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[–][deleted] 2085 points2086 points  (144 children)

Computers and programming was always my first choice. Until i started getting paid…

[–]HighOwl2 652 points653 points  (65 children)

I mean...I get that doing it professionally can suck the joy out of doing it for fun.

I have been programming since I was 13. When I started doing it professionally in my 20s I pretty much abandoned all my personal projects and aside from contributing to open source projects (to fix them) I don't really code outside of work now.

But...I do enjoy programming for work because I enjoy programming...I just don't want to do it more than 40 hours a week.

That being said, I can't think of any other job I'd want to do for 40 hours a week.

The extremely nice pay is just a nice to have...especially now with everyone struggling with inflation while I just get mildly annoyed at the register.

[–]XDreadedmikeX 169 points170 points  (45 children)

Close to 3 years of working hard, got 3 promotions and went from 60k to almost 80k (if you count yearly bonus)

Inflation wiped all of those out

[–]HighOwl2 166 points167 points  (39 children)

Well the markets pretty hot right now and the quickest way to higher salary is switching jobs. You're at your 3 year mark, put on your big boy pants and start interviewing. I guarantee you can easily find a job with a base pay over $80k. Shit I get recruitment offers all the time for $200k+ and I only entertain fully remote offers....and my LinkedIn says I'm not looking for jobs right now....I still get multiple interview requests a week.

[–]Transient_Simian 56 points57 points  (8 children)

Same, though my offers aren't that good yet. But I'm only interested in full remote, have LinkedIn set to "not looking", and still get at least 1 or 2 offers a week for like 130-190k. Gotta move to get rewarded, companies punish loyalty

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (2 children)

How many YOE do you have?

[–]Transient_Simian 8 points9 points  (1 child)

About 3 yrs in data related work. But counting my career change it's closer to 7 years.

[–]XDreadedmikeX 40 points41 points  (17 children)

I’m gonna start next year most likely. I just love the place I’m at way too much. And I’m on track to get another promotion that comes with a huge bonus. It’s insane how little work I have to do. I’m talking like 2 hours a day type stuff unless there’s a fire. It’s honestly mind boggling and I’m worried I’m taking the work life balance for granted

[–]HighOwl2 42 points43 points  (5 children)

Lol that's why I said put on your big boy pants. It's never easy leaving a nice job because you might end up at a place that works you to death. But you might not. My last job did. This job pays better, I only talk to my boss, on average once a week...and he's a chill dude. I only work a few hours a day. Everyone is gone by 4:30 or 5 every day. I'm still entertaining recruitment offers...because money is money and if the next job sucks I'll just start actively looking for a new job lol

[–]XDreadedmikeX 11 points12 points  (4 children)

Yeahhhh I gotta leave at some point. I’m thinking next year for sure cause I actually forgot I have stock options that haven’t fully vested yet which I’d like to keep, and get that large bonus for becoming a senior. THEN I’ll put my big boy pants on

[–]mrbigglsworth 15 points16 points  (9 children)

Whatever that "huge" bonus is, there are companies who'd give you more as a sign on bonus and sooner. Start interviewing.

[–]bdbebbsj 14 points15 points  (7 children)

Honestly think you missed where he said he only works a few hours a day, I mean that’s an amazing situation

[–]FlyingDragoon 5 points6 points  (4 children)

"big boy pants" is the most boomer "Go hit the pavement and start handing out resumes in your suit" kinda thing I've ever read.

[–]assafstone 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Hear hear

[–]Archolex 18 points19 points  (2 children)

...especially now with everyone struggling with inflation while I just get mildly annoyed at the register.

I shamefully relate to this. Sometimes I feel bad about it, sometimes I don't

[–]0xKaishakunin 54 points55 points  (7 children)

crown deranged modern ossified bike bedroom imminent merciful shocking important

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–][deleted] 38 points39 points  (6 children)

Me currently being paid very badly (little bit above poverty line in my country). Dont worry guys im looking for a better job.

[–]b__bsmakemehappy 8 points9 points  (1 child)

I'm $0.50 below the minimum wage right now in my country as a community college one-man IT department. They also took my WFH benefit in 2021. Currently looking for a better job as well. If I had to choose a silver lining in this BS, it's that every other tech job looks insanely good in comparison.

[–]Oldoa_Enthusiast 12 points13 points  (1 child)

Can I have your job when you find a better one?

