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I must say, I am jealous. It seems a bit unfair to me how computer engineers are getting hired and paid so well, while my economics degree is useless and I have

I must say, I am jealous. It seems a bit unfair to me how computer engineers are getting hired and paid so well, while my economics degree is useless and I have to fight like crazy to get a job that pays WAY less than engineers get. Honestly, I studied economics because I wanted a job that pays well - that was one of the key criteria - and now I am standing with little money and a job I hate. It sucks.

louisswiss 7y ago
Check out Lambda School
icelancer 7y ago
I was an dropout studying Economics who made the transition into data science / data analysis fairly smoothly. I'd recommend doing so. Many programmers are jealous of quantitative analysts' salaries inside tech companies. EDIT: I guess I should add I really did not care for the work and stopped after 2-3 years to start my own company. I do a lot of the same work today, but as the Founder, I obviously control the company and my workload.
- warent 7y ago
  I think it's worth noting that there's a lot more to it than just the money. Sure, data scientists make more than I do as an engineer, but I would feel absolutely fucking miserable doing the job of a data scientist every day.
  - icelancer 7y ago
    In fact, I was :) Check my bio. But if the OP is really distraught about making money in tech, they will find their economics background of use.
syedkarim 7y ago
What originally led you to believe that an economics degree would result in well-paying jobs?
- ngngngng 7y ago
  Seems ironic to me that the study of wealth production, consumption, and transfer wouldn't lead to making money.
  - goobynight 7y ago
    Doesn't seem ironic to me. It's easier to be the play by play guy/sports analyst than to get into the field/cage/arena/whatever and make something happen.
  - empath75 7y ago
    If economists actually understood the economy, they wouldn’t be economists, they’d be billionaires.
- notfromhere 7y ago
  I have a degree in Econ and its worked out wonderfully. It's really YMMV
zone411 7y ago
Maybe this will cheer you up: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/liberal-arts-stem-salaries.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/liberal-arts-ste...
- pb7 7y ago
  A feel-good piece at best, misleading at worst.
  - zone411 7y ago
    I pretty much agree but there is this line "By age 40, the average salary of all male college graduates was $111,870, and social science and history majors earned $131,154 — an average that is lifted, in part, by high-paying jobs in management, business and law." So the GP's prospects are probably better than they look to them right now.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
warent 7y ago
I'm a software engineer and I wrestled with this for a long time too. It seemed bizarre that we should be getting paid what we do and I had an intense experience of being an imposter. Eventually it clicked with me that the work I'm doing directly affects millions of people on a daily basis, or it affects a smaller number of people in a big way that's unique and hard to reproduce. Viewed from that angle, it makes a lot more sense I think.
- jjeaff 7y ago
  That's a nice justification. But it doesn't really have much affect on your salary. It's simply that there is a lot of demand for software engineers of a certain skill level and not a ton of supply. The moment your same exact job can be replaced by a worker willing to do it for less is the moment salaries start to fall.
tjbarkley 7y ago
Why do you think it seems a bit unfair?
pb7 7y ago
I understand and support your frustration, but what exactly makes it unfair? The two have little in common. Computer engineers aren't taking your jobs.
malloreon 7y ago
my degree is in economics and 8 years ago I taught myself iOS Engineering and since then I've been a professional software engineer. Don't let your degree stop you from doing what you want, the resources are all there.
megaremote 7y ago
> I studied economics because I wanted a job that pays well How did you ever make that connection? Have economists ever been paid well?
jjeaff 7y ago
Reminds me of a controversy at my University. They were advertising a new English professor position, starting salary $37k. They also had an opening for an economics professor position starting salary $85k. My economics professor addressed the reason for the difference in class very simply. He noted there were over 350 applicants for the English prof position. Only 3 people applied for the economics position. So if anything, $37k was too high for English and $85k was not nearly enough for econ.
nickfromseattle 7y ago
I've been very fortunate to grow up in Seattle, one of the fastest growing cities in the US. My friends have geology and psychology degrees working in technology companies making $130 - $180k/year as non-developers.
- jdhn 7y ago
  Geology? What does that person do in a tech company?
  - nickfromseattle 7y ago
    Business development, it turns out a degree isn't very important in succeeding in a technology company.
csmiller 7y ago
My degree is in Econ and I work as a software engineer.
jacob_rezi 7y ago
I too studied economics. My company has benefited from that knowledge gained
IAmGraydon 7y ago
Unfair? There is no unfair in the real world. You made a bad investment and are now reaping the results of your poor judgement. It’s perfectly fair. You want to make money? Stop blaming the world for not giving you what you want and learn how to give the world what it wants. Computer engineers are paid well because they develop systems that can turn $1 into $2. You could learn a lot from that.
wsc981 7y ago
If you really set your mind to it (and you've got the right capabilities), you should still be able to roll into a software engineering job. There's plenty of online resources available to teach yourself software development. There are plenty of companies willing to take on junior developers. Build up a small portfolio of software on Github for potential employers to see and you should be able to get a start as software developer. Of course you likely won't have great pay from the start, but keep doing work for a few years and keep improving your skills and you should be fine.
natalyarostova 7y ago
Why be jealous when you could just learn software engineering? I also majored in econ, and now work as a sort of hybrid SDE/Data scientist. I mean it's not easy to learn, but it's better than being bitter.
throwing838383 7y ago
Your not the only one. MBA majors have it just as hard if not harder. For the majority of professional jobs out there, there's a vast oversupply of labor, and thus the unemployment rate for professionals is much higher than the overall unemployment rate would suggest. Software engineering is one of the few areas where there some semblance of balance between supply and demand. But, this too will eventually go away. There's nothing that's stopping the supply of Software engineers from growing. Indeed, the Stack overflow surveys suggest there's a huge wave of junior SEs joining the industry. I predict in 15 years, SEs will be in such high oversupply that they will no longer have an advantage in the market place.

