While this may stray a bit from the topic at hand, it may (indirectly) help you to understand some salary-related issues. You mentioned you have a computer science degree, and yet you are inquiring about the starting salary for a software engineer. This is your first problem -- you aren't a software engineer! You aren't even an engineer. In a world where everyone is trying to get something for nothing, it's high time people started realizing that the title of "engineer" belongs to an individual who actually has an engineering degree (and nowadays, that's not even enough -- you must take a battery of certification tests as well). This practice of adding the word "engineer" to job titles (such as waste management engineer) is tired and really inappropriate.
Perhaps if you ask for the starting salary for computer scientists you might get somewhere.
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While this may stray a bit from the topic at hand, it may (indirectly) help you to understand some salary-related issues. You mentioned you have a computer science degree, and yet you are inquiring about the starting salary for a software engineer. This is your first problem -- you aren't a software engineer! You aren't even an engineer. In a world where everyone is trying to get something for nothing, it's high time people started realizing that the title of "engineer" belongs to an individual who actually has an engineering degree (and nowadays, that's not even enough -- you must take a battery of certification tests as well). This practice of adding the word "engineer" to job titles (such as waste management engineer) is tired and really inappropriate. Perhaps if you ask for the starting salary for computer scientists you might get somewhere.