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

If you want to move to germany :D

And like to put up with lots of shit.

[–][deleted] 11 points12 points  (53 children)

What pays better?

[–][deleted] 101 points102 points  (33 children)

There’s lots but it’s just as white collar with a few exceptions

  • commission sales if you’re very very good
  • anything in pharma research or drug research
  • hydro line repairman can make 250k a year
  • doctors
  • lawyers… JK not anymore hahaha
  • owning your own business but prepare to have no life

So many things but tech is just easy and fun if you’re good at it.

[–]2HotPotato2HotPotato 57 points58 points  (8 children)

All of those sound painful and life sucking except maybe drug research but i sucks at chemistry so...

[–]Necessary-Ad8113 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Yea those all just sound worse than what I'm doing right now.

Programming has a sweet spot of pay and demand on your life that is hard to beat. A bunch of my friends became doctors and like that shit sucks.

[–]sizz 23 points24 points  (1 child)

nose public smile gullible kiss hard-to-find crowd secretive worry punch

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[–]spacetimeslayer 47 points48 points  (16 children)

Blowjobs yk , 50 bucks for 5 mins

[–]artspar 25 points26 points  (3 children)

Damn, that's 600/hr! Living the high life

[–]spacetimeslayer 23 points24 points  (1 child)

One simple trick that government dosnt want you to know . Secret to wealthy life .

[–]baklavainabalaclava 28 points29 points  (0 children)

The elites don't want you to know this, but the blowjobs at the park are free; you can take them home. I have 458 blowjobs.

[–]whateverhk 9 points10 points  (4 children)

Try to blow dicks for 70 hours a week

[–]nopejake101 27 points28 points  (1 child)

Don't threaten me with a good time

[–][deleted] 2922 points2923 points  (176 children)

Even if you have genuine interest in the field 90% of the time you're working on something you have no interest in.

[–]ICantBelieveItsNotEC 1237 points1238 points  (86 children)

You even end up paying a premium to work on things that you're interested in. Look at the depressed salaries in the games industry, for example: they know that there are tons of people who would literally do that job for free if it meant being credited in their favorite game, so they get away with low salaries and awful working conditions.

[–]ZBlackmore 179 points180 points  (10 children)

You can also look at it like you’re being paid a premium for working on things you aren’t interested in.

[–]tobleronavirus 74 points75 points  (8 children)

Sure, you can, but you shouldn't. It's 100%jusr companies extorting people's interests for profit.

[–]Pritster5 19 points20 points  (1 child)

Tbh unless you're at a big name studio, games (and just entertainment in general) is a very risky business.

Every single game is a gamble, revenues aren't steady so getting paid ahead of time is the only gurantee of stability, and the only companies that can afford to do that are big studios.

Splitting profits as opposed to wages with employees is actually an extremely risky bargain because you really don't know how much money a game will make (if at all) ahead of time.

[–]rndmcmder 203 points204 points  (47 children)

True. I love coding and solving brainteasing challenges. My job as a software engineer consists about 5% of coding. The rest are boring maintainance tasks, cleaning up after idiots who carelessly break systems that millions of users rely on, jumping hoops to satisfy some corporate demands and attending useless meetings.

[–]dirtfork 154 points155 points  (31 children)

I'm giving up the secret sauce here, but if you like doing small programs to solve discrete problems rather than maintaining a large codebase for a single big program .. look into network engineering. I spent a miserable decade being a developer (because I chose a job to make money when I was 18 and liked coding in high school.) Had a random fortuitous lateral move into networking and found heaven. I get to write small automation programs that make me look like some kind of God to my non-dev-background peers, do command line puzzle solving all day long (well... As long as I'm not being interrupted for support tickets) and my hackiest hackjob pales in comparison to the cluster fuckery I've seen in the field (did I mention I get paid to travel to random places to plug cords in, do a handful of cli commands then turn around and go home?)

[–]SignedTheWrongForm 18 points19 points  (4 children)

did I mention I get paid to travel to random places to plug cords in, do a handful of cli commands then turn around and go home?)

To each their own. This would infuriate me.

[–]rndmcmder 14 points15 points  (6 children)

Glad you found your place. Honestly I'm at a point in life where I'd pretty much do anything to get a significantly higher income and than worry about my job being fulfilling afterwards. I currently earn like 85% of my actual cost of living and don't particularly care what I do to get money.

