Actually , top software engineers make more than that at the very beginning of their career now . Starting pay for new grad SDEs at Amazon has been above 100 k for several years now IIRC mine was 90 k 20 k signing bonus in 2013 . I don ' t work at amazon anymore but can only assume it has gone up . And the famous Bay Area companies are known for paying more than the famous Seattle companies like Amazon and MS . <| sep |> My father was a carpenter and furniture maker before he died a few years ago . One day when I was young I found him sanding and painting the back of a set of drawers with excrutiating detail and I said Why are you worrying about the back of a drawer ? No one will ever know and he said I ' ll know . I knew then what kind of man my father was and also I made this story up .