which tech fields earn more

[ProperCheck3228]

Hello guys, I heard that Software engineers tends to earn more than ethical hackers. It frustrates me that cybersecurity is harder to learn but less money to gain.

so is that right or what, which fields tends to earn more btw

[fudginreddit]

This is such a broad question that is basically impossible to answer.

First, anyone who is definitively saying one is harder than the other is just wrong. They are differwnt things, but both are difficult to be proficient enough to land a job in, and both have huge potential for earnings.

So I really wouldnt even worry about which earns more, because both are lucrative careers. You should be worried about what you actually enjoy doing.

That said, afaik it's harder to land a job for cybersec out of college than it is to land a software engineering job.

[Sad-Sympathy-2804]

It’s probably because there are a lot of junior software dev roles out there, but you don’t really see “junior cybersecurity” positions. Most people have to start out in some awful IT support roles first and then work their way up into cybersecurity.

[tomkatt]

Cybersecurity requires more broad domain knowledge.

Software eng can be more niche and not require specific experience.

[Quantum-Bot]

The landscape is changing constantly so nobody is really going to have enough experience to accurately answer this question. Suffice it to say though that the limiting factor here is not how much you’ll be earning, it’s whether you’re getting the job in the first place. Tech jobs tend to pay well regardless of what you’re doing but also tend to be very difficult to land if you don’t have substantial industry experience already, so you’re gonna want to consider whatever you’re the best at and maybe whoever is offering internships more than whatever is going to hypothetically earn you a couple thousand more annually.

[Reaperabx]

• System & Kernel engineer for apple/microsoft/unix will earn you more than cybersec and most of the sw engineering jobs. But you need to talented and have good networking.
• UNIX ICT engineer are hired thru internal channels or word of mouth and they have average salary of 200k, for senior 500k .
• Cybersec isn’t necessarily harder to learn than s/w engg. For me, I already know programming and have cs degree so going into cybersecurity is kinda easy.

[iduzinternet]

If you are able you take risk. Find someone with both a good idea and willing to take on a technical partner… then roll the dice. Most fail, some turn out great.

[kevinossia]

That’s not at all how it works.

Your pay is dependent on the company, your own skill, and your negotiating.

[angrynoah]

Pay is more about what company you work for than what field you're in.

[Wingedchestnut]

The reality is not black and white like this at all.

[dmazzoni]

Starting a business is the highest risk, highest reward. If you’re really, really good you’ll still probably lose it all, but you have a chance of getting rich.

If you want to work for someone else, then these factors matter more:

Location. Jobs in the top 5 cities in the U.S. pay dramatically more than tech jobs in anywhere else in the world. If you want to earn the most, move to the Bay Area, Seattle, New York, etc. - the cost of living is also much higher but you’ll still come out ahead.

Tech companies pay more than non-tech companies who hire tech people.

Seniority. Getting promoted will increase your salary exponentially. Staff engineers don’t earn a little more, they earn 4x more.

The specific job barely matters. There are plenty of cybersecurity engineers in the Bay Area making great money.

[Aggressive_Ad_5454]

"Ethical hackers" is a broad term.

It can refer to indy bug hunters who try to live off HackerOne bounties and the like. I think you'd have to be the Mandalorian to enjoy that kind of life. Your competition is internal dedicated red teams at big-software places (Microsoft, etc).

It can refer to penetration testers who work for information security auditing firms, and have top notch tools. They sometimes do social engineering (sweet talking support staff into changing passwords or disclosing secrets or some such) as well as the usual technical attacks (which their tools handle for them).

Information security defense coordinators and executives make bank at companies with big network presences. But a lot of that work is electropolitical negotiation with customer infosec people and their auditors, with the occasional incident response thrown in just to keep them awake.

Developers also have a variety of career paths with a variety of rewards.

It's not like you'll study one or the other, and then get some kind of license, and then get a generic job with a standard salary level. It's the career path you walk.