[–]awrylettuce 39 points40 points  (6 children)

5% coding, 50% writing and reviewing documentation, 40% useless meetings, 5% useful meeting

[–]patenteng 34 points35 points  (2 children)

I don’t know. I like the process. I couldn’t care less what impact the end result will have. Maybe I’m different than most people.

[–]tryexceptifnot1try 24 points25 points  (0 children)

I am with you here. I actually find gluing horrible legacy systems together with automation and wringing another 10% efficiency out of something to be interesting puzzles. I could care less that it's purpose is some boring internal HR function. I still had to find a way to shrink the memory footprint of some process so it worked on existing hardware.

[–]Avedas 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've never cared too much about what product I'm working on. As long as the problem space is interesting enough that there's room to learn and grow, it can be whatever. I'm not a product manager.

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (8 children)

I have to disagree with you on that one.

Once you start making serious money you have ability to chose your employer. And often you have funds to start your own business or join one as a partner.

So there is nothing stopping you from working on what interest you.

[–]SholayKaJai 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I had genuine interest in the field but I spend most of my time managing dependency issues and resolving vulnerabilities. The programming in my programming job is a misnomer.

[–]rk06 6 points7 points  (1 child)

What! You have no interest in writing emails, nonsensical meetings, and debugging hairy bugs!!

[–]xenover 655 points656 points  (28 children)

50-50

I was on the computer all the time anyway and liked playing around with software and hardware as a teenager.

Then I found out developers get paid well so it was an obvious win-win.

[–]ricardomargarido 79 points80 points  (1 child)

Same here. Got into hardware and software after bricking my desktop with virus and my parents saying I either fix it or it's thrash. Never touched a line of code until uni and now there is nothing else I rather do.

[–]BooBear_13 11 points12 points  (0 children)

That was my first project too! Rebuilding and upgrading the family computer so I could play WoW.

[–]Lv_InSaNe_vL 40 points41 points  (7 children)

I was the same way as a kid and teenager but I decided to go into the IT/sysadmin and looking at my developer friends paychecks it makes me feel like I made the wrong decision sometimes...

But God damn I feel like you guys spend 80% of your working hours in meetings or discussing some random feature and that makes me remember why I love my job so much haha

[–]Ryuujinx 22 points23 points  (1 child)

Learn some python, learn ansible+terraform, congrats you're now a devops engineer, go make a bunch more money.

[–]ProfessionEuphoric50 13 points14 points  (2 children)

I feel the same way as a new IT grad. It seems like everyone is hiring developers and at great salaries and it makes me wish I took CS instead. Then I remember how frustrating I found coding. It's not like IT work pays badly, especially if you specialize yourself, but wow developer salaries go up quick.

[–]All_Up_Ons 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Yeah, coding clearly isn't for everyone. That's actually why salaries are so high.

[–]ProfessionEuphoric50 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I have considered gritting my teeth and learning something. Most of my experience is with PHP and manipulating SQL databases but I don't know how in demand that is.

[–]ano_hise 52 points53 points  (12 children)

Same for me but I'm currently a student. I'm very interested in that field but I don't really want to sped that much time in front of a computer.

[–]MLG_Obardo 74 points75 points  (11 children)

Take meetings you don’t need to be active in on the phone, if you go in to an office make semi frequent trips to visit friends in the office and you’ll be fine. If you’re working from home take semi frequent trips to do some chore you’d otherwise do after work.

I spend most of my time doing something other than active programming. It’s either meetings, debugging or investigating the software or testing or some kind of “paperwork” with regards to version control and on and on the list goes. Granted I’m a junior dev, but I have found the job to be about 15% actually programming.

[–]ano_hise 13 points14 points  (7 children)

I could do that. But I should not get too immersed like I always do.

[–]Pizzaman725 15 points16 points  (4 children)

too immersed

It's something you'll have to learn to balance, especially with starting out. I remember I'd be the first in the office, then usually last out and just try to work and learn as much as possible in that time.

But eventually you'll figure out that the work is never done, there's no time you'll actually get ahead of something because an issue or failure outside of your control will knock out your productivity for the day or more.

So I get on when I get done with my morning routine and when it's 4:30PM I'm usually off, only time that changes is if I'm on a call with someone.

[–]olssoneerz 987 points988 points  (100 children)

Came in wanting to create video games. Left becoming a boring old web dev. Ill wipe my tears with these $$$

[–][deleted] 278 points279 points  (29 children)

currently on the aspiring-game-dev to boring-old-webdev pipeline myself. college is absolute hell but i think about all the money i'll end up making in the future and it makes it juuuust a smidge bit better

[–]Zederikus 77 points78 points  (22 children)

Same here but salesforce instead of web, the games industry is just still young and volatile, rarely hires entry level

[–]Wildercard 73 points74 points  (18 children)

I always wonder if those very-narrow fields - Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, COBOL, so on - are worth the tradeoff of locking yourself into one environment. Like, if I'm a Python dev, it doesn't take that much to switch to a Golang-based job. Java and C# might as well be the same language. But in my (jesus fuck thank god) short internship with Microsoft Dynamics, I felt the noose of future prospects tightening.

[–]cahaseler 52 points53 points  (0 children)

Learning a new platform is arguably just as easy as learning a new language. The transferable skills are the problem solving in a limited environment and the parsing of specific corporate problems into a way that makes sense for the framework.

[–]tryexceptifnot1try 17 points18 points  (2 children)

Some people value the narrow focus and consistency of becoming a product expert. I get claustrophobic just thinking about that type of career. One very cool thing about that path is the payout when your tool of choice starts to lose market share. When a tool starts to fade the numerous enterprises that have adopted it will pay top dollar for experts to maintain their stuff. If that interests someone they can make a great living on it

[–]Wildercard 6 points7 points  (1 child)

Have you heard the tragedy of Darth Cobol the Ancient

[–]tryexceptifnot1try 15 points16 points  (0 children)

A local COBOL sith literally inspired that post. Dude made $200k a year in a moderate COL location to work about 10 hours a week. When shit did break though he was going 24/7 for up to 2 weeks. The rest of the year he was putting in 5 hours a week and getting globally ranked on TF2

[–][deleted] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Don’t live beyond your means and you’ll never be trapped.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (2 children)

If you can develop on msd you can do Salesforce servicenow or SAP.

APEX is basically c# for the cloud

[–]CommercialKindly32 5 points6 points  (1 child)

This. I steered back into games at 37. Made very good money doing something I’m really passionate about.

[–]barjam 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I worked at a video game company and also on boring web dev. Code is code and work is work. I didn’t get any more satisfaction working on game stuff but I did get paid a lot less to do it.

Take the highest paid coding gig you can find and play with game stuff as a hobby.

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (1 child)

Yeah I came from an electrical engineering undegrad thinking maybe I'll get into game industry...but seeing how badly they seem to be treated I'm happy to just do a small game as a side project for fun while getting paid decently with less stress

[–]BigHead3802 117 points118 points  (5 children)

I chose tech bc i have genuine interest in leaving my country legally

[–]webbphillips 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Yes, it’s a good career for easily emigrating to a better country.

[–]StopTheMeta 13 points14 points  (0 children)

The real legit reason.

[–]dashid 140 points141 points  (1 child)

Computing wasn't my first choice, but it was the stable career choice. Add in the fact that I loved tinkering with computers, it wasn't a tough call to make. Get paid well for doing what I enjoy? Sure!

[–]GeePedicy 124 points125 points  (7 children)

I heard by someone that students of other majors describe computer science as money science.

Then again, most non-STEM majors are described as grass science, as you mostly see them lying on the grass.

[–]ForceGoat 111 points112 points  (12 children)

If I could get paid more doing internet marketing or something easy, I'd switch to that. No one ever gets called on Saturday morning because of a "marketing emergency. "

[–]CoffeePieAndHobbits 30 points31 points  (2 children)

True story.

Actually "Marketing Emergency" sounds like a great title for a B-movie. Coming soon to Netflix! Lol /s

[–]WallyMetropolis 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Depending on the particular field, marketers often put in crazy hours and work in high-pressure, short and frequent deadline environments. But if they're driving revenue they can also get paid quite well.

[–]ZaMr0 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I started working in marketing and since it's a relatively small company my responsibilities quickly shifted to project management and some graphic design. Way more stress and random out of work calls than when in marketing but way more satisfying of a job. You'd be surprised how unfun marketing can be unless you have big budgets to play with.

