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Geek Culture / entry level pay

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peorge
16
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Joined: 29th Mar 2008
Location: Brockport New York
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 17:15
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what does and entry level game programmer earn? just a ballpark figure.

peorge
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Nicholas Thompson
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Location: Bognor Regis, UK
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 17:30
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In the city - I'd guess a good beginner could be looking at about £20k...

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peorge
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 18:19
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that is not very good. i guess i stay working on the railroad, starting pay with overtime around $70k and great bennifits. is there money to be made in consulting (part time) doing 3D graphics and programming?

peorge
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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 18:29
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I think consultants usually have a few years of industry experience behind them though, other wise they wouldn't be to good at consulting. Maybe you meant freelance work? You can make some money freelancing for sure. Especially around forums like this, you could make some chump change to take the girl out or something

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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peorge
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 18:59 Edited at: 19th Apr 2008 19:00
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freelance is what i ment, thank you. that is all i am looking for, just make some pocket change doing my hobby. maybe even see my work somewhere when i get good at 3d modeling.

thanks, peorge
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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 19:15
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Yeah there you go, you should be able to do that no problem if you build a solid portfolio. I also recommend making a website of your own to showcase your portfolio. Make sure to make your own domain name for your website too. It's hard to take someone with the url www.freewebs.com/myportfolio seriously. If your had your own www.myportfolio.com name that would be best.

For a good example, find Tha_Rami's and take a look at his, he has a really nice one.

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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Gil Galvanti
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Location: Texas, United States
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 19:16
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Quote: "In the city - I'd guess a good beginner could be looking at about £20k..."

Where have you heard that? I've heard more like 60-65k out of college if you have a degree...


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peorge
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Location: Brockport New York
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 19:23
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yes i will be making a site. yahoo is easy and inexpensive. i have a site now but not related to gamming and just started. i sometimes use it to just show friends what i have made and it soon will be a site for railroad fans. feel free to see the few things i have made but keep in mind i am a noob please. www.usrailfans.com just click on the games link on the links bar at the top. all of the drawings are tools and equiptment used in the railroad industry and that is what my game will be about. my game will be a railroad maintainer simulation with some fun mixed in.
i will research a good webesite name for my portfolio this weekend. thanks

peorge
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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 20:00 Edited at: 19th Apr 2008 20:02
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Here is Tha_Rami's portfolio, he did a really nice job.

Screw yahoo. If you want, when your ready and have some good models to show off, I'll develop a website for you for a small fee. Or maybe if your models are good enough, you can make a few models for me and we could call it a fair trade. I'm currently working on a site for my church, as well as another site for a final project in one of my HTML classes. Once that is done, I'll be able to show you what I'm capable of.

EDIT: Wow, forgot the link http://www.ramiismail.com/

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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MSon
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Location: Earth, (I Think).
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 20:10
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20K a year and your all talkiong as if that was nothink, I earn about 13k a year, the company i use to work at, the depot manager only get about 20/23k.

and Very Nice Site, but im happy with mine

Everyone Be Cool, You, Be Cool.
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Preston C
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Location: Penn State University Park
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 20:12
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Quote: "Where have you heard that? I've heard more like 60-65k out of college if you have a degree..."


That's a more believable figure.

My mother is a programmer for AS/400 systems. She dropped out of college, and only has a degree from a trade school. She works at home, and makes $70k/year.

So I'm guessing someone with a Bachelors Degree of Computer Science might be able to snag a decent salary after graduation.



AMD Opteron 185 2.6 Ghz | 2 GB RAM | 8800 GTS 640MB | Vista Home Premium
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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 20:14 Edited at: 19th Apr 2008 20:15
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Yeah, definitely not 20k, just looked it up, more like 70k, maybe even 80k, good pay right out of college .

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/features/416/the_game_industry_salary_survey_2007.php


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Jeku
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Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 22:23 Edited at: 19th Apr 2008 22:24
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@Gil -- Did you read this part of that?

Quote: "and it's nowhere near what entry-level candidates should vie for when sealing the deal of their first industry job;"


There's no way an entry-level programmer would get $70-80k a year, unless he has John Carmack skills.

In Canada we're a tad bit lower than the US, but entry level here in the game industry is around $50k a year.

In a good 3-4 years you should be up around $80k with bonuses and stocks combined.


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Sid Sinister
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 22:25
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Quote: "Art & Animation
Average salary for three or fewer years experience: $42,672
Average salary Across all experience levels: $65,107"


Woot Can't complain there

"If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants" - Isaac Newton
-Computer Animation Major @Baker.edu-
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Gil Galvanti
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 22:28
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Quote: "@Gil -- Did you read this part of that?