louisswiss 7y ago

Check out Lambda School

icelancer 7y ago

I was an dropout studying Economics who made the transition into data science / data analysis fairly smoothly. I'd recommend doing so. Many programmers are jealous of quantitative analysts' salaries inside tech companies. EDIT: I guess I should add I really did not care for the work and stopped after 2-3 years to start my own company. I do a lot of the same work today, but as the Founder, I obviously control the company and my workload.

warent 7y ago
I think it's worth noting that there's a lot more to it than just the money. Sure, data scientists make more than I do as an engineer, but I would feel absolutely fucking miserable doing the job of a data scientist every day.
- icelancer 7y ago
  In fact, I was :) Check my bio. But if the OP is really distraught about making money in tech, they will find their economics background of use.

syedkarim 7y ago

What originally led you to believe that an economics degree would result in well-paying jobs?

ngngngng 7y ago
Seems ironic to me that the study of wealth production, consumption, and transfer wouldn't lead to making money.
- goobynight 7y ago
  Doesn't seem ironic to me. It's easier to be the play by play guy/sports analyst than to get into the field/cage/arena/whatever and make something happen.
- empath75 7y ago
  If economists actually understood the economy, they wouldn’t be economists, they’d be billionaires.
notfromhere 7y ago
I have a degree in Econ and its worked out wonderfully. It's really YMMV

zone411 7y ago

Maybe this will cheer you up: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/liberal-arts-stem-salaries.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/business/liberal-arts-ste...

pb7 7y ago
A feel-good piece at best, misleading at worst.
- zone411 7y ago
  I pretty much agree but there is this line "By age 40, the average salary of all male college graduates was $111,870, and social science and history majors earned $131,154 — an average that is lifted, in part, by high-paying jobs in management, business and law." So the GP's prospects are probably better than they look to them right now.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

warent 7y ago

I'm a software engineer and I wrestled with this for a long time too. It seemed bizarre that we should be getting paid what we do and I had an intense experience of being an imposter. Eventually it clicked with me that the work I'm doing directly affects millions of people on a daily basis, or it affects a smaller number of people in a big way that's unique and hard to reproduce. Viewed from that angle, it makes a lot more sense I think.

jjeaff 7y ago
That's a nice justification. But it doesn't really have much affect on your salary. It's simply that there is a lot of demand for software engineers of a certain skill level and not a ton of supply. The moment your same exact job can be replaced by a worker willing to do it for less is the moment salaries start to fall.

tjbarkley 7y ago

Why do you think it seems a bit unfair?

pb7 7y ago

I understand and support your frustration, but what exactly makes it unfair? The two have little in common. Computer engineers aren't taking your jobs.

malloreon 7y ago

my degree is in economics and 8 years ago I taught myself iOS Engineering and since then I've been a professional software engineer. Don't let your degree stop you from doing what you want, the resources are all there.

megaremote 7y ago

> I studied economics because I wanted a job that pays well How did you ever make that connection? Have economists ever been paid well?

jjeaff 7y ago

Reminds me of a controversy at my University. They were advertising a new English professor position, starting salary $37k. They also had an opening for an economics professor position starting salary $85k. My economics professor addressed the reason for the difference in class very simply. He noted there were over 350 applicants for the English prof position. Only 3 people applied for the economics position. So if anything, $37k was too high for English and $85k was not nearly enough for econ.

nickfromseattle 7y ago

I've been very fortunate to grow up in Seattle, one of the fastest growing cities in the US. My friends have geology and psychology degrees working in technology companies making $130 - $180k/year as non-developers.

jdhn 7y ago
Geology? What does that person do in a tech company?
- nickfromseattle 7y ago
  Business development, it turns out a degree isn't very important in succeeding in a technology company.

csmiller 7y ago

My degree is in Econ and I work as a software engineer.

jacob_rezi 7y ago

I too studied economics. My company has benefited from that knowledge gained

IAmGraydon 7y ago

Unfair? There is no unfair in the real world. You made a bad investment and are now reaping the results of your poor judgement. It’s perfectly fair. You want to make money? Stop blaming the world for not giving you what you want and learn how to give the world what it wants. Computer engineers are paid well because they develop systems that can turn $1 into $2. You could learn a lot from that.

wsc981 7y ago

If you really set your mind to it (and you've got the right capabilities), you should still be able to roll into a software engineering job. There's plenty of online resources available to teach yourself software development. There are plenty of companies willing to take on junior developers. Build up a small portfolio of software on Github for potential employers to see and you should be able to get a start as software developer. Of course you likely won't have great pay from the start, but keep doing work for a few years and keep improving your skills and you should be fine.

natalyarostova 7y ago

Why be jealous when you could just learn software engineering? I also majored in econ, and now work as a sort of hybrid SDE/Data scientist. I mean it's not easy to learn, but it's better than being bitter.

throwing838383 7y ago

Your not the only one. MBA majors have it just as hard if not harder. For the majority of professional jobs out there, there's a vast oversupply of labor, and thus the unemployment rate for professionals is much higher than the overall unemployment rate would suggest. Software engineering is one of the few areas where there some semblance of balance between supply and demand. But, this too will eventually go away. There's nothing that's stopping the supply of Software engineers from growing. Indeed, the Stack overflow surveys suggest there's a huge wave of junior SEs joining the industry. I predict in 15 years, SEs will be in such high oversupply that they will no longer have an advantage in the market place.