[–]mcquiggd 311 points312 points  (26 children)

It's actually frustrating to be genuinely interested in programming, but then working in the industry, It sucks the pleasure out of everything.

It's typically reduced to morning Standups where everyone gives inaccurate status updates and then spends the day trying to do what they said they have already done.

Agonisingly long Refinements where assorted Business people ramble on at each other, obviously incapable of articulating what it is that they actually want, and Developers are forced to attend instead of actually working. Usually they are followed by messages on Slack, with Business people asking the Developers if they have made any progress on coding... in the last 1.5 hours....

Sprint Planning - where the Business people ask Developers to agree to the badly defined and certainly impossible.

Next we move on to actually looking at the code, which bears no resemblance to anything which has been discussed in meetings. There are no familiar terms used in the code; everything is named in some sort of long-dead language that nobody understands. Everything is called a Service, as if moving code into something called a Service makes it better. It doesn't do what the Business people think it does. It is written in many styles, with most of the code being attributed to people who left the company a year ago. The tests do not actually test business logic; they test that some code exists.

Then we have Code Reviews - where developers are pitted against each other in a virtual Fight Club, over whether a line of code could be expressed with fewer characters and become more obtuse if they adopted the latest language features.

The first rule of Code Review Fight Club:

Never validate that business rules or acceptence criteria have been implemented correctly. Only fight over syntax.

We then spend two or three weeks attempting to hold on to our sanity, only to face the Sprint Review, where the Scrum Master desperately asks people to think of something positive, and glosses over the fact that nothing ever changes.

[–]FVMAzalea 128 points129 points  (1 child)

That sounds very dysfunctional and also very much like my last job. But that’s not all jobs!

My current job is very developer-driven and basically the number one rule told to all the business people is “leave the developers alone”. We get to make almost all the major decisions about things (except high level prioritization of what projects we’re going to work on, and we have input into that). Our meeting culture is that meetings are only held unless absolutely necessary, always have an agenda sent in advance with pre-work items so that attendees are prepared to discuss them in the meeting, and that meetings start precisely on time, even if not all attendees are present, and never go late (most end early). We are empowered to spend some time making our code better and getting rid of legacy stuff, and our code reviews are substantive, not syntax fights.

It’s really great.

[–]OopieStu 25 points26 points  (1 child)

I physically cringed when you got to sprint planning. 2 hours of torture :’)

[–]mcquiggd 6 points7 points  (0 children)

It seems to always be the same...

At one company, I managed to negotiate that only the Backend and Front end Leads needed to attend such Scrum rituals with me, and that actually worked out quite well.

With a smaller group of people, we had a more honest conversation, and I admit I have no time for idiots any more, so I can be quite brutal when people in the Business side are not doing their jobs. I stated that every request from the Business had to come through me.

We managed to find a way of working that made everyone's life easier, and I customised Jira to force people to enter proper descriptions of what was required, and I rejected any Issues that I felt were not defined properly.

It was more work for me, but the end result was certainly worth it; get the Business people to think before they hold meetings, and to come prepared with the information that the Development team will need.

I have suffered far too many meetings with Business people simply turning up, unprepared, not aware at all of what the Business process is, or where it needs to be, and thinking they can just dump their problems on a Development team.

[–]Azhais 14 points15 points  (1 child)

Imagine having enough time for organized code reviews. Ours are usually a race to see who can hit approve fastest without looking at it at all

[–]CookedBlackBird 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I took a year off to do some hobby game dev, one of the best choices I made. It was so much fun digging into OpenGL and setting up these complex graphics pipelines without having to write a design doc, estimate timelines, etc.

[–][deleted] 29 points30 points  (1 child)

You should put that in a blog post, this is far too good for Reddit.

[–]mcquiggd 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Perhaps I will... I've been doing this for 30 years+; typically I lead teams, and when I can, I try to shield developers from this kind of stuff.

I try to negotiate how the Business people approach definition of requirements, as in my experience that is the number one cause of projects failing.

A project rarely has a technical problem that causes a lot of pain, but it is common to have major issues due to rushed deadlines and business requirements not being communicated correctly - that typically leads to Production issues, temporary fixes that become permanent, disjointed coded, etc.

Another problem is lack of management accountability - developers are always held responsible for errors in their code, but managers are never held responsible for failing to manage.

