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Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

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Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#1

Post by throwaway1183 »

In your opinion, which role is the best to be average at? From compensation, work/life balance, fulfillment, career opportunities, etc?

1. Frontend Engineer

2. Backend Engineer

3. Applied Research Engineer

4. Research Engineer

5. Graphics Engineer

6. Game developer

7. Enterprise SE

8. Fintech Engineer (esp. in trading/algos)

9. Cloud Engineer

10. DevOps

11. System Engineer (compiler, os, browser)

12. Consumer Application Engineer (macos/linux/windows)

13. Machine Learning Engineer

14. Data Engineer

It’s always good to be best. I got told best ML engineer would earn a lot compared to best Frontend Engineer. (ofc, it might be wrong). But which role is good to be average at?

It would also be awesome to know barrier of entry vs reward. For example entering graphics engineering is extremely hard and reward is also average compared to average frontend roles. Once the profile is built up, the former will be a great deal because the investment pays off!

So, what are your opinions? Any idea?

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#4

Post by throwaway1183 »

For clarification:

The rat-race is tiring. I have given up on it even before starting. The hardest thing in life is giving up. It took a long self talk to reach an agreement where I am truly an average in what I do.

There are so many people out there, who can do marvelous things. Meanwhile I am just an average dude trying to make a comfortable life.

I want to minimize my effort and maximize the reward. This is the motivation of asking this question. Not everyone can be good at things, there are so many factors.

I sometimes think I should have studied medicine because an average doctor has it better than an average engineer. It was foolish of me to follow a dream that was never supposed to be made for me.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#5

Post by throwaway1183 »

VirusNewbie wrote: post #3

Probably whatever sounds most interesting, honestly. They all have a pretty high ceiling and they are all challenging to some degree.

And there is chances of being automated out. Since I will just be the bottom fodder. Everything I use, read and learn has been already made by someone. I have never once truly made anything "original". The feeling after making things sucks a lot. The process of making it is a joy. But it doesn't give me any money simply by stealing information for others. I am getting nowhere. No jobs. Feels really bad to know that I came so far, just to realize this small fact. I have already invested a lot in the field to even change it now. The worst, I don't have confidence to ask others to pay me even if I do the job. However I need the money to live. It's such a weird situation.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#6

Post by quickthrower2 »

Back end and devops probably give the best combo of pay and work life balance.

Front end had you chasing frameworks. Front end for you own projects is OK but for a company get ready to learn the latest React nonsense while supporting Angular, JQuery Plugins and everything else that was in vogue over the life of your codebase. Unless you join a disciplined team that doesn’t chase fads or rewrites everything each time.

Game dev is famous for bad work life balance. Not sure about pay? Working for Roblox is probably decent?

The best paid will be FAANG (USA only) or Fintech esp. Trading.

For career development if I had time again I might go more into sales engineer, with the option to into pure sales or start a business with the help of all those friends you made! Or be a business analyst for a year or two.

Inside the Engineering wheelhouse it feels CTO is the real career progression and if you don’t want to be on that path it is harder to find career opportunities.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#7

Post by icedchai »

Do you really want to be "average" at your job? What do you really want to do?

I've worked with barely average developers and believe me, they frustrate the rest of the team. They'll copy-and-paste the same code 5x instead of asking where they should put a new module. They'll commit untested code into main, and leave it to the next guy to clean it up, just so they can close their ticket. Communication is often poor. We all don't know things. The problem with "average" is they don't ask questions.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#8

Post by throwaway1183 »

icedchai wrote: post #7

Do you really want to be "average" at your job? What do you really want to do? I've worked with barely average developers and believe me, they frustrate the rest of the team. They'll copy-and-paste the same code 5x instead of asking where they should put a new module. They'll commit untested code into main, and leave it to the next guy to clean it up, just so they can close their ticket. Communication is often poor.…

Yeah, totally.

At least I would try to communicate on important decisions. However, I have zero interest in making decisions, making presentation, trying to prove things or any of that. All I want is a task that is achievable in given allocated time and fits my skill level.

I have given up on hopes of learning. There is no such thing as learning after highschool. It's always one thing after another. College is chasing grades. Post graduate chasing papers. Never got a true chance to dive and learn. There is no room for failure. All I had to do was put of patch work to clear the subjects. How can I expect myself to be good when I have cheated the system throughout my life.

Hence, if I get the chance, I would love to be average. No responsibility. Slightly better pay. I feel I can study what interest me just to crush my own ego.

Hope it makes sense.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#9

Post by throwaway1183 »

quickthrower2 wrote: post #6

Back end and devops probably give the best combo of pay and work life balance. Front end had you chasing frameworks. Front end for you own projects is OK but for a company get ready to learn the latest React nonsense while supporting Angular, JQuery Plugins and everything else that was in vogue over the life of your codebase. Unless you join a disciplined team that doesn’t chase fads or rewrites everything each time.…

So it likes transition into a business roles or try to be CEO.

My question, is there no way to be eternally stuck as "senior/staff engineer". I do not want anything beyond that. The salary of an average senior/staff engineer is always greater than median salary of the country.

That should solve all the living expenses.

Re: Ask HN: Which role in software engineering is the best for average person?

#10

Post by mattbrewsbytes »

I think there should be an innate quality about someone in software that they enjoy the work. If it didn’t pay well I’d still be doing this, I love working with computers and started before google came about. If people are in it for the money and don’t enjoy the work they will likely not do well, not excel at anything, not be curious about learning and just plod along to get by. As much as you don’t need a degree to do software its not a skilled trade like an electrician where the job details are very structured around proven solutions.

All that being said, I think someone is better off looking at organization styles and culture than job titles for a comfortable, earn your keep, engineering job.

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