Monday, October 2, 2000

Developer Career Tip #0017---Visual Basic Programmer's Journal Salary Survey released…

Developer Career Tips #0017

Visual Basic Programmer's Journal Salary Survey released…

In my opinion, the best Visual Basic publication is the Visual Basic Programmer's Journal. I recommend it highly to my Visual Basic students as a source of great information on Visual Basic development. According to the latest figures released from Magazine Retailer, the Visual Basic Programmer's Journal has the highest paid circulation sales numbers, and is the largest paid magazine in the world devoted to Windows development. Because of this, I place a lot of trust in their bi-annual salary survey, the Fall version of which was recently released. You can view it yourself at:

http://careerlink.devx.com/articles/ss0900/ss0900-1.asp

According to the Fall Survey, Visual Basic developers earn an average base salary of $65,500 per year. Be careful when reader the survey yourself, as the survey factors in extra pay such as bonuses and profit sharing, raising that average to $75,500 in total compensation.

Some highlights of the survey:

Developers in San Francisco and New York earn much more than the average compensation--but bear in mind that the cost of living is much higher there.

Experience pays off. The average salary for developers with less than one year's experience is $43,140--for developer's with 6-8 year's experience is $74,539. That's quite a difference, but if you've been reading my tips, this shouldn't surprise you.

Microsoft Certifications are beginning to carry some weight---Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP's) and Microsoft Certified Solutions Developers (MCSD's) made substantially more than those without a Certification. Definitely something to consider!

VB skills alone are fine and will pay well--but those developers who marry their VB skills with another hot technology such as Java or XML do much better. In fact, VB Developers who know XML earn about $10,000 more than the average Visual Basic developer.

Not surprisingly (to me anyway), at the top of the pay scale are Independent Consultants. Independent Consulting will be one of several recurring themes of my tips.

In case you're wondering how VB stacks up against Java, here is a link to a first-ever Java Salary Survey by the publishers of Visual Basic Programmer's Journal.

http://careerlink.devx.com/articles/ss0600/ss0600-1.asp

I think the results will bear out what I tell my students---learn Visual Basic, then turn your attention to Java as a second language (and based on the salary survey, it looks like you should add XML to that mix also).

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