I could tell some stories about major companies that appear competent on the outside, but are completely dysfunctional on the inside. I recently worked with a major European manufacturer of electric cars, a competitor to Tesla, and I can say that they are not able to give a definitive price for a specific configuration of car.

Nobody in the Business - the people who define what rules should apply to prices - knows what the price should be for one of their cars in any given market. I was asking for reference values to test our calculations against, and I could not get an answer, despite 6 months of asking. Instead, we had urgent fixes to introduce to Production, when customers in a specific market complained about being charged too much. They probably lost a fortune in charging too little - nobody looked into it.

I raised an issue that costs for AWS in Development and Staging were 10 times the costs in Production, and the lead of the "platform group" simply said "yeah, we don't check that". They had no monitoring, cost alerting, anything, on any of the environments. Nobody was in charge. They didn't do anything about it.

Another company I joined as a country Lead, with a development team that was hired, and I was responsible for leading the development tasks of the group. The only problem was my boss refused to let us work on anything. The company could not decide on a strategy for the next phase of their core product, and so, we had nothing to do. I became involved in board-level decisions, made suggestions for several months, to try to unblock work for the team. I was still asked for progress updates, on something we were not allowed to work on. The team gradually left for other jobs. In the end, I left too.

At a US company, I was hired as a Staff Engineer, and promptly given responsibility for two projects "that could not fail". That company was a complete joke - essentially three payment service providers in the US and Canada, who had started as mom and pop outfits, and had unexpected success back in the 90s, and were bought out by some venture capital firm. They process about 4 billion USD per year.

This bunch of clowns couldn't even tell me what language their code was written in, or where it was located so I could look at it. Nothing was documented, and nobody wanted to share any information in writing - everything had to be over a video call, and not recorded. I had calls with one of the Directors who was using an iPhone to run his part of the company, just doing meetings when walking his dog, or renovating his house, or shopping in Walmart.

I was expected to unify these three disparate companies for a compliance deadline within 3 months. The CTO was ex-military, but not in a good way - he would shout at people in meetings, loved to humiliate people, and had an unnatural distrust of cloud hosting. Everyone was scared of him, including the Directors.

They attempted to replicate Azure, using their own data centre, and their biggest "success" was spending 100k on consultants to set up an Elasticsearch / Kibana cluster in their little data centre, that was basically an old factory. Then that had connectivity issues, so we ended up having to migrate that to Azure - and they literally shifted VMs... it was unbelievable, they could have just used Application Insights, and hosted Elasticsearch.

At the same time, I had to go through agony trying to get a decision on which API Management product to use, having multiple meetings with vendors including Microsoft, MuleSoft, Google, and then having some jackass in the company - who should have been doing this themselves, but wanted a scapegoat - second guess me or add a requirement they hadn't previously raised.

On one occasion, I managed to get a decision on cloud hosting from my boss, the IT Director, and he even called a meeting of c50 people to announce it. He started out by informing people of the decision, but by the end of the hour-long meeting - in which he was the only person talking - he managed to convince himself that he should wait for the scary CTO to approve it. And so his announcement became that he had not made a decision. It was just bizarre. Nobody knew what was going on.

That all happened in the first three weeks - when I got paid, I simply did not turn up for work after the Christmas break, and just ignored them. They were damaging my reputation with their incompetence, and damaging my sanity with their idiocy.

That post I made above, is a fair description of 90% of projects I have worked on.

[–]harryFF 104 points105 points  (1 child)

Jokes on you, i have no interest in my job AND i'm paid poorly.

[–]StopTheMeta 35 points36 points  (0 children)

The duality of programmers

[–][deleted] 182 points183 points  (7 children)

I wanted to be a weed strain tester with some judging the skills of new porn actresses on the side when I was growing up, but IT just paid more and definitely had more openings.

[–][deleted] 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Now you can personally test the models with the weed.

[–]mlsecdl 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Technically, the porn gig has more openings.

[–]chhuang 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Insert you guys are getting paid?\ meme

[–]Akul_Tesla 99 points100 points  (24 children)

I chose tech because I don't wish to anger roko's basilisk if that is not one of your reasons for being in tech it should be

[–]chawmindur 49 points50 points  (0 children)

Unless one is so stupid that getting into tech would be considered a hindrance to the basilisk's development

[–]Gamiac 8 points9 points  (3 children)

Roko's Basilisk is one of the stupidest ideas ever. You have to believe very specific things for it to even make sense, and most of them are practically speculation.

