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The reason is because it is a terrible job. Unlikely 90% of other jobs, you have to mentally burn your brain out each day, constantly learn new things, and focu
by battertenr 6y ago
The reason is because it is a terrible job. Unlikely 90% of other jobs, you have to mentally burn your brain out each day, constantly learn new things, and focus intensely, supposedly for 8 hours. The reward is nothing, not even good pay outside of a couple of tech giants in the USA. If you compare it to a trade, there is a night and day difference to your mental health.
The wage data in this article is meaningless because it ignores the fact that the few places with the 100k+ wages are all in ridiculously expensive cities. Those wages bring up the "average", making it seem high.
No sane person dreams of sitting at a computer all day doing harder things than everybody else sitting at the computer and making average pay. Not only that, but most employers would rather pay a person $5 an hour to make their app from somewhere in yemin then they would hire a local person.
You also never get to be part of any kind of inner circle within the company. You will be paid less than some random useless person who "knows somebody high up" and is in charge of "managing" you.
- thebean11 6y ago> not even good pay outside of a couple of tech giants in the USA That's a huge exaggeration. In what other field can a bright kid take a 12 week bootcamp and get a job that pays $80k?
- jabbernotty 6y ago> That's a huge exaggeration. In what other field can a bright kid take a 12 week bootcamp and get a job that pays $80k? They did specify "outside of a couple of tech giants in the USA". Here in Europe, €30K would already be a good starting salary. Personally, 10 years in, I don't expect to reach €80k.
- thebean11 6y agoIf they specified "outside of the USA" then I totally agree, but the $80k bootcamp salaries are absolutely not from the tech giants!
- manfredo 6y agoMy first tech job wasn't event at a FAANG company and I made $110k right out of college. My next job was at a ~1,000 person startup and my salary was bumped up to over $160k. Maybe it's a Europe vs US thing but it's definitely not the case that salary is poor outside of tech giants.
- dbancajas 6y agobay area? dang that's a lot. is that writing CRUD apps? EE PhD's don't earn that amount even with 2 years experience
- benhurmarcel 6y ago> Here in Europe, €30K would already be a good starting salary. Personally, 10 years in, I don't expect to reach €80k. That's on par with engineers in any other discipline. Except those have a Masters, not just a bootcamp.
- gryn 6y agoWell in the Paris region, as an additional data point people with a master degree from rather good engineering schools get 35K - 45K euro.
- niij 6y agoIs that before or after taxes?
- jabbernotty 6y agoConvention in Europe is to mention the 'before taxes' number. To the best of my knowledge that is true for at least western Europe.
- superhuzza 6y ago>No sane person dreams of sitting at a computer all day doing harder things than everybody else sitting at the computer and making average pay. Not only that, but most employers would rather pay a person $5 an hour to make their app from somewhere in yemin then they would hire a local person. A bit arrogant to assume that your job is harder than everybody else's - most people feel that way. And pretty much any office job can be at risk of being outsourced, not just programming.
- ntsplnkv2 6y agoLet me know when a company outsources their Finance department to India...
- peruvian 6y agoIDK about this take in the context of the workplace. My experience has been that non-engineering office workers work the same amount of hours or even more for almost half the salary we get... in the same expensive cities. I'll still take software engineering over being a lawyer (3 grueling years of $40k/yr tuition and 12+ hour days) or doctor (a decade of expensive school) even if they make more money. Trades are cool and underrated... but they also ruin your body and also aren't as high paying as people think (at the beginning it might be close to minimum wage).
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- alexashka 6y agoWhile the points you make are valid, they have nothing to do with why people who don't know what the field is like, choose a different field such as engineering, which is a disaster in its own ways (good luck finding a job).
- commandlinefan 6y ago> because it is a terrible job Well, you're right, but 18-year-old high school graduates don't know that, at least not yet. That's not what's driving them in selecting a major (or skipping college entirely).
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- orthoxerox 6y ago> battertenr 7 hours ago [–] The reason is because it is a terrible job. Unlikely 90% of other jobs, you have to mentally burn your brain out each day, constantly learn new things, and focus intensely, supposedly for 8 hours. Yes, and I can't imagine working a job where you do the same thing over and over, day after day, year after year. Data entry, accounting, 1st and 2nd level support, driving a taxi, hell, even flying a jumbo jet.