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Comparing the average software engineer to a cardiologist is just silly. If you're going to select a small, highly skilled portion of the medical field to analy

Comparing the average software engineer to a cardiologist is just silly. If you're going to select a small, highly skilled portion of the medical field to analyze, you should compare it to a skilled portion of the software engineering field. Let's draw a more valid comparison: that between cardiologists and graduates of good engineering programs. Graduates from top CS programs are making significantly more than 58K fresh out of college. The standard offer from Microsoft for a good UIUC CS student is 80K + starting bonus. Conservatively assuming an average salary of 100K over 15 years for the programmer, he is 1.5 million ahead once the cardiologist is finally debt free (12 years of school + 3 years to pay back debt). The cardiologist will then take 7.5 years to catch up, by which time the cardiologist will be in his 50s. I don't know about you, but I'd rather be debt free and making 100K in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, then being the guy on top when I'm 50.

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lurker19 15y ago
22.5 years after high school is age 40, not age 50. Doctors start pulling (small) salary 8 years after high school.
- timsally 15y ago
  I'm pretty sure it's 12 years of schooling after college. 4 years of medical school plus 6-8 years of fellowship. Thus 12 after college + 3 years to pay back debt + 7.5 years to get even is age 22 + 22.5 years = 45. Of course the reality is that someone who has worked at Microsoft for as long as the guy in the comparison is going to average more than 100K a year in compensation over 22.5 years. So my figure of the salaries evening out at 50 is pretty reasonable I think.
  - peterbessman 15y ago
    Medical school is 4 years after college. Average cost is $100k-$200k. After medical school comes residency, which lasts from 3-6 years depending on speciality. Compensation during residency is $40k-$60k. After residency, you can get a job. At that level of training, the salary will be $150k-$250k. Optionally, you can get a fellowship after residency. This will be another 3-6 years of training, with compensation around $50k-$70k. After fellowship, jobs pay in the $250k-$500k range.

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lurker19 15y ago

22.5 years after high school is age 40, not age 50. Doctors start pulling (small) salary 8 years after high school.

timsally 15y ago
I'm pretty sure it's 12 years of schooling after college. 4 years of medical school plus 6-8 years of fellowship. Thus 12 after college + 3 years to pay back debt + 7.5 years to get even is age 22 + 22.5 years = 45. Of course the reality is that someone who has worked at Microsoft for as long as the guy in the comparison is going to average more than 100K a year in compensation over 22.5 years. So my figure of the salaries evening out at 50 is pretty reasonable I think.
- peterbessman 15y ago
  Medical school is 4 years after college. Average cost is $100k-$200k. After medical school comes residency, which lasts from 3-6 years depending on speciality. Compensation during residency is $40k-$60k. After residency, you can get a job. At that level of training, the salary will be $150k-$250k. Optionally, you can get a fellowship after residency. This will be another 3-6 years of training, with compensation around $50k-$70k. After fellowship, jobs pay in the $250k-$500k range.