What is a reasonable salary to expect in Seattle area (more details in post).. (Redmond: to rent, house prices)

[metimes3]

Is there anyone in the Seattle area familiar with what we could expect to get salary wise. My hubby would be working in the tech industry. More specifically he is a computer programmer/software engineer for a video game company.
Right now we live in the midwest in probably a med-col area. Maybe on the lower end though. He currently is making $82,000 salary, but last year made about 100k after bonuses. He gets bonuses every 6 months that are based on their sales. Also he gets a yearly raise which has been about 4% for the last 3 years.
So we are really wanting to move to the west after his next game his released. That will be 7 or so years of experience in the industry. ALso by then his salary will probably be between 90-95k (maybe closer to 100k if he gets a promotion which is very highly possible).
We are seriously considering the Seattle area. There are about 3-5 game companies alone in the area. The only drawback to us is the cost of living. It's crazy high. SO we would love to go there, but they need to pay us enough. Anyone want to guess at what they may offer us? I would hope that he would get paid at least 130k-140k so we could maybe buy a decent house, but not sure if that is unrealistic.
Thanks!

[Freebird2007]

all i know is.....I took a $30k hit when I moved out here from NE

[metimes3]

Well I would really hope that wouldn't happen to us! Considering housing cost more than 60% more there.

[SeattlitefromNC]

Originally Posted by metimes3

Is there anyone in the Seattle area familiar with what we could expect to get salary wise. My hubby would be working in the tech industry. More specifically he is a computer programmer/software engineer for a video game company.
Right now we live in the midwest in probably a med-col area. Maybe on the lower end though. He currently is making $82,000 salary, but last year made about 100k after bonuses. He gets bonuses every 6 months that are based on their sales. Also he gets a yearly raise which has been about 4% for the last 3 years.
So we are really wanting to move to the west after his next game his released. That will be 7 or so years of experience in the industry. ALso by then his salary will probably be between 90-95k (maybe closer to 100k if he gets a promotion which is very highly possible).
We are seriously considering the Seattle area. There are about 3-5 game companies alone in the area. The only drawback to us is the cost of living. It's crazy high. SO we would love to go there, but they need to pay us enough. Anyone want to guess at what they may offer us? I would hope that he would get paid at least 130k-140k so we could maybe buy a decent house, but not sure if that is unrealistic.
Thanks!

130K is possible at the bigger tech companies (MS and Amazon), but I've not heard of the smaller companies paying that much. Though, to be fair, my friends do not discuss their salaries.

I don't think that getting a high (read: $100k+) salary will be that much of an issue (if you are worth it, the companies will offer it) ... my question is, do you want to live in a house when you get here?

If you want to rent, then the move will probably be worth it.

If you want to buy, you may not get over the shock of house prices out here.

I've got to say, to me, the big issue is the cost-of-living increase, and I'm not sure that it would be worth it. It may depend on what your long-term goals are. If you are looking for a place to raise kids, the kidlessness of Seattle will probably put you off, as well as the much higher cost of living. However, if you are looking for a nice, big, shiny company to put on your resume and to have some fun on the West Coast for a couple of years while renting, then Seattle is as good a place as they get!

[SeattlitefromNC]

As to what your husband is worth, it's hard to know without knowing your husband's skill set.

My guess is that he shouldn't settle for less than the number he has now.

The people that I know who are in the game industry usually don't stay restricted to games for long (as you know, it's not all fun and games), but I would say that the employers here tend to be generous with salaries. Some places are better to work for than others, though.

I can guess one big name that he's looking at (Nintendo, perhaps?), but he might want to look at some smaller names as well. I have friends working for quite a few smaller companies out here.

[metimes3]

Actually, nintendo is not on his list as they don't do the kind of work he is interested in. The companies he is looking into are: Snowblind Studios (bothell), Sucker Punch (bellevue), and Bungie (Redmond and also owned by the same company is currently works for, so it would be a transfer). I do believe though that he would like to stay in games as long as possible as lots do. He is currently the technical director on their next project and hopefully will continue to move up after that.
We are definitely hoping to make our next move permanant. We are originally born and raised in Idaho, and want to be closer to family. We have 2 kids and will possibly have one more. I stay at home and will probably do so until my kids are in school. I guess I didn't realize Seattle is kidless? That may not be so great for me.

Oh, and we will probably rent for a little while, but would love to eventually buy. I'm okay renting for a few years, butmy hubby has a harder time with that concept .

[SeattlitefromNC]

Originally Posted by metimes3

Actually, nintendo is not on his list as they don't do the kind of work he is interested in. The companies he is looking into are: Snowblind Studios (bothell), Sucker Punch (bellevue), and Bungie (Redmond and also owned by the same company is currently works for, so it would be a transfer). I do believe though that he would like to stay in games as long as possible as lots do. He is currently the technical director on their next project and hopefully will continue to move up after that.
We are definitely hoping to make our next move permanant. We are originally born and raised in Idaho, and want to be closer to family. We have 2 kids and will possibly have one more. I stay at home and will probably do so until my kids are in school. I guess I didn't realize Seattle is kidless? That may not be so great for me.

Oh, and we will probably rent for a little while, but would love to eventually buy. I'm okay renting for a few years, butmy hubby has a harder time with that concept .

Seattle proper doesn't have a lot of kids in it; as is often quoted, there are more dogs here than kids!

However, the suburbs are full-up with kids. Sammamish, Redmond, Issaquah, Duvall, etc ... those places are full of families.

You definitely would not be the only SAHM around here. The only difference between you and them is that most of the working husbands work at MS! But, that's not a huge deal.

The transfer would probably be best for you. I've heard good things about Bungie and Sucker Punch and have not heard anything about Snowblind Studios.

[metimes3]

Good to hear .
Also, if you don't mind... what good things have you heard about them?

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by SeattlitefromNC

Seattle proper doesn't have a lot of kids in it; as is often quoted, there are more dogs here than kids!

I live in the Wedgwood neighborhood of Seattle and there are kids all over the place here. The Northeast part of town is packed with families because the lots are bigger and the schools tend to be the highest ranked in the city.

[snowdogging]

One of the problems with being in an area with a lot of software development is their are a lot of software developers and some of them value their time a lot less than others. I would call his current salary close to median in this area for a developer. In my experience "most" game developers make less than a corporate product developer. But, if he has a niche skill that is highly desirable all bets are off.