San Francisco is the dream destination for many tech workers, and it hosts one of the most prosperous technology industries in the country. The city is part of the greater Silicon Valley region, and it’s home to some of the biggest and coolest tech companies in the world. As you might expect, San Francisco also boasts some of the highest salaries in the country for tech workers. It’s a lucrative place to live and work, especially as a programmer or developer. In this article, we’ll go over the average salaries for local junior and senior fullstack developers, along with how to break into the tech industry in San Francisco.
What Does Fullstack Development Mean?
Careers in the web development sector can be broken down into a few subcategories, the biggest of which are front end, backend, and fullstack development. Front end programmers design and build the part of a website that a user interacts with. Backend developers take care of all the data and programming required to make the front end work.
Fullstack developers are a combination of the two, and they manage the entire operation. Fullstack programmers need to be experts in many coding languages, including HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and even Python. These developers are your all-in-one website building masters, and they command excellent wages as a result.
Junior Fullstack Developer Salary
Fullstack developers can be classified into two categories: junior and senior. Junior fullstack developers usually have some formal coding education, as well as a portfolio of recent projects. These programmers are typically recent college or coding bootcamp graduates. They’re skilled at their jobs, but they don’t have much work experience yet.
Most companies label an applicant ‘junior’ if they have between zero and five years of work experience but have enough training and coding skills for an entry-level position. Despite their inexperience, junior fullstack developers in San Francisco earn a high starting salary of $96,323! They also earn an average overtime and bonus pay of $2,000. If you’re not impressed, wait until you see what senior fullstack developers make in the city.
Senior Fullstack Developer Salary
After a junior fullstack developer works for a few years, he or she earns the title of ‘senior’ within the industry. Senior fullstack developers usually have over five years of experience, but some get by with an advanced degree and fewer years on the job. At this point, it really boils down to how well you can do the job and how many years of proof you can present. Each company’s requirements may vary, but five years of experience is often what employers look for in a senior developer.
In San Francisco, senior fullstack developers earn around $130,000 annually, which is a massive increase from the average salary of a less-experienced developer. Salaries vary, and they tend to increase with experience. Some of the top earners in the city bring home more than $200,000 annually.
How to Become a Fullstack Developer
In the 21st century, there’s more than one way to become a fullstack developer. A four-year degree in computer science or a related field can get you there, but that’s actually not necessary anymore. Demand for programmers surpassed supply over the last several years, so the industry responded with a new education program. The new schools are called coding bootcamps, and they’re a proven way to break into the tech industry in San Francisco. Coding bootcamps last between four and 18 months and teach students everything they need to land a lucrative job in tech. If you’re interested in becoming a fullstack developer in less than a year, click the link below and find out how.
About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication.