Bangalore: Silicon Valley is a treasure chest which benefits the talented and dedicated. Competition in the market is so stark that talented techies can be poached from right below your nose. Employers understand this trend and therefore we see some entry level software engineers being paid obscene salaries. This is just a technique to hook the best talent in the industry to work for them.

We can also observe that bigger the brand, bigger is the pay cheque that they hand out. Startups such as Facebook and Twitter pay their employees large sums of money. Maybe that is why these companies have witnessed such a fast growth in such a short span of time. Read on to see where do software engineeres get paid the most.

12. IBM

Average yearly salary: $86,608

The ‘big blue’ is a big shark in the ocean of tech companies but it ranks only 12^th when it comes to paying its employees. It employs about 433,362 (2012) people.

 IBM, the American multinational technology and consulting corporation founded in 1911 has its headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States. It was ranked #1 company for leaders (Fortune), #2 best global brand , #1 green company worldwide (Newsweek), #5 most admired company (Fortune), and #18 most innovative company (Fast Company).

IBM’s pay is not as good as Google or Facebook but the work environment sure makes up for it. The company which ranks high in terms of gay-friendliness was the only tech company to be featured in the Working Mother magazine's Top 10 for 2004, and one of two technology companies in 2005.

IBM earlier known for its rigid look has now made things lighter for its employees and is actually a cool company to work in.