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Blather. Hire kids who don't know how or when to say no, and you are coin flipping on whether your project will crash and burn. My advice to CS majors is that

Blather. Hire kids who don't know how or when to say no, and you are coin flipping on whether your project will crash and burn. My advice to CS majors is that you need to make enough to retire by 35 as that's when you stand a good chance of being tossed on the trash heap. Alternatively - win the startup lottery and either cash out or continue as principal.

hiram112 5y ago
> My advice to CS majors is that you need to make enough to retire by 35 as that's when you stand a good chance of being tossed on the trash heap. I agree with this. CS is a GREAT career when you're in your mid 20's, making 6 figures with just a bachelors, while your cohorts are still taking on even more loans in graduate school or earning a fraction of your salary down in the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder. The trick is to live as frugally as you can while making the big bucks throughout your 20s and early 30s, invest it, and plan to never touch it. With some market luck, you can pretty much guarantee a safe retirement by late 50's or early 60s, even if you decide (or are forced) to change careers to something less lucrative, and especially if (very likely) your salary won't grow much faster than inflation (and less than COL increases) once you're past 35. This is in contrast, BTW, to most other professionals like lawyers, doctors, academics, etc. who tend to earn more and more each year until mid 50's. Because the reality is that most of us are not going to be the top 10% who will be courted by FAANGS well into our 40's, with offers of $500K plus equity, to lead projects. Instead, you're going to hit a glass ceiling in your mid 30's and unless you move to management or start your own consultancy, you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corporations don't really enjoy keeping on 40+ year old developers who expect to get 5% raises each year when they're not really worth more than the 27-33 year olds who have enough experience to crank out code that works well enough.
- tjansen 5y ago
  "...you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corporations don't really enjoy keeping on 40+ year old developers who expect to get 5% raises each year..." I think you have already outlined the solution: - don't expect 5% raises, or getting more than other developers at the same level. Your salary will plateau, but that's not a bad thing. - keep up with technology and make sure you don't fall behind.
  - hiram112 5y ago
    I think the difference between software devs and other "profressionals" is that there is a much more stable career path for other industries, which generally includes pretty regular pay and position bumps each year well into your 50s. I know lawyers that start really making money once they hit partner in their firms in their 40s. Or business / financial types who tend to increase salary just because the "pyramid" effects of their existing clients and number of underlings. Doctors have a very regular schedule of raises as do almost all public workers as they gain seniority - teachers, federal and state workers, etc. Even the typical corporate middle manager will generally be promoted to higher levels with more responsibility. But software engineers just don't seem to be given the same options, by default. If you're an individual contributor, there are only so many project managers they need, and companies absolutely will not push your salary up by 5% each year once you've hit a plateau in mid 30's (e.g. about $160K in my relatively high COL city).
- comp_throw7 5y ago
  Why do you need to be "courted" by FAANGs? There are plenty of non-FAANG companies that pay anywhere from 70% to 110% of FAANG standard and hire remotely (especially now, what with the recent shift to remote work). Here's a partial list: Twitter Square Dropbox Slack Doordash Coinbase Stripe Robinhood Instacart Brex Affirm Twilio HBO Okta Thumbtack Walmart Confluent ...I could go on, but why? Anyways, it doesn't really matter if your compensation flatlines at 300-400k before you even turn 30, because then you can just retire at 40 if you want.

hiram112 5y ago

> My advice to CS majors is that you need to make enough to retire by 35 as that's when you stand a good chance of being tossed on the trash heap. I agree with this. CS is a GREAT career when you're in your mid 20's, making 6 figures with just a bachelors, while your cohorts are still taking on even more loans in graduate school or earning a fraction of your salary down in the bottom rungs of the corporate ladder. The trick is to live as frugally as you can while making the big bucks throughout your 20s and early 30s, invest it, and plan to never touch it. With some market luck, you can pretty much guarantee a safe retirement by late 50's or early 60s, even if you decide (or are forced) to change careers to something less lucrative, and especially if (very likely) your salary won't grow much faster than inflation (and less than COL increases) once you're past 35. This is in contrast, BTW, to most other professionals like lawyers, doctors, academics, etc. who tend to earn more and more each year until mid 50's. Because the reality is that most of us are not going to be the top 10% who will be courted by FAANGS well into our 40's, with offers of $500K plus equity, to lead projects. Instead, you're going to hit a glass ceiling in your mid 30's and unless you move to management or start your own consultancy, you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corporations don't really enjoy keeping on 40+ year old developers who expect to get 5% raises each year when they're not really worth more than the 27-33 year olds who have enough experience to crank out code that works well enough.

tjansen 5y ago
"...you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corporations don't really enjoy keeping on 40+ year old developers who expect to get 5% raises each year..." I think you have already outlined the solution: - don't expect 5% raises, or getting more than other developers at the same level. Your salary will plateau, but that's not a bad thing. - keep up with technology and make sure you don't fall behind.
- hiram112 5y ago
  I think the difference between software devs and other "profressionals" is that there is a much more stable career path for other industries, which generally includes pretty regular pay and position bumps each year well into your 50s. I know lawyers that start really making money once they hit partner in their firms in their 40s. Or business / financial types who tend to increase salary just because the "pyramid" effects of their existing clients and number of underlings. Doctors have a very regular schedule of raises as do almost all public workers as they gain seniority - teachers, federal and state workers, etc. Even the typical corporate middle manager will generally be promoted to higher levels with more responsibility. But software engineers just don't seem to be given the same options, by default. If you're an individual contributor, there are only so many project managers they need, and companies absolutely will not push your salary up by 5% each year once you've hit a plateau in mid 30's (e.g. about $160K in my relatively high COL city).
comp_throw7 5y ago
Why do you need to be "courted" by FAANGs? There are plenty of non-FAANG companies that pay anywhere from 70% to 110% of FAANG standard and hire remotely (especially now, what with the recent shift to remote work). Here's a partial list: Twitter Square Dropbox Slack Doordash Coinbase Stripe Robinhood Instacart Brex Affirm Twilio HBO Okta Thumbtack Walmart Confluent ...I could go on, but why? Anyways, it doesn't really matter if your compensation flatlines at 300-400k before you even turn 30, because then you can just retire at 40 if you want.