3 ms·

If salaried software dev work is not worth it, what other salaried career is?

by badpun 1y ago

Nextgrid 1y ago
One when your comp and/or bonuses better capture the value you create. Just an example: sales roles generally have commission-based compensation that scales with the amount of effort you put in and actually rewards high-performers. In comparison, the "reward" for effort in a salaried SWE job is more work and to get your token 5% raise early if you're really lucky. And that's after you go through the insane recruitment & interviewing processes. The SWE salary income might sound high at first glance when you're young and fresh but tops out quickly (and of course that top end has been significantly eroded by inflation), much lower than other roles.
- comprev 1y ago
  Where I live tech is one of the few careers which puts [senior] salaried devs in the top 1% of earners when I look at my income bracket in the annual county stats published by the Government. At a regional level it puts me in top 5%. This of course all relative geographically but we're certainly very well compensated compared to other industries.
  - techcode 1y ago
    I think that salaried devs (and related tech folks) are in the top x% locally - basically everywhere. There could be a big spread from smaller tech companies, and governments/police/military/etc that pay low even for tech positions. So actually I would be really curious to meet/talk to someone that took a tech job in say police/military or such.
    - comprev 1y ago
      This is pure speculation, but I think there's probably a large variation in salaries in the 90/10 split of senior/staff+. The majority have decades of employment with the same employer rising up from junior/graduate level, whereas the others joined to bring "modern tech" experience with them to help execute a revamp. Most devs are probably in the top 20-30% band making tech a relatively "normal" (but good) salary in the local region. I could be entirely wrong though :)
- badpun 1y ago
  Sales are great for the few top performers, lackluster to terrible for everyone else. Whereas software is good to great for anyone who manages to get employed.
alchemical_piss 1y ago
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If salaried software dev work is not worth it, what other salaried career is?

by badpun 1y ago

If salaried software dev work is not worth it, what other salaried career is?

One when your comp and/or bonuses better capture the value you create. Just an example: sales roles generally have commission-based compensation that scales with the amount of effort you put in and actually rewards high-performers. In comparison, the "reward" for effort in a salaried SWE job is more work and to get your token 5% raise early if you're really lucky. And that's after you go through the insane recruitment & interviewing processes. The SWE salary income might sound high at first glance when you're young and fresh but tops out quickly (and of course that top end has been significantly eroded by inflation), much lower than other roles.

comprev 1y ago
Where I live tech is one of the few careers which puts [senior] salaried devs in the top 1% of earners when I look at my income bracket in the annual county stats published by the Government. At a regional level it puts me in top 5%. This of course all relative geographically but we're certainly very well compensated compared to other industries.
- techcode 1y ago
  I think that salaried devs (and related tech folks) are in the top x% locally - basically everywhere. There could be a big spread from smaller tech companies, and governments/police/military/etc that pay low even for tech positions. So actually I would be really curious to meet/talk to someone that took a tech job in say police/military or such.
  - comprev 1y ago
    This is pure speculation, but I think there's probably a large variation in salaries in the 90/10 split of senior/staff+. The majority have decades of employment with the same employer rising up from junior/graduate level, whereas the others joined to bring "modern tech" experience with them to help execute a revamp. Most devs are probably in the top 20-30% band making tech a relatively "normal" (but good) salary in the local region. I could be entirely wrong though :)
badpun 1y ago
Sales are great for the few top performers, lackluster to terrible for everyone else. Whereas software is good to great for anyone who manages to get employed.

alchemical_piss 1y ago

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