these people are probably making significantly more. As others said, these interns are among the best of the best
 
nilepez said:
108k (at pintrest) is pretty damn good for an intern. 72k for FB isn't bad either. I suspect most interns have a roommate or 2 and I know people who made a hell of a lot less that lived in SF (though not as engineers). Bottom line is the vast majority of people on this forum would never be accepted as an intern at these companies. Their selection process is very rigorous and you'll be lucky to get beyond the 2nd or 3rd phone interview.
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Spot on.

This isnt the internships people think of when they think of internships. This is a MIT/Stanford top class status courtship kind of internship.
 
Fuck everyone. Wages here in New Zealand SUCK. They're all making more than twice what I do as a sysadmin :(
 
nvgrim said:
When the cost of living in silicon valley is double or triple the national average these wages mean nothing.
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That's my thinking. What's a 1 bedroom apartment run there? I imagine anything worth living in is around $1500-3000 for starters. Not getting a house there for cheap. So they can have that 8K a month pay, no jealousy here.
 
A 50 year old one story house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in a decent neighborhood is around $800k and up. In the good neighborhoods it can reach $1.2-1.5 million. It is stupidly expensive in the Bay Area compared to just 1-2 hours outside the Bay Area (Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento, etc). We have a saying among our families and friends. Once you move out of the Bay Area, you're not coming back unless you strike it rich.
 
I volunteer to be a remote access Silicon Valley Intern! Will work from home! PM me...
 
Also the traffic makes it very difficult to live in cheaper areas. Oakland isn't cheap anymore. BART is trash. I don't use Caltrain but my buddy at Adobe doesn't think much of it. Soooooooooooooo better plunk down 40% on rent down in the Silicon Valley.
 
Corvette said:
Exactly, divide by the cost of living there and where I live I probably make triple their salary.
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I work near NYC, but when I got my last job which allowed telecommuting (for all but one day when I have to go in), I moved about two hours away. I earn less than my last job, but because I pay about a third of what I was paying in rent, I have a much higher quality of life. A lot of college hires go to places like Manhattan or Silicon Valley, completely unaware of the cost of living, and thus don't properly negotiate. $100k only sounds like a fortune until you actually live there and realize you'd be better off elsewhere.
 
I'm in the Canadian military and sitting at a pretty $73k a year. In an area with the highest cost of living in the country. This doesn't seem that outrageous for the area these interns are expected to live.
 
That's funny, the interns are paid better than some of the FTEs at these companies. I guess they must only let in the most promising kids into these programs to make an impression.
 
Man, my first coop job paid $6.50 an hour. I thought I was doing ok. I'm in the midwest, lived with my parents, so was actually not bad back in the day.
Now that I am an adult, I probably make $9 an hour some weeks (adjusting for unpaid overtime).
 
The good news is I do make more then that.
The bad news is that I had to do my job for 15 years to get there.
 
Cobalt35 said:
Wages here in New Zealand SUCK. They're all making more than twice what I do as a sysadmin :(
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Hopefully you are not expected to be an entire IT department like me :nailbiting:

Servers (about 30 scattered over 2 location), Firewall, Exchange, Phone system, SQL, Desktop support/repair, Backups.... Even working out contracts for internet and phone lines and specing and ordering everything from Servers to laptops & mice.

And they wonder why large projects take so long.:sour:
 
Tsumi said:
A 50 year old one story house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in a decent neighborhood is around $800k and up. In the good neighborhoods it can reach $1.2-1.5 million. It is stupidly expensive in the Bay Area compared to just 1-2 hours outside the Bay Area (Stockton, Fresno, Sacramento, etc). We have a saying among our families and friends. Once you move out of the Bay Area, you're not coming back unless you strike it rich.
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Same down here in Orange County California. Once you move out, you'll likely never be able to afford to move back.
Average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is $2,287, two bedrooms run $3,108.
Average home price is $760,000, or $393 /sq ft

I'm just lucky I bought 20 years ago when the price was about 1/4 of that.
 
