labview salary

[lachlan 37]

I am new to LabVIEW < 2 years, and was wondering what kind of pay do LabVIEW developers earn. Especially those with some experience > 5 years.

[Dennis_Knutson]

That's really too broad of a question. LabVIEW is used in all kinds of engineering and scientific disciplines. If you're thinking about becoming a consultant, then that varies greatly too. Can you be a bit more specific as to your goal?

[EdDickens]

I make about a gazillion dollars an hour, but that's just me 🙂

Seriously though, there are a lot of variables that make it a difficult question to answer.

Are you thinking of working for an Alliance member? If you are a Certified (not certifiable) developer, you can demand a bit more, although I think a lot of Alliance companies will start requiring that since they will have to have at least one certified developer on staff.

Another big modifier is where do you want to live? Some one working in New York will make a lot more than the same job in Des Moines.

Monster.com has a salary calculator that will give you an idea of what you should expect to make depending on you job, location, industry and several other factors. I’d suggest trying that. Select either Software Engineer or Test Engineer as the job.

Ed

[LV_Pro]

Wow Ed,
A Gazillion? What part of the country do you make that? I'm only making about a bazillion, but that is in simoleans, and I'm not sure what the current exchange rate is! I'm not sure whether Alliance members are going to require a developer be a Certified one, once they have met their NI mandated one on staff. As to the original thread question, it is dependent on a variety of factors. Salaries near major cities tend to be higher, but cost of living does too. Skill/experience set in addition to general LabVIEW experience are important, and vary from one employer to another (A company that is doing a lot of varied LabVIEW based motion control _may_ not be impressed with a lot of signal analysis experience). The Certified LabVIEW Developer title will be probably be more and more important, as companies, getting a stack of resumes listing x years LabVIEW experience need that extra metric to narrow down their search. Remember, the initial cut is usually done by someone in the Human Resources department that doesn't have a technical background and has been given a list of technical buzz words by the hiring manager of the department that needs the new person. They don't have any idea what the words mean, just that see more of the important ones in a resume may mean a better candidate. If that isn't bad enough, many large corporations do the initial cut by a computer program that looks for keywords in the coverletter/resume. A few years ago when ASIC chip designers were a high $ job title I recommended to my associates that mentioning that you jog in "ASIC" running shoes might get your resume looked at by a real human!
As mentioned, use the salary calculators at the bigger jobs sites like Monster. They give ranges for the job type and area, but then those are only suggestions. If you are to the point of negotiating with a perspective hirer, the amount is highly dependent on how you present yourself (and they're budget!)

Good Luck, hope to see you asking really technically interesting questions from your high paying, "kool" job!

Putnam Monroe
Certified LabVIEW Developer
certifiable since LabVIEW 2.5 (and all its "insane errors")

[Joe_H]

I have been looking into doing some consultant work in knoxville TN, Since i cannot get enough labview experience where i work,What do you guys think I should start out charging, What is the average rate to consultants programming in labview.

[Bob_Y.]

They promised me MuchoDinero, but after deductions it turned into microdinero. Ah well. . .

As to what to charge, remember that as a consultant, you have to cover your own overhead. You have to figure that you will be out of work part of the year, that your contractor will likely not cover medical, dental, or life insurance. You will have no paid vacation. Most contractors/consultants charge about twice what a full time employee would make (just salary) in order to cover these things. Save some of it for rainy days.

As to what full time salary to charge, keep in mind that you are talking about knowing how to use a tool - LabVIEW. If the tool that you were skilled at were using a screw-driver instead of LabVIEW, you would say that you can use a screwdriver to build a car (auto worker) or fix a car (mechanic) or tune a TV (electronics technician) or install cabinets (carpenter) or open paint cans (painter). One of these would be the right answer for your experience with a screw-driver and you would be selling yourself and pricing yourself as one of these, not a screw-driver user.

While your employer will pay you to use that tool, they will need to know what you will use it for. Are you going to use the LabVIEW tool as part of your career as a Test Technician, Test Engineer, Software Engineer, Computer Scientist, Electrical Engineer, Electronic Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Medical Researcher, etc.? Once you figure that out, that should give you a place to start - an occupation to sell yourself as, a salary group to weigh yourself against. All the while touting your vast experience and expertise with this LabVIEW tool.

I think that I have muddied the waters sufficiently for today :-).

Hope this helps,
Bob

[Dennis_Knutson]

It's pretty variable. Several years ago when I was an Alliance member, I was charging U$120/hour. That was pretty typical in my area for the most "experienced" consultants. We were also a lot more than a one-man shop. We could provide a lot of extra services and the employees also had paid vacation, medical and dental plans, etc. A single person, non-Alliance member would be charging a lot less. Don't make the mistake of just looking at your current salary as the basis of what you're worth. All of the other stuff such as medical, 401K, paid vacations, add up to a lot that you don't see on your weekly pay stub. You want to charge enough so that if you're not working every single week, you can still pay the bills. I think it's the rare individual that can stay busy all of the time. You would also have to pay for software licenses, perhaps business insurance, maybe an account

The best source of actual information on your area is going to be your local sales engineer. Take him or her out to lunch and see what he or she has to say. The sales engineer would certainly have an idea on how many people are using LabVIEW in your area and how many use outside consultants.

[waldemar.hersacher]

The same question came up some time ago. Look here for a dicussion about the salary.

Be aware that the living costs of your aerea mainly determine the salary. Even here in Germany it depends if you are living in the East or the West, North or South. The difference can be about 15% for the same work.

[lachlan 37]

Appreciate all your responses. I will investigate what Test Engineers and Software Engineers make in my area. With the ultimate goal of becoming a LabVIEW consultant.

[Joe_H]

Thanks for all of the tips, I plan on keeping my regular job because I actually love what I do and the benefits are great, I have just been wandering about how much I should charge people when asked to consult, the best I can tell from around here with oak ridge national lab being just around the corner that labview is used alot and there in times need for consultants, I have found that the going rate for an average software engineer is about 80-100 dollars an hour I think the next time I find out about a job this is what I will bid. The experience I have gotton from my current job goes with all of the screwdriver events listed above,

Medical, I work with new technology PET scanners
Electrical
electronics
carpenter
software

And too many more to list,

Thanks again for all of the advice.