> I think a lot of these companies just run these guys through at largely unimpressive wages,
This.
When I graduated with a MS in CS 3 years ago, I interviewed at over a dozen companies. I got offers at all of them. The highest offer I got was for 45k. The lowest was 32k. Outside of SV and NYC and the big tech hubs, wages are terrible. For comparison, waiters at the restaurant I worked at (by no means high end) made up to 40k.
Companies want to pay dirt-cheap wages and get tons of highly qualified applicants and shockingly they just can't find anyone!
That said, three years in and my salary has almost doubled (after job-hopping - which did make me sad, as that first job was a lot of fun even if it was a lot of work), so at least there's that, but that's just about the cap for private sector work in the region.
This.
When I graduated with a MS in CS 3 years ago, I interviewed at over a dozen companies. I got offers at all of them. The highest offer I got was for 45k. The lowest was 32k. Outside of SV and NYC and the big tech hubs, wages are terrible. For comparison, waiters at the restaurant I worked at (by no means high end) made up to 40k.
Companies want to pay dirt-cheap wages and get tons of highly qualified applicants and shockingly they just can't find anyone!
That said, three years in and my salary has almost doubled (after job-hopping - which did make me sad, as that first job was a lot of fun even if it was a lot of work), so at least there's that, but that's just about the cap for private sector work in the region.