We love no context to our data these days. Let's present salary numbers, and completely ignore cost of living differences between geographies. Once of these days we'll learn to normalize things, but for now, let's just throw numbers at 'em!
 
nvgrim said:
When the cost of living in silicon valley is double or triple the national average these wages mean nothing.
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I try to explain money wages and real wages to people all the time, they never get it.
 
Even if cost of living is higher, that's still a crazy amount for just an intern. I guess when you have a limited amount of talent, you need to provide some kind of incentive to keep them from going to the other companies. At least I make as much as the #3 and #4 spots. Course my rent is $2k a month and I'm tax free. I'd hate to pay those taxes in Cali.

I'm still trying to figure out why some of these companies haven't moved house to another place with a good talent pool, where the cost of living is lower. Wonder if they get tax breaks from the Cali government.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Meh, saying their 1 month summer salary is $7k isn't really translating that into a monthly salary of that amount. I mean I can teach 2 classes during summer school and yeah I make more than they do over the summer.
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Internships are typically closer to three months and these companies are also providing relocation and housing expenses. Total compensation at a place like Amazon is going to be closer to $25,000 for the Summer.

nvgrim said:
When the cost of living in silicon valley is double or triple the national average these wages mean nothing.
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iPads cost the same whether you're in Palo Alto, CA or Palm Springs, Arkansas. Even if you have similar spending money in real terms, if you put that money into a house and build equity you will end up with far more money working for these companies than a lesser firm in a low cost of living area. Total compensation at most of these companies is over $200k all in with five years of experience.

Miikun said:
That's funny, the interns are paid better than some of the FTEs at these companies. I guess they must only let in the most promising kids into these programs to make an impression.
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I've seen discussions of full time offers for returning interns at Facebook offered total compensation slightly north of $200k right out of school. Interns are not being paid more than a full time developer at these companies.
 
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krotch said:
I'm still trying to figure out why some of these companies haven't moved house to another place with a good talent pool, where the cost of living is lower. Wonder if they get tax breaks from the Cali government.
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Some have, but I'd guess mainly it's a situation of "Everyone else is here, so I might as well be too". Different parts of the country have different industries. As a business, you want to be around your customers. As a worker, you want to be around an area with multiple companies should things go south. Let's say you lose your job at a tech startup in Alabama, and don't have finances to move. Exactly where are you going to find work now?
 
Nytegard said:
Some have, but I'd guess mainly it's a situation of "Everyone else is here, so I might as well be too". Different parts of the country have different industries. As a business, you want to be around your customers. As a worker, you want to be around an area with multiple companies should things go south. Let's say you lose your job at a tech startup in Alabama, and don't have finances to move. Exactly where are you going to find work now?
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For a single person moving house isn't too bad and some of these companies will provide relocation or a 0% loan for relocation. For those with a family, ya, moving isn't going to be easy. I understand what you're saying though. It would make more sense for the intern to be in such a location for easy job movement and it makes sense for the company who can pick up talent from other companies, if that talent decides they want to work elsewhere.

I'm just a system admin and single, so not hard for me to move. Way more jobs out there for a sys admin, than some kind of web developer or whatever it is these companies hire.
 
krotch said:
Even if cost of living is higher, that's still a crazy amount for just an intern. I guess when you have a limited amount of talent, you need to provide some kind of incentive to keep them from going to the other companies. At least I make as much as the #3 and #4 spots. Course my rent is $2k a month and I'm tax free. I'd hate to pay those taxes in Cali.

I'm still trying to figure out why some of these companies haven't moved house to another place with a good talent pool, where the cost of living is lower. Wonder if they get tax breaks from the Cali government.
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That talent migration is already happening. Ironically enough, Texas is one of those hotspots. Here in the Dallas area (+burbs) and Austin, dev job opportunities are awesome.

For example, starting salaries for an entry level Java/J2EE dev is nearly 70k here in Dalls/Richardson/Plano/Garland/Frisco. After normalizing the salary to CA standards, that's matching quite a few entry-level salaries over in CA.
 
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