I find the type of salaries discussed here downright surreal. I live in Vancouver, BC which has some of the best 'quality of life' according to various random surveys. This translates into an median annual FAMILY income of ~$60k CAD and a median house price approaching 1 million CAD. My wife and I both work in tech, and both make more individually than the average family income, but not a whole lot more.
The salary range in Vancouver seems to top out around $150k, and that is uncommon. New grads can expect something between $50k and $80k. The intangibles definitely make a difference to expectations. I sacrifice both salary, and to some degree interesting work (at least at my day job) to live here.
I'm from Victoria and these six figures salaries being thrown around as "not that much" seem crazy to me too. Victoria is a smaller version of Vancouver but take off about $50k for the highest salary range and about $20k from your range for a new grad.
The quality of life is great though. It takes me 10 minutes to bike to work and I'm home by 5.
I've come to realization lately that if I want to earn a lot as a software developer, I will need to move to a large US city.
when i graduated from university, in England, with a BA in computer science I was offered a starting salary of sub $35k, par for the course in the uk. I'd earned the equivalent of $50k pa as an intern in the US and bay area companies pay twice that. something's not right here.
The salary range in Vancouver seems to top out around $150k, and that is uncommon. New grads can expect something between $50k and $80k. The intangibles definitely make a difference to expectations. I sacrifice both salary, and to some degree interesting work (at least at my day job) to live here.