I'm in the game industry in Montreal and this sounds like a really familiar path that a lot of my friends did, especial that last job... I bet I even know which company that is haha
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- Thread starter TheDutchSlayer
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Almost worked for Eidos in MTL for QA, so yeah those $/h we're pretty much spot on since i knew a few people in the industries.
I still work in a "privilege industry" where i'm paid 37k base salary + commission. Usually ending at 50-60k CAD.
With this pandemic, i'm losing around 15-20k this year.
You can pretty much guess what i'm working in with the info above.
I work 70h+ a week 7 months of the year. 5months is the usual 40h
I still work in a "privilege industry" where i'm paid 37k base salary + commission. Usually ending at 50-60k CAD.
With this pandemic, i'm losing around 15-20k this year.
You can pretty much guess what i'm working in with the info above.
I work 70h+ a week 7 months of the year. 5months is the usual 40h
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I started in QA in 2010 earning £13500 per year. Then went to £16k as a setup engineer working crazy hours then £21k as a designer.
That studio went under and I started at new company working on AAA back on £15k, worked my way back to being a designer at £21k and then switched to a new studio with a substantial pay increase. I now have 10 years experience in a number of roles and on my way to being a senior but some of these number are massive to me!
That studio went under and I started at new company working on AAA back on £15k, worked my way back to being a designer at £21k and then switched to a new studio with a substantial pay increase. I now have 10 years experience in a number of roles and on my way to being a senior but some of these number are massive to me!
Hey now - we love you!
Your remuneration is not your worth as a human being and the only people that think so are nepotism hires with no actual talent or skill.
Without looking up her LinkedIn profile she probably went to a prestigious university and had multiple internship offers from other non gaming companies. It is very likely that she was heavily recruited for that internship.
I noticed around 10 nicknames in here from there. Not sure why my brain still remember all nicknames though...
It's strange. Some people posting super low salaries (mostly QA), but some people have crazy salaries, especially for non-developer positions. A lot of what I'm seeing are $80K+ salaries for some of those positions, many over $100K. Some of the jumps are insane, too.. like $40K to over $1000K in like 4 years.
People should look at the cost of living in some of these areas while evaluating these salaries. These jobs would not pay the same amount in different areas of the country.
Another thing to consider is that layoffs happen all the time, and that digs into the actual money they get even if on paper they have a $100k salary. I've known plenty of people whose hourly rate was around $50, but because of layoffs they don't spend a full 12 months working a year.
Even if you're an engineer with 10 years experience, the hiring process of submitting a resume, having them get back to you, scheduling a phone screen, scheduling an in person interview, getting a job offer, going through a background check, and onboarding them can easily take 3 months from layoff to first paycheck. This causes somebody who has a 100K salary to make 75K a year.
Let's not forget the constant crunch. Assuming they work 5 more hours over the standard 40 (which is a lower bound estimate), they make the hourly equivalent of less than 90k.
Also, game development jobs tend to be clustered in expensive cities, which further decreases their actual buying power.
Even if you're an engineer with 10 years experience, the hiring process of submitting a resume, having them get back to you, scheduling a phone screen, scheduling an in person interview, getting a job offer, going through a background check, and onboarding them can easily take 3 months from layoff to first paycheck. This causes somebody who has a 100K salary to make 75K a year.
Let's not forget the constant crunch. Assuming they work 5 more hours over the standard 40 (which is a lower bound estimate), they make the hourly equivalent of less than 90k.
Also, game development jobs tend to be clustered in expensive cities, which further decreases their actual buying power.
Income tax in the US generally works out to around 20-30% (after deductions). Plus healthcare costs. Plus retirement savings.
Take home is a lot less than the posted salaries.
Not in SF or LA. That is standard fare due to cost of living. It's not like EA is based in Iowa.
Her numbers are just insane. 34$ for an internship, 100k+ for her first job. 164k+bonus is absolutely insane considering the yearly bonuses Riot must give. I don't know if Riot uses a visible, clear distribution or if it's discretionary. Going to assume it's discretionary as it's the case in most studios. Seeing her position + the fact that she is a pretty prominent figure, she must clear a lot of money from those bonuses as well.
But it's the American reality I guess. There's still a lot of money needed for health insurance, rent/property prices are insanely high and there's most likely a lot of other costs that exist just from living in the US that I'm not taking into account. Still think it's amazing despite the living prices.
Going to check this thoroughly, I have roughly the same experience as her but I'm nowhere near her salary. Her entry level job salary is about 25k more than my current one, and about 70k more than my entry game design job.
70k would be about the yearly salary of the 34$/h internship.
Those numbers are pretty standard for West Coast tech jobs in a non-programming role. Software engineers can easily hit $250k+.
She's getting market rate for LA and SF. Those numbers are nowhere near excessively high. Her bonus is probably around $20k/yr, but is not guaranteed.
If anything, the writing job in 2015 is below market/underpaid.
Look at the same level positions in any other slice of the software industry and they're significantly below par. Big tech entry level engineering roles are at/above that.
