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So you think you want to be a computer programmer ? You ’ve weighed the variable , worked out how you like to officiate , and now you have one last inquiry to execute : Is coding actually a beneficial career ? Well , read on to regain out .
If you still ask the rudiments on how to inscribe , be sure to curb out ourbeginner ’s pathfinder to coding and programming . We also have a guide on the value ofcoding bootcamps , if you ’re considering doing a wreck course in computer scheduling .
You ’ll call for something to code on too , and that ’s where ourbest laptop for codingguide comes in . Now , let ’s dive in and attend at the ones and zero of starting a career in coding .
How much could I earn as a coder?
Salary information can be hard to pin down for a number of reasons . Companies are often loath to share salary ring , and salaries can vary wildly between different job titles , countries , states , and even cities . The party you ’re figure out for will also make a cock-a-hoop difference , with some of the top tech companies like Google , Microsoft , and Apple paying well above the norm .
Coding job can motley in title and responsibility . One of the most rough-cut coding jobs that you ’ll hear about is software program railroad engineer . Software engineers are developer who design , work up and preserve reckoner software .
The middling pay for a software engineer in the United States is $ 111,745 per twelvemonth , according to line seeking websiteIndeed , whileGlassdoorhas it at $ 107,116 per year . These numbers are an norm across the whole country though .
A heap of the larger tech company like Apple , Google , and Microsoft give well above this average . We did some excavation on theMicrosoft Careerssite and at fourth dimension of writing , Microsoft is advertising a software engineer role at its Redmond site that pays between USD $ 76,400 - $ 151,800 per yr . This role is list as IC2 , which can be considered an introduction - level post . There is a similar software railroad engineer role list as an IC3 , which offers USD $ 94,300 - $ 182,600 . There is also a more older role number at IC5 level , which pays USD $ 133,600 - $ 256,800 per yr .
Some companies , particularly new starting - ups , pay miserable base wage but give employees stock options . The idea is that by possess a small chunk of the company , you could be in line for an tremendous payday if the company blows up . However , outcome like this are manifestly hard to foretell . take a share option in a small companionship could be how you make your billion . But remember , most start - ups remainder in loser .
locating is also a huge factor . All of those Microsoft theatrical role that we list above have a modifier attach to them , state that if the function is based in San Francisco or New York City , then they have their own earnings band . That IC2 software engineer job ’s salary jumps to $ 100,300 - $ 165,400 per year in these urban center , while the IC5 position jumps up to $ 173,200 - $ 282,200 per year .
Do I need to live in San Francisco, London or another big city?
One of the appeals of a coding calling is that , in hypothesis , it can be done wherever there is an cyberspace connexion . Why forge in a gray billet in an industrial estate when you could be sitting by the beach , on a tropical island , tap out codification between Zoom yell ?
Well , there are still advantages to living in a metropolis — particularly a large , tech - point city such as San Francisco , New York or London . First and first of all , big cities are where most tech firm are turn up , and most technical school job still have some post - working requirements ( see below ) .
There are also cozy benefit that descend with hold out in a tech hub , in particular early in your career . you may attend tech event where you ’ll be able to sharpen your science , and you may go for in - someone drinks with colleagues in the same manufacture . And in an industry where caller are created and destroyed seemingly overnight , it is important to build a strong net of contacts . In cod , you ’re very unlikely to work at the same company for more than a few years — and your next business might just come from that person you know socially , from industriousness drinks .
What’s the work/life balance like?
It ’s hard to describe the work / life balance of an integral field , but there is some evidence we can point to . For example , because writing codification is a desk job , it is well positioned to take vantage of post - pandemicremote workings , which could have in mind you could expect more pliable work hour and conditions , and spend more time with your family . But this is n’t a give .
There has been a shift back toward office study in some of the largest tech firms since 2020 . Today , Microsoft take its staff to exercise from the power 50 % of the sentence , while Google and Apple now expect their worker in the position three days per week . So being a software engineer does n’t necessarily mean that you’re able to work remotely forever and a day .
Another work / life sentence pressure to consider is the construct of " compaction . " It ’s the berth when in orderliness to embark a product or characteristic by a given deadline , managing director put pressure and expectation on employee to work highly long hours — upwards of 60 to 80 60 minutes per hebdomad — to get what they ’re build over the crease . Though this has become most notorious in the video games diligence , the rest of the tech diligence is not resistant .
There ’s also the realness of how the tech industry is structure . Many tech first - ups raise money from investor to fund themselves for , say , a yr , with the goal at the terminal of the outgrowth being to " exit " — either to a stock market IPO or learning from a much larger companionship , earn the initial founders a big payout . There can be remunerative rewards , but there ’s a firm motivator and structural atmospheric pressure toward act passing hard . If you exploit for a initiate - up , have a bun in the oven prospicient hours .
Is the industry full of sexist tech bros?
I ’ll allow the value judgment up to you , but the reality is that the tech industry is still heavy skewed toward military man . grant to the websiteWomen in Tech , just 26 % of the U.K. tech hands are women , and public figure are like in the U.S. But there ’s only one way to change that : The industry needs more women .
Am I going to be replaced by AI?
The trouble with contrive a vocation in the New , digital world is that it ’s very hard to predict what might happen in the future . A line in tech is not necessarily a problem for life . And as we ’ve date in recent months , the emergence of procreative AI could upset job panorama for even extremely skilled workers such as computer programmer .
What is probable to change is the actual job of bait : alternatively of starting from a blinking pointer in a blank window , you ’ll have an AI companion such as GitHub Copilot , which will allow you to work in a similar way to how a mathematician habituate a reckoner . This variety could make your job more interesting . or else of having to write rail line and lines of boring , basic code , AI will take care of that for you . And that will depart you with the more interesting challenge beyond the AI ’s current capabilities .
So will AI take away your rag job ? It ’s hard to say for sure , but it seems probable that knowing how to inscribe will still be an important skill in the succeeding saving — not least because you could be helping to build the mind - mess up AI tools of tomorrow .