Quote: "and it's nowhere near what entry-level candidates should vie for when sealing the deal of their first industry job;"

There's no way an entry-level programmer would get $70-80k a year, unless he has John Carmack skills."

Ahh, didn't see that. Still, almost 60k is much better than the 20k that was originally suggested .

Quote: "Across all job titles (such as lead programmer, technical director, and so forth) the average salary for an entry-level programmer is almost $66,000. However, when we considered only the entry-level people holding the specific titles "programmer" or "engineer," the average salary dropped to just $57,913 -- which still isn't a bad paycheck to rake in your first year out of college. "

And also, it seems that the pay in the industry raises quite rapidly, and can reach over $100,000 in just 6 years as a lead programmer.


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Jeku
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Posted: 19th Apr 2008 22:33
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Quote: "And also, it seems that the pay in the industry raises quite rapidly, and can reach over $100,000 in just 6 years as a lead programmer."


Yes. If you're at a good company that can pay its bills (and its most valuable resources, their employees), you should get regular raises and bonuses based on how well the company and your games sell. If you're climbing the ranks and intelligently move your career you should get at least $5-10k raise each year.


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Dazzag
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Location: Cyprus
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 23:06 Edited at: 19th Apr 2008 23:09
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Quote: "Yeah, definitely not 20k"
He was in the UK and put a pound sign before it. So thats more like $40k. Plus it looked like he was guessing. Last time I was involved with interviewing CS grads for entry level pleb programming work it was upto around £25k ($50k) depending on what the job was for and what you could do, in an area about half an hour away from London proper (very big place). That was about 2001. And nothing to do with computer games (travel software to be precise). I'm guessing like anything else the games industry can go sharply in earnings for nicer/profitable places than the smaller/meaner places. Rough guess that there would generally be more money in the games industry for programmers on average, but that would be a guess and a totally unfoundable statement for me to make. I do have an old college mate who is a director at EA though. I'm guessing he is doing ok. Last project was the Simpsons movie game I believe. My last one was programming Disney child discounts into the accommodation pricing system. Next up could be the flight version. Sigh, knew I should have took more notice of his cool assembly raster routines on the ST when I was busy getting pissed up and mucking about in STOS...

Oh, and when I last looked (quite a few years ago), programming jobs in my field were (roughly) at least 10-20% higher wages in the US than in the UK. May have been because the language I do is incredibly rare and used a bit more in the US, but just thought I would mention it.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Osiris
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Location: Robbinsdale, MN
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 23:10
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Well you can make really good money doing freelance work. Especially if you can do good design work for like advertising and stuff, especially since it does not take long to make that kind of stuff when you get good after a year of doing it or so.

RIP Max-Tuesday, November 2 2007
You will be dearly missed.
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Gil Galvanti
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Location: Texas, United States
Posted: 19th Apr 2008 23:45
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Quote: "He was in the UK and put a pound sign before it. So thats more like $40k."

Ahh, sorry, read it as $ .


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GatorHex
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Location: Gunchester, UK
Posted: 20th Apr 2008 01:16 Edited at: 20th Apr 2008 01:21
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Pay in the computer industry sux, why? Because we don't have a union and everyone made redundent gets re-skilled as an IT person! People are selling training courses the salary at the end isn't as amazing as they promise.

I'm at MSc + MCSE level can't even find work! If anyones got a job near Manchester UK £20k drop me a line

DinoHunter (still no nVidia compo voucher!), CPU/GPU Benchmark, DarkFish Encryption DLL, War MMOG (WIP), 3D Model Viewer
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Seppuku Arts
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Location: Cambridgeshire, England
Posted: 20th Apr 2008 01:26
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£20-25k is good for entry level, my brother's a chef getting £16k, his entry level was about £13k and my Dad is a bank manager and gets £22k and he's been banking for years (since he left the air force about 13 years a go) Yeah you're not going to get a big house or a fancy car, but hey we live in a nice semi-detached house in the countryside of Cambridgeshire.

In US terms, well I don't know what you living costs are, but I doubt they're that much different in respects, you'd need to pay health insurance, but you guys don't have VAT (as far I am aware, never seen a US online store have the annoy Exc. VAT and Inc. VAT labels by the prices. ).

"Experience never provides its judgments with true or strict universality; but only (through induction) with assumed and comparative universality." - Immanuel Kant
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GatorHex
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Posted: 20th Apr 2008 02:03
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This might interest anyone near Leeds UK, Rockstar Games are looking for Game Testers and C++ Programmers

http://www.rockstarleeds.com/

DinoHunter (still no nVidia compo voucher!), CPU/GPU Benchmark, DarkFish Encryption DLL, War MMOG (WIP), 3D Model Viewer
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