And jumps from entry-level salaries to 6-figure salaries w/in 4-5 years are not all uncommon. As an example, in professional services (business consulting, accounting, etc.) the 4-5 year mark is where you typically hit Manager and salary increase to $100k (if you survive the shit show that is being low on the totem pole in professional services).
34 per hour? Thats actually pretty plenty compared to what people can get here. Here you are paid per day, and the payment is very low. You get 1 or 2 dollars a day
The only thing you can get high salary is if you are in executive position
Oh yeah obviously. I guess I am just too used to posting numbers with taxes already being deducted.
The different reactions to these salaries are funny! "Seems high!" "Too low."
Unfortunately, it's hard to judge without knowing the experience levels of these people.
To me they seemed low, though. Especially for as many jobs as some of them have been through. That's the only thing that I can equate to experience level, but it's obviously flawed to look at it that way.
Unfortunately, it's hard to judge without knowing the experience levels of these people.
To me they seemed low, though. Especially for as many jobs as some of them have been through. That's the only thing that I can equate to experience level, but it's obviously flawed to look at it that way.
Location is also key.
For example, I wouldn't be shocked if EA pays equivalent roles less at Tiburon (located in central FL) than it does at HQ in SF or at the SoCal studios.
Cost of living and competition from other industries is a thing.
I work in tech for a Fortune 500... I just barely got a small raise, but hadn't had one for almost 3 years. I started at about $35K, jumped up to $47K, then $60K and now I'm at a bit above $80K (including a bonus). Comparing what I've been paid to some of these is a joke. I should be at $100K+ right now, especially due to my title (Lead Product Manager in software). I'm in a MCOL area. Yeah, some of these are in high COL areas, but not all of them. This makes me think that I should look for a new job (I've already been thinking that with the lack of raise in the last few years).
I'm just surprised there is so much complaining. A lot of these are very good salaries, even for HCOL areas ($100K in CA is still like $80K elsewhere, aside from maybe the bay area). Also surprised at some of the salaries.. there are several that are in the range of $150Kish and up.
You're being screwed six ways to Sunday. You should be easily clearing $100,000/yr.
What really sucks is that I revamped my resume and started looking for a job basically the week Covid got very bad. It's a lot harder to find something open now, especially if I don't want to move.
Community Manager at 55k is pretty well paid considering everything else in the Montreal region. I know companies here that give their employees the title of Community Manager and pay them minimum wage, which kind of ruins the Community Manager title in a gross way. A proper Community Manager though, at least in the Montreal area, tops out at around 65k. The problem with the job is that there often is no plan to grow from there or some companies vastly pay less than that.
There's a massive difference in job description for a Community Manager too, with almost no company wanting the same thing.
Interesting.
The person said they were with Ready at Dawn at the time. I'd link it but I lost it and can't find it.
Some anecdata: I switched from an entry-level gameplay programmer/scripter position to an entry level software engineer position, 2x'd salary, 3x after stock grants/bonus, and worked about 1/2 the hours. Either I'll have to build a heck of a nest egg or marry someone with more money than I can fathom to go back into games.
Having moved from the UK to US, the pay bump is indeed very real. I saw my salary go up ~2.5x from the move. It didn't mean cash in hand increased as much though, but it was a nice increase.
It's primarily because of competition - the market rate is much higher in the US due to a general lack of talent. It can also be harder to avoid the high cost of living: I personally think the severe lack of quality, fast public transit is a huge reason for this too. It makes living in smaller, cheaper towns feasible in Europe.
Would you rather earn 2x as much with a 90 commute in LA traffic, or pay half as much for a house with a 90 minute train ride where you can sleep/read/etc?
Fwiw I choose both an moved somewhere with nearly LA pay and a 10 minute commute :p
It's primarily because of competition - the market rate is much higher in the US due to a general lack of talent. It can also be harder to avoid the high cost of living: I personally think the severe lack of quality, fast public transit is a huge reason for this too. It makes living in smaller, cheaper towns feasible in Europe.
Would you rather earn 2x as much with a 90 commute in LA traffic, or pay half as much for a house with a 90 minute train ride where you can sleep/read/etc?
Fwiw I choose both an moved somewhere with nearly LA pay and a 10 minute commute :p
I don't work in games anymore, but my first few game positions were in QA at large studios. The pay was so terrible for the hours we worked. On top of that, QA positions are almost always contracted out to some sourcing company, so we didn't even get benefits.
I'll never forget interviewing and receiving an offer from Blizzard. The pay was so terrible hourly (we're talking like 17/hr), that the recruiter actually suggested I look for housing close to San Diego and take a commuter bus/van in to the studio. He told me to not even try negotiating pay because it was surely a dead end. The "name" of the studio is what prompts a lot of people to take less to work there. I immediately rejected the offer.
I know people that work in QA still, but outside games (Fintech as an example) who easily push six figures for manual testing positions.
I look at some of the salaries in this game dev hashtag and am surprised at how high some go. Then I realize, they're based in the bay area or Seattle. Kind of negates some of that.
You should add that's cdn money and we give away 50% of our income.
I was pretty surprised to see the Blizzard pay rates here. I worked for a small game dev here in NYC and for sure felt I was getting shafted on my Producer salary. Then to see it was pretty on par with what Blizz people were making was shocking.