As I've mentioned before I own a gym business (multiple locations) with my wife and some other business partners. Part of the purchase process was financial disclosures of everyone so we all know what each other makes on paper, what we actually take home, household wealth and assets, etc.
I'm 30, younger than my business partners by multiple decades, and am the only one not in a strictly management position. Two of the partners are PEs and I make more than anyone else.
I say this not to brag but only to point out that it takes a lot to leave programming simply because the money isn't there is a lot of other professions. I almost went into civil engineering and I'm glad I didn't, because apparently I would've had to bust my ass to make it into management only to be 20 years older and making less money to boot.
I did see some data on US News Best Jobs on salaries for various positions. It's a roundup of BLS data, and provides data based on location.
I find the data a whisker suspicious, but this is BLS data. Supposedly, the media salary for a software developer in SF is $118k a year. Keep in mind, in San Jose, it is $142k, which sounds more like it.
But now look at salaries for other fields. A registered nurse in SF earns a median salary of $123k. Every time I point this out, I always make sure to emphasize that I am not complaining that registered nurses earn a lot of money in SF - they should! And yes, it is a hard job, but perhaps a rewarding one as well. Would you rather do a hard job that is important and pays well, or log into JIRA to fix bugs and report on them in your daily "standup"?
Dental Hygienists, according to this roundup of BLS data, earn about $102k a year. Ok, that's less than developers, but do 45 year old dental hygienists get run out of the field because they are too old, or because they withdrew for a few years with kids and family responsibilities?
And keep in mind, salaries for lawyers, nurse practitioners, physicians, physician assistants, and other professionals or para-professionals often substantially exceed what software developers get paid. If you want a relatively low stress job, there are better options. If you're ambitious, there are better options as well. In short, you'd better really like code if you ant to do this, and you may find you don't, once you discover what that means on an "agile" team. Great for hobby, sure, so is music, dance, and painting. Do you like it more than music, dance and painting?
The unspoken truth is that Software development isn't really that great a job for the pay, career prospects, and working conditions. It's not horrible, either, but there's no need to scratch our heads about an alleged "shortage". I know the industry has a bunch of reasons they promote for the "shortage", but in the end, it's a market response to pay and working conditions. People with the skill to do this have realized they're better off in a different field.
Thanks, that's very interesting. I often think of doing something else with my life, but the money's good, and the work is easy. Makes it very hard to walk away. Plus over time you (and your family) get used to a certain lifestyle. Golden handcuffs as they say.
As I've mentioned before I own a gym business (multiple locations) with my wife and some other business partners. Part of the purchase process was financial disclosures of everyone so we all know what each other makes on paper, what we actually take home, household wealth and assets, etc.
I'm 30, younger than my business partners by multiple decades, and am the only one not in a strictly management position. Two of the partners are PEs and I make more than anyone else.
I say this not to brag but only to point out that it takes a lot to leave programming simply because the money isn't there is a lot of other professions. I almost went into civil engineering and I'm glad I didn't, because apparently I would've had to bust my ass to make it into management only to be 20 years older and making less money to boot.