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Old 10-09-2011, 08:00 PM
 
Location: Cornelius, NC
1,045 posts, read 2,657,998 times
Reputation: 679

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I work for a trading firm as a C++ developer. I've heard of people making $150K or even more doing this stuff. I'm an entry level guy sort of with over 4 years of experience. I didn't work in trading until this year though. I am making $70K with fully loaded benefits and up to a 15% bonus. Is this pretty average for a guy like me or am I being underpaid?
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Old 10-09-2011, 08:13 PM
 
28,453 posts, read 85,379,084 times
Reputation: 18729
With four years of experience, no special certification / advanced degrees, your compensation seems pretty close to on-target. Several former big spending firms are actively downsizing their development teams, this is probably not a great time to ask for more money...

If your role / compensation has not expanded since 2007 you might want to think about looking for other places to work, but honestly the odds of doubling your salary unless you have a proven track record of working on things like low latency trading systems or something other still hot speciality is a long shot. Trading firms are far from universally successful. The market makers that benefit from large volumes of trades and volatility are not staffed quite differently than the hedges / proprietary traders that have huge worries about the potential for some kind of not-so-black swan to come swimming through the markets. Gold bugs, Greeks, rogue traders all give these guys nightmares...
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Old 10-09-2011, 08:29 PM
 
Location: Cornelius, NC
1,045 posts, read 2,657,998 times
Reputation: 679
That's what I thought. Just wanted to check in. I know I will be getting some good raises from this company as long as I keep showing them what I am all about but just wanted to make sure I am not missing out on a huge $20K+ easy bump of some sort.
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Old 10-09-2011, 09:21 PM
 
1,210 posts, read 3,062,483 times
Reputation: 651
70k is about right but if you stick with trading a while longer that # can get higher much faster. I know guys with 150k salaries and another independent that consistently bills out $100/hr but they have 10~ years of experience or so.
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Old 10-09-2011, 10:27 PM
 
Location: Not where you ever lived
11,535 posts, read 30,265,438 times
Reputation: 6426
In the present economy I would not entertain a new job asa you have a very decent salary and full benefits -especially since you know better times are ahead.
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Old 10-13-2011, 11:38 AM
 
16,376 posts, read 22,486,570 times
Reputation: 14398
Focus on expanding your technical experience with every tool/app you can get your hands on at work. These days, tech jobs often ask for at 20 bullet points.
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Old 10-13-2011, 11:42 AM
 
1,302 posts, read 1,951,013 times
Reputation: 1001
Quote:
Originally Posted by Caldus View Post
I work for a trading firm as a C++ developer. I've heard of people making $150K or even more doing this stuff. I'm an entry level guy sort of with over 4 years of experience. I didn't work in trading until this year though. I am making $70K with fully loaded benefits and up to a 15% bonus. Is this pretty average for a guy like me or am I being underpaid?
I was thinking about this thread the other day, and at my firm $70-90K seems to be about right for <5yrs exp.
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Old 10-13-2011, 12:12 PM
 
3,674 posts, read 8,662,137 times
Reputation: 3086
$40,577.39 precisely.
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