How much does a new grad software engineer at microsoft really make?

How much does a new grad software engineer at microsoft really make? No gatekeeping, let's break it down. Tech pay is kind of quirky. It's usually made up of three components: base salary, stocks, and bonuses. First, the base salary. That's what shows up in your paycheck every two weeks. When I joined Microsoft in 2023 as a new grad L60 software engineer, I was making $129,000 a year in base salary. That's around $11,000 a month. Then there's stock. That's where Big Tech really pays. I received a stock grant of $150,000 that vested over 4 years. That means it's split into four equal payments of $37,500 which you unlock every year that you stay at the company. By the time my first year shares vested, Microsoft stock had actually gone up, so my shares were now worth $50,000 instead of $37,500. Next up, the signing bonus. I got a signing bonus of $50,000 split over 2 years, so $25,000 if I stayed until year one, another $25,000 if I stayed a second year. Finally, there's the annual performance bonus. This is a percentage of your base salary that you get based on how you and the company perform, and in 2024 that was $18,000 for me. So if you add it all up, that's $129k base, $50k in stock after growth, $25k signing bonus, and an $18,000 performance bonus. That's a total of about $222,000 that I received as a new grad software engineer working in Seattle.