31 ms·

Problem is that scientists get paid pretty terrible wages, though this is expected and pretty much drilled into you since undergraduate 'If you wanted to be pai

Problem is that scientists get paid pretty terrible wages, though this is expected and pretty much drilled into you since undergraduate 'If you wanted to be paid for your brains, you should have gone into finance' and so on. On the other hand, programmers and software developers are not likely to put up with being paid peanuts when there are plenty of well paying jobs out there. I can't see much reason why many of them would stick around.

jghn 11y ago
I did the latter for years although it was really because I had no idea how much wages had inflated in that time period, primarily because Americans just don't talk about salary much and I didn't think to poke around. Once I realized the situation it didn't take long to double my salary.
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
I turned down a job working as a scientific-programmer-at-large for a college recently because it would have been a 40% pay cut. (I might have taken it at 20%, but I have a mortgage and a family).
roel_v 11y ago
"Problem is that scientists get paid pretty terrible wages" I can't claim to know the situation everywhere, but apart from the postdocs (and I guess the 'adjunct' temp positions endemic in the US), assistant and full professors actually get paid quite well (I know of Western Europe, AU/NZ, Canada, and I think it's the same in most places in the US too - although I don't know first hand there). Funding agencies would fund software people. There is no will to change it though, because hey I wrote 5000 lines of C or Fortran back in the 80's when I was a grad student, so why can't you do the same today? I have a CD-Rom with a very good C++ compiler I've been using since the early 1990's, I'll send you a copy, you should try it out! (I paraphrased that last line, but I was actually told this less than 4 months ago).

31 ms·

Problem is that scientists get paid pretty terrible wages, though this is expected and pretty much drilled into you since undergraduate 'If you wanted to be pai

by _Wintermute 11y ago

jghn 11y ago
I did the latter for years although it was really because I had no idea how much wages had inflated in that time period, primarily because Americans just don't talk about salary much and I didn't think to poke around. Once I realized the situation it didn't take long to double my salary.
GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
I turned down a job working as a scientific-programmer-at-large for a college recently because it would have been a 40% pay cut. (I might have taken it at 20%, but I have a mortgage and a family).
roel_v 11y ago
"Problem is that scientists get paid pretty terrible wages" I can't claim to know the situation everywhere, but apart from the postdocs (and I guess the 'adjunct' temp positions endemic in the US), assistant and full professors actually get paid quite well (I know of Western Europe, AU/NZ, Canada, and I think it's the same in most places in the US too - although I don't know first hand there). Funding agencies would fund software people. There is no will to change it though, because hey I wrote 5000 lines of C or Fortran back in the 80's when I was a grad student, so why can't you do the same today? I have a CD-Rom with a very good C++ compiler I've been using since the early 1990's, I'll send you a copy, you should try it out! (I paraphrased that last line, but I was actually told this less than 4 months ago).