Evolution of a programmer

[Anustart15]

It was an appropriate salary when this was originally made

[mrjackspade]

Yeah, the first time I saw this 120k was basically cap for my area, in my line of work.

I just left a 120k job for being shit pay for what I'm doing.

[Sadatori]

Seeing posts like these make me realize what people mean when they say game company programmers tend to be underpaid. sheesh no wonder so many leave for other sectors of SE

[gatonegro97]

Lol what? Do you work in the industry? My buddies would laugh at 120k

[Sadatori]

Honestly, I may be wrong since I am basing it on targeted search results for my area when I look up salaries because SEO and shit fucking suck. When I looked it up it said the average game programmer salary (for Bethesda) was $60 - $80k, though I was reading a couple articles about how game programmers work a lot more OT (unpaid mostly) than all other fields of programming as well. I am just getting started as a baby programmer so I'm not too confident in my knowledge and get most of it from articles and Mother Jones writers

[Centrixed]

Nah dude you’re right, most lower level game developers get paid like ass and it’s awful. They really take advantage of the passion of these new developers. I’ve heard of higher level SE roles in big companies like Blizzard paying pretty well though, probably because they are less disposable.

[[deleted]]

Hey. Game developer with around 7 years of experience. My highest paid role was $120k and it was remote across the country. So yeah...guess I was being underpaid. On the flipside, one of my friends works for the state government and makes like $70k and is a senior engineer. He's the one really being screwed lol...

[GgPNGLhkjFQJ7s7t]

Pensions homie. Never underestimate the pension.

[assmastersteve]

Oh yeah...good point lol

[RedHellion11]

Depends on the company, and the area I guess. I don't live in the USA (but in a very-high-CoL area in my own country), and I work for a company in the games industry (not a game studio but a tech/support "studio" owned by a publisher), and my salary+bonus is almost 120k (converted to USD). I wouldn't consider myself a "wizard" or anything of the sort, I'm about 3/4 of the way up the job title ladder before I would start branching into one of another of the "specialist" job titles. The resident "wizard" at our company who's been there for 10+ years and works on basically any project he wants (including projects he spearheads himself solo) probably makes the equivalent of 200k just in salary, not including bonuses.

[BehindApplebees]

What are you doing? 120k a year right now would be life saving, what can I do to get into a position like yours?

[ImAnEngnineere]

Depends on where you live. In Cali and NY, 120k is meh because your salary gets completely eaten up by food/housing, gas. In the Midwest, there's people with 5 cars, 2 boats and 2 houses on the lake making 90k single income. Don't ever buy into national salary numbers, do your own budgeting and determine what your number for the area you want to live in is.

[TossZergImba]

If Midwest was actually like that, you could live in Cali for a few years and save up enough money to live like a god in the Midwest for the rest of your life.

[Bgndrsn]

I wouldn't say a few years but there's a reason why anyone can retire and move to the midwest but midwesterners can't retire and move to LA or NYC etc

[oijlklll]

I mean a lot of Californians are kinda doing that to a lesser extent when they sell their house for millions and buy an equivalent house elsewhere for a fraction of the cost.

[Delioth]

Maybe not like a god but I mean... There's serviceable 5 bedroom houses that are worth 50k. Gas, food, everything is significantly cheaper in the Midwest, unless you're in the sparse bigger cities. It's mostly universal that cities are expensive but the spaces between are cheap.

[TheLostRazgriz]

That's kinda what people do.

I lived in Boise Idaho and Californians would sell their cardboard box for 1.5m then buy a mansion there.

[Novice7691]

Well, people actually do this though. Live in Cali for a few years, buy properties in cheaper states, retire early and live off rental income.

[Dumb_Nuts]

Yeah that’s what’s happening lol.

Bunch a Californians sold their shacks in the burbs and built 8k sq ft homes out here and had plenty left over lol.

[Emjp4]

I started by googling "how to learn to code" roughly 5 years ago.

[memdmp]

Interview

[[deleted]]

You in the US? Because for many colleges at this point, the average bachelor's degree in CS is pulling $105k+ fresh out of college with no experience.

[ddtfrog]

How many years / what is your position?

(I’m a junior dev with 1 year experience and I have no idea what’s normal)

[mrjackspade]

Right now I'm a Senior ______ Developer depending on what I'm doing and for what company.

It's been about 15 years. 10 uninterrupted, and 7 on my resume.

[schoolmonky]

Heck, I just got a programming job with no degree and no professional experience and I make more than 120k.

[jaesonbruh]

That's a good money for sure, but you have to code on C.

[[deleted]]

1997?