I make $90k USD to sit in an office 8 hours a day taking leisurely lunches and fixing bug tickets. Why do developers in the US make so much money right now?
Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
1–10 of 42 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#2I think it's most likely a bubble. Enjoy it while it lasts and build a sturdy parachute for when(and likely if) it doesn't. Maybe one day there will be too many of us and our price will be driven downwards.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#3I think it's most likely a bubble. Enjoy it while it lasts and build a sturdy parachute for when(and likely if) it doesn't. Maybe one day there will be too many of us and our price will be driven downwards.
I used to think this until I actually thought about how much value a developer can generate for a company.
If your 8 hours of bug fixing keeps a system generating 100k revenue an hour, suddenly 90k a year seems almost like a pittance.
Even for much less impressive amounts of revenue the math should checkout otherwise your job isn't really sustainable.
If your 5 man development team creates an application worth 100k in 6 months and you sell it to 10 clients, in half a year you've covered a year's worth of salary. Every additional sale related to further development for the next 6 months will be purely profit.
What worries me is jobs where you can't even come close to seeing how company revenue can (or will) exceed development costs, but I'd still keep in mind not guaranteed for a developer to know every factor involved.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#4I think it's most likely a bubble. Enjoy it while it lasts and build a sturdy parachute for when(and likely if) it doesn't. Maybe one day there will be too many of us and our price will be driven downwards.
I liken it to the auto-industry in America during the 1950s. Back then, single income families could take long summer vacations to cabins they might even own. The jobs came with good benefits and company culture was important. It feels very similar.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#5I think it's most likely a bubble. Enjoy it while it lasts and build a sturdy parachute for when(and likely if) it doesn't. Maybe one day there will be too many of us and our price will be driven downwards.
I liken it to the auto-industry in America during the 1950s. Back then, single income families could take long summer vacations to cabins they might even own. The jobs came with good benefits and company culture was important. It feels very similar.
I kind of had that realization recently as well. It's just blue collar work.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#6Because there's a shortage of good people and you provide this much value to the company. Where that money comes from is another question :) You might feel this because don't challenge yourself enough.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#7The way I see it, you're getting paid not for what you do at work. You're getting paid for your presence.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I liken it to the auto-industry in America during the 1950s. Back then, single income families could take long summer vacations to cabins they might even own. The jobs came with good benefits and company culture was important. It feels very similar.
I kind of had that realization recently as well. It's just blue collar work.
Exactly.
People use terms like "get your hands dirty" to describe programming. Programmers are usually not encourage to wear button-down shirts, suits, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#9Because there's a shortage of good people and you provide this much value to the company. Where that money comes from is another question :) You might feel this because don't challenge yourself enough.
The kicker is, an external observer (ie your boss or hr) has no way to judge who the "good people" are. Are you the one fixing the bugs that stumped the team for weeks, or are you the one poorly implementing features that then require rework later on (and all that entails; prioritization, scheduling, talking, tracking)? What we do is totally opaque to everyone, but us.
So yes, I agree, there is a shortage of developers of all kinds. And nowadays, every company out there has some legacy system or another they need maintained or enhanced. Thus we're paid a lot. Some positions are very demanding, some aren't. A position that's demanding to one developer may not be to another (depending on experience etc).
At the end of the day, the big corporations are sitting on hoards of cash. The way a lot of companies are choosing to spend it are via "capex" captial expenditures on software projects. For these they need developers.
I've addressed this for myself by hopping jobs 3 times in 2 years, now my salary is 10% above the local market rate. I am intentionally extracting the most wealth from this situation that I can (within the bounds I have set for myself ie w2 fulltime, contracting I could be making quite a lot more).
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else feel overpaid?
#10Because there's a shortage of good people and you provide this much value to the company. Where that money comes from is another question :) You might feel this because don't challenge yourself enough.
The kicker is, an external observer (ie your boss or hr) has no way to judge who the "good people" are. Are you the one fixing the bugs that stumped the team for weeks, or are you the one poorly implementing features that then require rework later on (and all that entails; prioritization, scheduling, talking, tracking)? What we do is totally opaque to everyone, but us. So yes, I agree, there is a shortage of develope…
>I've addressed this for myself by hopping jobs 3 times in 2 years, now my salary is 10% above the local market rate.
How did you manage this? Did you end up switching technologies or fields? Was it just for a salary increase, or were you un-challenged?