Front End Web Developer Starting Salaries

[wkumtrider]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

[the_gastropod]

We’re kind of in a weird time—“Front-end engineer” means a lot of different things to different people, so you’ll see salaries all over the place. If you’re able to write competent production-ready JavaScript, and are comfortable with one (or more) of the big contemporary frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, Ember), know how to use version control, and other kinda basic dev tools, a decent starting salary will likely be in the $60-$80k range depending on the city.

[wkumtrider]

Thank you the_gastropod.  I will be learning JavaScript, not sure what framework I will be working with.

[Dare2Dream]

It's true that there is a lot of demand for this type of work but there is also a lot of competition from outsourcing.

Unless you are going to be working in a big city (SF, CHI, LA) I would put the starting salary in the $50-$65 range.  Senior Developers here in the Midwest might be in the $70-$80 range.

[MilesTeg]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

[Dare2Dream]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

+1

[Home Stretch]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

I live in one of the markets where the supply and demand of tech talent is way out of whack (not Silicon Valley though). We see "senior" developers (who are actually good) being paid $100k+ after getting 4-5 years of experience.

I'm seeing a lot of companies, with mixed success, hiring people out of training programs/boot camps/code schools but they're paying pretty competitively as far as starting salaies - $60k+ is easy to find.

[ApacheStache]

If you're in the United States, your best best is to check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics for your region to understand salary ranges. Without knowing your location, or seeing your resume, none of us will be able to give you a useful baseline.

Also, a bootcamp or training course is a good start to becoming comfortable writing code, but any type of developer role is a loaded term that means wildly different things to different companies. I would start reviewing job openings now to get a better idea of what skills you should focus on before you're ready to apply. Your mileage may vary, but when I started as an engineer as I was amazed to find that writing code in a given language or framework was not the most challenging part of my job.

[Sugaree]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel). 

[brute]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel).

Where are people going to school? God damn. My undergrad was nothing special, but _every last course_ had significant amounts of programming. How are you going to learn anything if you don't put it into practice? I dare anyone to really learn dynamic programming or gradient descent without writing it up and seeing it work. Grad school was less coding, but by then you were expected to know what the hell you were doing.

Anyway, I'll do some quick googling for jr web devs.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm

You can expect to make less than that, maybe $40k starting out if you have a decent portfolio. You might hit those numbers in a 3-5 years.

[Sugaree]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel).

Where are people going to school? God damn. My undergrad was nothing special, but _every last course_ had significant amounts of programming. How are you going to learn anything if you don't put it into practice? I dare anyone to really learn dynamic programming or gradient descent without writing it up and seeing it work. Grad school was less coding, but by then you were expected to know what the hell you were doing.

Anyway, I'll do some quick googling for jr web devs.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm

You can expect to make less than that, maybe $40k starting out if you have a decent portfolio. You might hit those numbers in a 3-5 years.

Four year state university.  Sure, we did some coding in other classes, but it was never the main focus of the class.  Each class has one or two big coding projects a semester.  And they were group projects, so if you sucked at coding you just made sure you were in a group with someone like me.  Once you got out of the Java class, it was possible to not have to code much at all.

[MilesTeg]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel).

Where are people going to school? God damn. My undergrad was nothing special, but _every last course_ had significant amounts of programming. How are you going to learn anything if you don't put it into practice? I dare anyone to really learn dynamic programming or gradient descent without writing it up and seeing it work. Grad school was less coding, but by then you were expected to know what the hell you were doing.

Anyway, I'll do some quick googling for jr web devs.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm

You can expect to make less than that, maybe $40k starting out if you have a decent portfolio. You might hit those numbers in a 3-5 years.

A computer science degree program is not primarily about programming. It's an applied mathematics degree. Discrete math, linear algebra, relational algebra, computational theory, etc. Along with foundational knowledge of hardware, operating ststems, networks and other topics that aren't about programming.

If done right you produce soneone with the foundation necessary to be an actual engineer (vs code monkey). Someone who understands the 'why' not just the rote mechanics.

But you still have to train them in order to make them useful :)

[brute]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel).

Where are people going to school? God damn. My undergrad was nothing special, but _every last course_ had significant amounts of programming. How are you going to learn anything if you don't put it into practice? I dare anyone to really learn dynamic programming or gradient descent without writing it up and seeing it work. Grad school was less coding, but by then you were expected to know what the hell you were doing.

