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I've just finished interviews at several Web companies in California, specifically San Francisco, so I have a good feel for what people are offering. I can confidently tell you that the going rate is between $80,000 and $100,000 for software engineers who can demonstrate that they will be valuable to the company, regardless of concrete years of experience.

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That sounds about right.

I will make a small suggestion to the OP: if you think the interview went well, try to shoot for something at the higher end or slightly above.

Even if you don't get it, you'll probably still get a good counter-offer, and if you come from an area with a lower cost of living, you may not realize how much you might end up needing that extra $20k a year.

There was an excellent discussion on this same salary negotiation tactic in a recent episode of "Build and Analyze":

http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/19

(Salary discussion was at some point after discussing VC but before Android market share.)

36:30

but it's worth listening to the entire thing, very interesting stuff

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