As a software developer — you should know competitive salaries in the industry or else you might end up underpaid (sometimes severely). Having salary data will also help you ask for market-rate raises.

There are two places I refer to.

Levels.fyi

Levels.fyi has self-reported software developer salaries. They quality check salaries before posting them.

You can see what the FAANG companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook pay per position. You’ll also see bonus and awarded stocks. You’ll also get intel on medium-sized companies.

I like to filter the results by location. If you’re working in San Francisco vs Omaha — you can expect different a different salary. It’s still good to know what the going rate is for the city that you live in.

Blind

Blind is an anonymous professional network. It’s like LinkedIn but with uncensored conversations. Users are vetted through their work emails and but the identity of each user is anonymous.

Blind will make you feel good and bad at the same time.

They’ll make you feel good because you’ll realize how underpaid you are and how there’s a path to making serious dough by studying leetcode and applying to FAANG companies.

You’ll also feel bad if you’re not working for a FAANG company. You’ll hear folks complaining about their 400k compensation packages. More money — more problems.

They have a great section on layoffs and unfiltered talk about why some companies are crappy and why some are good to work for.

I’ve also seen folks ask for and give referrals to companies of interest.