Anyway, I'll do some quick googling for jr web devs.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm

You can expect to make less than that, maybe $40k starting out if you have a decent portfolio. You might hit those numbers in a 3-5 years.

A computer science degree program is not primarily about programming. It's an applied mathematics degree. Discrete math, linear algebra, relational algebra, computational theory, etc. Along with foundational knowledge of hardware, operating ststems, networks and other topics that aren't about programming.

If done right you produce soneone with the foundation necessary to be an actual engineer (vs code monkey). Someone who understands the 'why' not just the rote mechanics.

But you still have to train them in order to make them useful :)

That makes about as much sense as saying a chemistry student doesn't need to be able to make it work in the lab.

I've got a master's from #3 in the world in CS, specialization in AI/ML. My point is that practice is necessary to put the concepts into action. I didn't get great at differential equations by reading a book, it was through practice. I didn't become one of the top in the game at predicting human behavior without spending hundreds of hours messing around with the inner workings of neural and bayesian networks.

[wkumtrider]

I'm going through a coding course administered by Treehouse.  It is free through a grant from the city in which I live.  The city put this together because of the large demand for programmers/coders in the are.  I know it is not college, and I will not be a real programmer or computer scientist.  I do have a 4 yr degree in a different field.  I am just tired of my current line of work and want to do something different.  I applied for this and over 1 year later I was accepted and now enrolled.  People that have gone through this course have had good luck at finding decent jobs in the area.  I'm at the point in my life were I don't need much money. 

Thanks to all that have replied.  Very helpful.

[MilesTeg]

I'm taking a training course to become a junior front end web developer.  Was wondering what I should expect for starting salaries in this field.  I'm sure it varies from state to state and who you work for.  I will be done and August and will plan to start job searching. 

Thanks for the feedback!

Please note, I am judging the qualification you provided "a training course" not you as an individual.

The starting salary I would provide would be, at best, $15/hour for someone who's only 'qualification' is a training course. You might learn some syntax and how to copy and paste from stackoverflow, but you won't be able to contribute anything of real value (as a programmer) with just a Khan academy (or whatever) training course.

Hell, most people with a 4+ year degree in a CS can't code their way out of a Safeway bag.

This is equivalent to the question 'how much would my starting salary as a doctor be after taking this first aid course?'

As another poster said, it is a crazy time and you might find someone willing to hire you and train you up, and you might even find someone willing to give you a crazy salary for it, but that will only last as long as this current tech bubble lasts.

If you want a real, lasting career in development you need actual training and experience.

Considering that there were only 3 required coding classes in the entire 4 years of my degree, I can believe it.

I'm a programmer, but I'm considered more full-stack than front-end.  I also work for the government and they are like 10 years behind the times so I'm stuck working with .NET (and VBA....God, these people love their Excel).

Where are people going to school? God damn. My undergrad was nothing special, but _every last course_ had significant amounts of programming. How are you going to learn anything if you don't put it into practice? I dare anyone to really learn dynamic programming or gradient descent without writing it up and seeing it work. Grad school was less coding, but by then you were expected to know what the hell you were doing.

Anyway, I'll do some quick googling for jr web devs.

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/web-developer-salary-SRCH_KO0,13.htm

You can expect to make less than that, maybe $40k starting out if you have a decent portfolio. You might hit those numbers in a 3-5 years.

A computer science degree program is not primarily about programming. It's an applied mathematics degree. Discrete math, linear algebra, relational algebra, computational theory, etc. Along with foundational knowledge of hardware, operating ststems, networks and other topics that aren't about programming.

If done right you produce soneone with the foundation necessary to be an actual engineer (vs code monkey). Someone who understands the 'why' not just the rote mechanics.

But you still have to train them in order to make them useful :)

That makes about as much sense as saying a chemistry student doesn't need to be able to make it work in the lab.

I've got a master's from #3 in the world in CS, specialization in AI/ML. My point is that practice is necessary to put the concepts into action. I didn't get great at differential equations by reading a book, it was through practice. I didn't become one of the top in the game at predicting human behavior without spending hundreds of hours messing around with the inner workings of neural and bayesian networks.

An undergrad in chemistry does not make you a functioning chemical engineer out the door. Like a CS degree, it provides you a basis for starting a career in a chemistry of some kind, but you would require a lot of on the job training still.

And undergrad degree is not a job training program, it's a program to become educated. Many professional careers require addition formal schooling after undergrad, such as Law school, Med school, etc. Some careers/industries such as software development try to skip that which is why the quality of average entry level candidates is so horrific.