Rochester NY

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Never worked in that part of the country but 70k sounds okish but not particularly great. You would need a second income to reach what I would call "well off" (so you would have to see if the better half would be allowed to work as well)

In regards to your other question regarding other costs, yes health insurance costs can be massive in the US unless on an employers plan, which you will not be on if "contracting" (actually costs can vary greatly state to state so you will have to some research yourself) . For any job in the US the "benefits" are as important as the actual pay, in some cases more important

But have to agree with the others, working in IT in the US, not recommended unless you like 6/7 day weeks for no OT, having no life and holidays? ha-ha (there are exceptions, but they are not the normal run of the mill companys)

I knew couples in the US where one went contracting for the money, while the other stayed in a crap job for the joint healthcare plan. Even then, different companies have different plans. Sometimes even the same company: my employer was a young software house so its health insurance costs were low, so the coverage was good. Then it became part of General Electric, whose demographics were old and industrial. Health benefits suddenly became crap.

[Not So Wise]

Never worked in that part of the country but 70k sounds okish but not particularly great. You would need a second income to reach what I would call "well off" (so you would have to see if the better half would be allowed to work as well)

In regards to your other question regarding other costs, yes health insurance costs can be massive in the US unless on an employers plan, which you will not be on if "contracting" (actually costs can vary greatly state to state so you will have to some research yourself) . For any job in the US the "benefits" are as important as the actual pay, in some cases more important

But have to agree with the others, working in IT in the US, not recommended unless you like 6/7 day weeks for no OT, having no life and holidays? ha-ha (there are exceptions, but they are not the normal run of the mill companys)

[Jeebo72]

And in a couple of years you might even get 10 days holiday ...

[alreadypacked]

Way too long. Something I discovered over 20 years ago was when to retire early and have a good meal/bath/kip before starting again. Typically this meant that I had sorted the problem out in my head before I got to work the next day.

Problem turned out to be someone else's library that was overwriting memory. So I had to do a line by line check of every library in the application. Some people came in to help out or bring food, except the who wrote the dud library.

[Sysman]

Maybe, if you go you can try to beat my record while working in USA.

72 hours at my desk, trying to debug an application that crashed on start-up

Way too long. Something I discovered over 20 years ago was when to retire early and have a good meal/bath/kip before starting again. Typically this meant that I had sorted the problem out in my head before I got to work the next day.

[alreadypacked]

Maybe, if you go you can try to beat my record while working in USA.

72 hours at my desk, trying to debug an application that crashed on start-up

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I went to Rochester in 1986 it was an utter tuliphole - it made Buffalo look like Salzburg. It may have got better but I doubt it. OTH there is some fabulous country upstate that you would never have time to visit.

[Moscow Mule]

b) Average salary for senior software engineer in title location is about $70K

You won't have any time to spend it, so yes $70k should suffice

[sunnysan]

Anybody here be able to help me with general cost of living guide.

Tentively looking at an offer heading stateside and was wondering about general cost of living.

My observations at this point.

a) Rents are waaaay cheaper.
b) Average salary for senior software engineer in title location is about $70K

Does anybody here know how well you can live on that salary assuming a married couple?

How many other expenses ie auto/medical insurance are significant?

Thanks

Sunnysan