> From my personal experience my first ever eng job was at 50k/year. You think that's messed up? In 1992, I got my first dev job at 19 years old. Prior to that

> From my personal experience my first ever eng job was at 50k/year. You think that's messed up? In 1992, I got my first dev job at 19 years old. Prior to that, I had worked as a cashier at Osco, being paid minimum wage ($4.25/hr back then, IIRC). When I got the dev job, my hourly salary was bumped to...$7.50/hr! WooHoo! Rolling in money! Seriously, I thought it was great, almost doubling what I made before. However, I never wanted to be a software engineer - in fact, at the time, I didn't even know it was a "job" (I honestly don't know why - but that's what I thought at the time). I just kinda fell into it. I didn't know what such a job paid, I certainly didn't know what junior devs were paid at that time - but today, knowing better - I'm pretty sure I got conned on that deal. Sadly, I think it has colored my earnings (lifetime) to an extent ever since. I'm not at the top of my earning potential here where I live - but I believe I am doing well enough, considering my smaller employer; in order to get at or near the top for this area - which is not SV levels by any means - but COL is nothing like that, either - I would need to work for a much larger employer, and I can't stand the politics of such a workplace. So I "trade" a bit of my salary for piece of mind and working with a smaller company closer to home. So while my lifetime earnings may be smaller due to what happened at that first employer and my ignorance, I also bear some of that blame due to my own choices. So I can't complain too much.