4 ms·

No industry has 0% unemployment. Most people would kill for the employability of the median software engineer.

by ghiculescu 2y ago

bombcar 2y ago
[flagged]
- Aeolun 2y ago
  How much experience with contract killers do you have to make that assessment?
  - actionfromafar 2y ago
    Most "contract killers" aren't the super pro movie kind. (Though I'm sure they exist.) Most are young guys, or children even, doing sloppy hit-n-runs to climb some gang hierarchy for really not a lot of money.
    - Aeolun 2y ago
      I agree with the theory, but have zero facts to back them up. I’d also argue that we shouldn’t call “I’ll give you $50 coke money if you off that guy” should be called “contract killing”.
- rockemsockem 2y ago
  Is that data that's generally available somewhere??
  - _carbyau_ 2y ago
    I wonder whether you could extrapolate off other industries. IE things like sports or music where the top 1% make f*k-you money and the rest either get by or struggle. Do they have to do the occasional public performance to build hype? Or maybe it's more like a tradie. I always thought Leon:The Professional was a story about an apprenticeship, not that movies are a source of truth on real life.
- mythrwy 2y ago
  Probably not per hour.
  - epolanski 2y ago
    Absolutely per hour, you'd be surprised how cheap can kill people in many areas of the world, even the rich ones.
kulahan 2y ago
This isn’t wrong. In every industry, there will always be people who struggle to find employment. It’s a necessary part of the economic machine. One hopes it is not always the same person suffering, of course. Still, absolutely everything about this industry is inflated. Pepsi just bought Poppi for $1.5B. That’s a HUGE DEAL, but hardly worth mentioning when compared with the $70B that Microsoft spent on Activision-Blizzard. Making $80k a year is a GREAT salary. That’s going to invoke a hearty yawn from many when comparing to dev salaries. Hell, you don’t even need a degree to get in. Just the knowledge to back yourself up in an interview. I’m old enough to remember the hiring frenzy of the dot-com bubble, as well as many smaller hiring frenzies since. Having watched my parents claw their way to a very happy retirement, it’s insane how easy life is in this career field. I bring great energy to my teams, but technically I’m not incredible. I’ve never been Big-N quality. Still, I’m going to retire earlier in my life than my dad, who (very regrettably) even got an infusion of life insurance cash via my mom’s passing. I’ll retire with more spending power too. I have one nice toy - a car I spent $45k on. Otherwise, I live a modest life on my income, but all of this is based on watching my parents’ spending habits and lifestyle, so it feels like a fair comparison to me at least. This is an absolutely blessed field. Can’t imagine where I’d be if I’d been born even just a hundred years ago.
- throwaway17824 2y ago
  > Making $80k a year is a GREAT salary. That’s going to invoke a hearty yawn from many when comparing to dev salaries. I'd like to draw a distinction here: $80k is very good, by the standards of what most people can get. $80k is middling-to-poor compared to how fast the cost of living is going up. Housing prices are skyrocketing, people have no savings, can't afford emergencies. The economy is leaving people behind. In my area, SWE pay moves closer to "normal difficulty" every year, while everyone else moves to "hard".
  - bb88 2y ago
    The real issue is that companies aren't willing to increase pay even with the rate of inflation. This isn't a controversial take. So yeah, you may be loyal to the company, and you may show loyalty by coming to all the "mandatory fun" events as well as the "all hands meetings." But the reality is that they pay the minimum what they can get away with. And the more loyal you are, the more they can pay less. If you think about it, on one hand it's a market based approach -- which is probably the right answer for management to do. On the other hand, if there's no incentive for you to go out of your way, you won't. Nor will you work harder if all you're going to get is a %2 pay raise, even though the last year you closed on average 3 tickets per work day.

No industry has 0% unemployment. Most people would kill for the employability of the median software engineer.

bombcar 2y ago

[flagged]

Aeolun 2y ago
How much experience with contract killers do you have to make that assessment?
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  Most "contract killers" aren't the super pro movie kind. (Though I'm sure they exist.) Most are young guys, or children even, doing sloppy hit-n-runs to climb some gang hierarchy for really not a lot of money.
  - Aeolun 2y ago
    I agree with the theory, but have zero facts to back them up. I’d also argue that we shouldn’t call “I’ll give you $50 coke money if you off that guy” should be called “contract killing”.
rockemsockem 2y ago
Is that data that's generally available somewhere??
- _carbyau_ 2y ago
  I wonder whether you could extrapolate off other industries. IE things like sports or music where the top 1% make f*k-you money and the rest either get by or struggle. Do they have to do the occasional public performance to build hype? Or maybe it's more like a tradie. I always thought Leon:The Professional was a story about an apprenticeship, not that movies are a source of truth on real life.
mythrwy 2y ago
Probably not per hour.
- epolanski 2y ago
  Absolutely per hour, you'd be surprised how cheap can kill people in many areas of the world, even the rich ones.

kulahan 2y ago

This isn’t wrong. In every industry, there will always be people who struggle to find employment. It’s a necessary part of the economic machine. One hopes it is not always the same person suffering, of course. Still, absolutely everything about this industry is inflated. Pepsi just bought Poppi for $1.5B. That’s a HUGE DEAL, but hardly worth mentioning when compared with the $70B that Microsoft spent on Activision-Blizzard. Making $80k a year is a GREAT salary. That’s going to invoke a hearty yawn from many when comparing to dev salaries. Hell, you don’t even need a degree to get in. Just the knowledge to back yourself up in an interview. I’m old enough to remember the hiring frenzy of the dot-com bubble, as well as many smaller hiring frenzies since. Having watched my parents claw their way to a very happy retirement, it’s insane how easy life is in this career field. I bring great energy to my teams, but technically I’m not incredible. I’ve never been Big-N quality. Still, I’m going to retire earlier in my life than my dad, who (very regrettably) even got an infusion of life insurance cash via my mom’s passing. I’ll retire with more spending power too. I have one nice toy - a car I spent $45k on. Otherwise, I live a modest life on my income, but all of this is based on watching my parents’ spending habits and lifestyle, so it feels like a fair comparison to me at least. This is an absolutely blessed field. Can’t imagine where I’d be if I’d been born even just a hundred years ago.

throwaway17824 2y ago
> Making $80k a year is a GREAT salary. That’s going to invoke a hearty yawn from many when comparing to dev salaries. I'd like to draw a distinction here: $80k is very good, by the standards of what most people can get. $80k is middling-to-poor compared to how fast the cost of living is going up. Housing prices are skyrocketing, people have no savings, can't afford emergencies. The economy is leaving people behind. In my area, SWE pay moves closer to "normal difficulty" every year, while everyone else moves to "hard".
- bb88 2y ago
  The real issue is that companies aren't willing to increase pay even with the rate of inflation. This isn't a controversial take. So yeah, you may be loyal to the company, and you may show loyalty by coming to all the "mandatory fun" events as well as the "all hands meetings." But the reality is that they pay the minimum what they can get away with. And the more loyal you are, the more they can pay less. If you think about it, on one hand it's a market based approach -- which is probably the right answer for management to do. On the other hand, if there's no incentive for you to go out of your way, you won't. Nor will you work harder if all you're going to get is a %2 pay raise, even though the last year you closed on average 3 tickets per work day.