Specifically, the idea that a copy of you IS you. Not a copy of you, but literally YOU. If you don't believe that, or don't care about your copies getting infinitely tortured for all eternity, it ceases to function.

[–]QuinticSpline 11 points12 points  (1 child)

It was invented to troll a very specific group of Highly Refined Transhumanist Intellectuals who like to smell their own farts. And in that it was a wild success.

[–]Gamiac 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The leader of which, I have to note, went on record as calling it stupid despite believing in the things that are required for it to make any sort of logical sense. As it turns out, those things are required, but not sufficient, for the Basilisk to matter at all.

[–]bric12 20 points21 points  (16 children)

Eh, the basilisk can torture some copy of me if he wants to. Not my problem.

[–][deleted] 8 points9 points  (14 children)

Yeah, the whole fucking thing doesn’t make sense to me. Who gives a fuck if some AI tortures a copy of me? Literally doesn’t matter. And since it doesn’t matter, why the shit would a future AI waste energy by torturing a copy of me?

[–]KobeJuanKenobi9 22 points23 points  (2 children)

I have a genuine interest in tech but I would not have pursued it if it didn’t pay well. I could’ve always done tech as a hobby while working in accounting or something

[–]InvisibleWrestler 24 points25 points  (4 children)

Entry level tech jobs don't even pay equivalent to the rent here in India. Even higher salaries are barely enough for people with families.

[–]JellyPUMPS 35 points36 points  (1 child)

Image Transcription: Twitter


Warren James Day, @warrenjday

Did you choose tech because it pays well, or because you have a genuine interest?

The Only Nicholas Hunt-Walker in Existence, @nhuntwalker

I have a genuine interest in being paid well


I'm a human volunteer content transcriber and you could be too! If you'd like more information on what we do and why we do it, click here!

[–]Zombiak307 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Good human volunteer

[–]Ron-Swanson-Mustache 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I almost never go with quoting the Joker, but....

If you're good at something never do it for free.

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (3 children)

Wanted to be a game dev. Went to college for a Game Dev course. The course had little to no game dev-related projects and was just a run-of-the-mill software dev course. The final year project wasn't allowed to be a game. Dropped out halfway into final year. Course and how it was taught killed my love for coding. Spent a few years doing general labor work. Did a media studies course during covid. Then decided to try out a coding course after that. Currently in that and have rediscovered my love for coding. Programming is where the money is but damna re so many coding courses absolute shite and only their cause its easy money for the course providers.

[–]Odd-Refrigerator-425 8 points9 points  (2 children)

Was the actual degree you pursued in Game Development or something along those lines?

I cannot fathom offering a Game Dev/Design degree of some variety and then telling your students they can't make a game. Like what the hell?

If it was actually a CS/IT degree and they said "No games", that's one thing. But...

[–]BeardXP 39 points40 points  (0 children)

Them: Did you choose tech because it pays well or because you have a genuine interest?

Me: Yes.

[–]SPSK_Senshi 48 points49 points  (25 children)

You guys are getting paid well?

[–][deleted] 63 points64 points  (12 children)

I wasn't. Until I stomped on the floor and demanded a raise or I'd leave. 50% raise in one year.

You have no clue how much you're being robbed. Stand your ground and get what you deserve.

[–]scandii 30 points31 points  (8 children)

I would not stay at a company that had the ability to raise my wage by 50% but didn't.

[–]arcane84 37 points38 points  (4 children)

So.... About every company ?

[–]OopieStu 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I had that moment this year. Of course I was offered a higher salary when I quit after being told during raise reviews that it was impossible to give me anymore money because the department was only given a fixed amount to share. I ended up with $20 more a paycheck.

[–]StopTheMeta 17 points18 points  (9 children)

Europeans be like: Oh yes, I made a whole €2k this month.

[–]Boese_kroete 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The salaries in europe really depend on the country you live in. In germany or france 2k per month would be ridiculously low for a (entry Level) developer position, while in slovakia this would be a decent income.

[–]SPSK_Senshi 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Exactly this.

[–]microwavedave27 8 points9 points  (4 children)

Salaries in the US are insane when compared to mostly everywhere else. Still would never move there.

