Slashdot Mirror
Is Programming a Lucrative Profession?
itwbennett writes "A pamphlet distributed by blogger Cameron Laird's local high school proclaimed that 'Computer Science BS graduates can expect an annual salary from $54,000-$74,000. Starting salaries for MS and PhD graduates can be to up to $100,000' and 'employment of computer scientists is expected to grow by 24 percent from 2010 to 2018.' The pamphlet lists The US Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics as a reference, so how wrong can it be? 'This is so wrong, I don't know where to start,' says Laird. 'There are a lot of ways to look at the figures, but only the most skewed ones come up with starting salaries approaching $60,000 annually, and I see plenty of programmers in the US working for less,' says Laird. At issue, though, isn't so much inaccurate salary information as what is happening to programming as a career: 'Professionalization of programmers nowadays strikes chords more like those familiar to auto mechanics or nurses than the knowledge workers we once thought we were,' writes Laird, 'we're expected to pay for our own tools, we're increasingly bound by legal entanglements, H1B accumulates degrading tales, and hyperspecialization dominates hiring decisions.'"
At some publishers I think that's an apt analogy. Some places produce real works of literature and others crank out pulp-fiction.
[signature]
...and my salary is $90,000.
I work in the Washington DC area, and something like only 1% of programmers in this area are employed with no degree, but it can be done, and lack of a degree doesn't have to have an impact on salary. It certainly can, but it all depends on the company you choose to work for.
writes Laird, 'we're expected to pay for our own tools,
I don't think it's actually common for hired programmers to buy their own tools.
... and then they built the supercollider.
I could give a shit about "breadth of knowledge."
I want people working with me who know VHDL and C ***EXTREMELY*** well. The better be good with vi, and not have to rely on a GUI to configure a linux box.
Other than that, nobody in this building cares.
I don't give a rat's ass about their (for example) Java experience quite frankly. And why should we?
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
The only thing worse than a statistic is an anecdote. The author has his personal experience- fine. But my personal experience directly contradicts his. And the only statistics on the subject (from NACE and BLS) give a fairly Normal distribution of salaries between 57,000 and 151,000 (http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos304.htm) Median annual wages of computer and information scientists were $97,970 in May 2008. The middle 50 percent earned between $75,340 and $124,370. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $57,480, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $151,250. Median annual wages of computer and information scientists employed in computer systems design and related services in May 2008 were $99,900.
Hello there! .NET Technologies as well as LAMP. My Key expertise is to develop Web Applications using:
Please refer to your opening on job posting site. I, Rajesh Sharma, would like to apply for the job.
I am working as a freelancer from Pune, India. I have over 7 years of experience in IT Industry with
exposure to
1. ASP.NET/C# with SQL Server 2005.
2. PHP/MY SQL.
I have experience working with distributed teams around the globe. I am self desciplined and self
motivated who always belives in quality. I have a very good infrastructure with latest Hardware,
Software, Telephone lines, and Broadband connection for communication.
My hourly rates are $ 9 USD. If you are looking for freelancers, please reply with a time to
discuss things over IM.
Thanks,
Rajesh
--
-actual reply to a craigslist posting in a major US city, looking for a software developer to work on site - received last week.
Just so you know, it's $9 an hour without even shopping around, and that's not a joke.
We all like to pretend this isn't here and it isn't happening, but I would say conservatively half the job market has disappeared in 10 years due to this currency/standard of living imbalance.
They pay programmers better in India relative to other jobs there. Yes they get paid less in India than they do in the US. But your buying power with that income is far greater in India than it is in the US.
An Indian friend of mine went back to India for that very reason. His standard of living is quite higher now than it was in the US. No more living in a tiny studio apt. He has a house and a car and plenty of money left over.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
And then you guys raised taxes quite a bit to pay for reconstructing Eastern Germany - and haven't gotten around to lowering those taxes yet. Absorbing all of that is what killed your economy.
That's not to say it's bad you guys did it - it was good and necessary to do. I just mean to say that Germany is a special case.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
I'll just throw out my .02 - not that it means much.
I went to Northern Il. University - not exactly the best school, not a bad school either though. I was told, by the University, that the average starting salary for their Computer Science graduates was 59k.
Not to toot my own horn, but I was a big fish in a little pond, if that makes sense. I had internships and Fermi, Hewitt Associates, Volt. I was also the Microsoft Student Ambassador for the University and had a 3.9 GPA in my major.
I had interviews with every company I spoke to at the job fair, and job offers from all three that I pursued. They were 40k, 43k and 50k (but ~50% travel required). I negotiated the 43k up to 47k.
I was pissed.
I felt like a failure after all that - but my roommate who was also Comp Sci ended up taking months to land his first gig at ~30k. Similarly, every one of my friends that was Comp. Sci. - who I knew well enough to find out, ended up making less than 50k out of the gate. Many less than 40k And a few took several months to land a job.
My girlfriend at the time, was finishing her Masters and even with that, she started at 45k....which pissed her off to no end at the time.
To this date, none of us, have ever gotten a call from NIU asking us what our starting salary was. Everyone I knew personally, took a position for far less than the 'average'.