I know this was directed at another reply, but, from the description, this sounds right up my alley. I am going to give it a read, thank you.
You can definitely make a lot of money in the field from pretty much anywhere, it seems the FAANG companies are trying to roll the remote portion back, but it’s still pretty widely available, for now. I could add 25-50% to my salary if I took a month off to study and wanted to work 45-55 hour weeks but I don’t.
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There’s apparently lots of high paid software people who don’t have CS degrees or a formal education in a related field in college based on anecdotal statements from my brother.
These guys are either self-taught or go through boot-camps like heretolog.
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Which boot camp did you run, if you don’t mind me asking?
I’ve got about 14 months until I graduate for Computer Information Systems but I’d take the shortcut into that kind of pay raise no questions asked lol
The Iron Yard (i wear the shirts to the gym), it’s now defunct. It was a National chain that focused on mid-sized cities but fell the way so many PE backed companies do.
I wouldn’t count on 250 as easily attainable, I know a bunch of engineers and almost none make that (at least as salary) but if you work hard and have the background you do six figures in 3-5 years is attainable, growth after that initial benchmark is still pretty easy too.
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Yep, pretty much. You can fail upwards into middle mgmt pretty easily. Really difficult to be shitty and rise higher.
There are a lot more things that go into upper level decision making that ‘you’ aren’t privvy to or likely thinking about until you are at that higher level. And for every 20 good decisions that keep employees happy and the company profitable, the one bad decision will be the one that sticks out.
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Also, work hourly as long as you can. Salaried sucks.
IDK if i would agree with this, although I’m not salary either.
I had the discussion of hourly vs salary with an old Sr Manager of mine and he said either route is fine, but there’s a catch… He said he could never pay enough for a 20 year hourly worker to go salary, but if that same worker had gone salary sooner - the end pay would have been significantly higher after 20 years. Seems to make a fair bit of sense to me.
Salary only sucks if you suck at managing expectations. I did for my first salary position, but since then I always have a frank discussion during the interview process about what I’m looking for.
I rarely work more than 35 hours per week, sometimes a lot less. Being good at what you do and managing expectations is the name of the game.
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This talk of salary vs hourly brings up something that I think unicornsandrainbows may also be interested in hearing about.
A lot of tech jobs are very vulnerable to being outsourced, especially if you end up working in a big company that already has that kind of environment set up.
Why does this matter for salary vs hourly? Well, there tends to be a perception difference between the two. Salaried employees tend to be considered less “disposable” than hourly employees, though the gap really depends on the industry from what I understand.
Job security in your field is important to think about.
I agree. Job security hasn’t typically been a priority for me, as it is never guaranteed. That said, there are jobs that absolutely have more job security than others, and is a strong selling point on certain degrees. If I were going to invest the money in school, I want every chance of quick payoff.
I highly doubt my job experiences relative to my college education have much application, but there was one aspect that I sought after the most. Being raised by Depression Era parents, job security was a deeply held value for me.
This was simple in the early 1970’s, just find a civil service job. Lucky for me I found one at the municipal electric power plant(s). I worked there 41 years and have been retired 10 years now.
I had great comfort knowing that I had strong job security and it enabled me to focus on what I most drove me going forward: competitive bodybuilding.
I studied nuclear engineering for 4 years (1966-1970), never achieving that coveted degree. But I had no interest in working around radiation, at all. I spent more time at the gym than the classroom. I had to take mathematics courses to raise my GPA. Those mathematics skills kept me far ahead of my peers in civil service promotional tests. So college was a great help at work.
I have no idea how I would deal with the job market today. I suppose I was born at exactly the best date possible. My best wishes to all those looking for employment. Better you than me (I say selfishly).
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I wouldn’t consider this true for anywhere I’ve worked, especially union shops.
I think it is best to assume you are expendable if you’re not the owner. I’ve known a number of people who believed “this place would go under without me” and they were all very wrong about that.
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This has always been my belief. No one is irreplaceable. It might be annoying and expensive to hire, but never impossible.
In my industry engineers that are hourly are almost always contractors or essentially considered as such because contractors are also hourly.
Agree on the expendable part. Everyone is eventually expendable!
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