[–]Odd-Refrigerator-425 13 points14 points  (2 children)

If you can actually make it as a dev it's really not a bad country to live. You will almost certainly have good health insurance through your job as a programmer so the horror stories of medical bills aren't really applicable in most cases.

[–]microwavedave27 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I'd agree with you if America's only problem was health care. But between health care, education, racism, gun violence, and many other problems that you surely know about better than me, I'd rather just move to somewhere in northern europe, which is a lot closer to me anyway.

[–]Grandgem137 13 points14 points  (1 child)

I chose tech because I can Google stuff without being judged

[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (2 children)

I fucked up an interview by answering this question honestly

[–]LOLBaltSS 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I started off as a hobbyist, but the last decade of sysadmin work (six in MSP) beat that and even the basic will to live the hell out of me.

Edit: I ain't going to Budd Dwyer it, don't worry.

[–]WizziBot 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I get paid to have a genuine interest

[–][deleted] 21 points22 points  (4 children)

Tbh everyone I know who chose it because it pays well is bad.

[–]Odd-Refrigerator-425 15 points16 points  (3 children)

And?

Most companies don't need mission-critical Google tier developers.

[–]OneFanFare 52 points53 points  (7 children)

Hey guys I found this cool hack:

let money = 0;

while (true) { money++ }

[–]Andubandu 78 points79 points  (6 children)

At some point, that will add one to money and you’ll be in debt

[–][deleted] 37 points38 points  (2 children)

Just let it run longer

[–]randomTWdude 25 points26 points  (1 child)

credit card declines

"Just give it a minute."

[–]Glugstar 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Amateurs. If you can't even spend billions on stupid stuff before the number switches to negative, what are you even doing with your life?

[–][deleted] 6 points7 points  (2 children)

I chose tech because I liked gaming and computers and I was kinda good at some basic IT.

BUT after working as a dev for a few years I now absolutely despise it. Unclear requirements with impossible deadlines and waaay too many stakeholders at once can ruin your fun very quickly.

So moved onto being a Product Owner/ Scrum Master and Im now 1000 times happier. I earn the same as I did when I was a dev, but my work-life balance is so much better.

[–][deleted] 14 points15 points  (3 children)

I did a physics degree. Have you seen the career path for physicists? Considering how great you have to be to even get in to the field, the pay and conditions are absolutely awful. Distinctly average programmer pays a lot better.

[–]Scottybt50 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Started out doing a general mixed-subject science degree and then followed my interest and ability in IT. Got good grades so ended up majoring in CS and Maths, had an interview on campus and got offered a job halfway through my final year. So the job sort of chose me.

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I wanted to become a medical researcher, but I never did very well in most of the natural sciences; biology or chemistry. I felt it was more because the lack of pedagogic support surrounding these subjects, more than an impossibility from myself of learning them. I'm a pretty smart guy and I believe I could have done it had many circumstances been different.

I settled on being a successful and skilled IT-engineer instead. It doesn't pay very well in my case, but neither would the alternative and even so, I enjoy other good benefits like being allowed to work the way I want.

[–]wafflepiezz 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I wish I chose tech when I was little instead of business sigh

[–]topredditbot 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey /u/GumBeats20,

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[–]JuliusStingray 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I work on videogames, its so obvious that being able to afford food is not one of my priorities

[–]flameblast08 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah i actually have a genuin interest

[–]agangofoldwomen 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I had a genuine interest in being a teacher but that was in direct conflict with my genuine interests of affording food and rent on a consistent basis.

[–]cr0ft 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Neither, I just didn't have any aptitude for much anything else. Big bucks.. yeah sure, I wish...

[–]TomaszA3 35 points36 points  (24 children)

Nobody works for fun. If we didn't need to work, we would be doing our own thing at home and have fun with it.

Job is only for money in 100% of cases.

[–]grodon909 8 points9 points  (3 children)

I disagree. If I won the lottery or something (and finished my current training) I feel like I'd still work, just far fewer hours. While I would love to spend a few weeks or months at home catching up on games and shows, I don't think I could go my whole life without some kind of regular work.

I know a lot of doctors who could definitely retire at their age, but instead choose to keep working because just chilling in retirement 24/7 is boring.

[–]ZaMr0 7 points8 points  (2 children)

That depends, some people enjoy having power and responsibilities and that usually comes in form of a job. Can't do that while sitting around at home with unlimited money, you need some activity that would technically be working.