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I switched from C++ because the type of work is typically boring. Its either system level stuff, or HFT, usually some market data system or similar. Not to mention its likely a big old system with legacy code base. Seeing the salaries now I kinda regret switching out, but the companies and business problems you get in Python & Java are much more interesting.
Because Python pays more. Or Javascript. Or Ruby. More demand, more salary. Apart from finance, pay is lower than web languages. And finance is small. Embedded systems programming, that also uses the language, pays 30% less than web jobs from my last job hunting period. Employees may be leaving the embedded space (and C++) for web tech because of this. This is the feeling I get from my local job market (western Europ…
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Yes, the embedded space pays terrible, and the employers don't seem great on the whole. When I was at Google I got to work on embedded stuff and really liked it; but I was getting a Google salary. When I left Google I pursued IoT and embedded jobs a bit and while I was not expecting Google level compensation at all, I was astounded at what was going on there, pay wise. General software eng back end jobs pay better. T…
system programming is a tough and low reward path indeed, be it in c/c++ or whatever. embedded/EE is worse. unless you made into the big few(google,amazon,meta,apple,microsoft,...), salary will plummet by half in general, or even more.
Because Python pays more. Or Javascript. Or Ruby. More demand, more salary. Apart from finance, pay is lower than web languages. And finance is small. Embedded systems programming, that also uses the language, pays 30% less than web jobs from my last job hunting period. Employees may be leaving the embedded space (and C++) for web tech because of this. This is the feeling I get from my local job market (western Europ…
I'm also surprised c++ is paid less than python and javascript these days, embedded c/c++ jobs are also paid less which requires years of experience to get better at.
I believe they're misguided to invest in C++. Enormous amounts of time and effort are spent solving weird pointer errors in C++ programs which simply don't occur in other languages such as Rust and C#. Why is there this almost religious belief that their program needs the fastest execution time? It's madness IMHO. Trading a few percentage in performance for safety, reliability and security is more than worth it. I st…
Reason being I think is that they're not really needed in almost all cases. Most people will do just fine using specific subset that is adequate for a given project.
What is really needed are people who can think and "properly" architect and implement the system. They're way more valuable and will do just fine in most of the languages.
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You may also look into Kernel Programming for a lucrative systems programming career. It is more C and low-level oriented though.
Interesting, what types of companies pay well for kernel programming?
I actually just tried to play around with what seems to be a "modern c++" boilerplate project. It uses CMake, conan for packaging, clang-tidy and cpp-check, and has templates for fuzz and unit testing[1]. I found it because qtcreator and kdevelop were weirdly clunky and created partly broken qt projects and I figured I wanted to add a package manager and qt to the mix. The template looks really fancy, but it's so inc…
QT tends to be particularly painful outside of QTCreator so I also wouldn't use that as a general knock against C++.
having said that, C++ build times are slow due to both the #include mechanism and templates. The C++ modules coming will help deal with the #include mechanism and templates can be instantiated to assist the compiler.
None of it is amazing, but the compile times are better than rust imo.
My brother actually likes C++ (and is probably better at it than most devs i worked with, even those writing a DB in C). He also is finishing school, and is searching for an internship. C++ internship flat out don't pay enough. 600 euros/month. He is looking in a specific field in particular (audio and/or radio) and is currently expending to drones, so this might not help, but i find this crazy.