After completing a CS degree from a tier 1 school:

  1999 $55k  Developer for Internet consulting firm
       $72k  after promotion to Sr Developer
  2000 $90k  Lead developer at small SaaS startup in flyover country
       $100k after promotion to Technical Architect
  2002       laid off during dot-com bust
  2003 $90k+$20k bonus Developer at Wall St. firm
  2005 $110k+$20k bonus Developer at another Wall St. firm 
  2006 $120k+$40k bonus Developer at another Wall St. firm
  2008 $90k  Sr Developer at line-of-business software company in 

flyover country, raises to $130k with promotions to Principal Software Architect over 8 years 2015 $155k Sr Data Engineer at CA-based SaaS startup 2016 $165k Sr Data Engineer at East Coast startup 2017 $185k Sr Software Engineer at CA-based software company