Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Funny thing is, that's about the salary that was my company was willing to pay (the devs were demanding $70k-$80k a year), so maybe you're right. But this was for an entry level to mid level position, so $50k a year was only a little low.
But still, $50k a year is better than nothing. If there was really such a shortage of software developer jobs, you'd have software devs in droves competing for $50k a year positions.
$20 an hour for a senior software engineer is a joke, though, it has to be. I make $40/hr and that's from mostly telecommuting, and less than five years of experience and no degree.
What region are you in? I'm in a fairly low cost region, my company starts junior SE at about $70k a year. That is straight out of college. $50k in the Valley or DC would get laughed at.
Which is why people should always do their research! They need to ensure there is a demand for the degree they are planning to pursue.
That doesn't mean people can't go to school for whatever they want. But the gov needs to *require* everyone to state upfront if they are getting a degree to land a job or just for fun. If it is to land a job then there needs to be jobs available for that person. If it's just for fun then have at it.
Maybe an agricultural degree could be worth pursuing if marijuana is one day going to become legal throughout the country. Pot growers will be in demand.
I've never believed the shortage meme, in a normal functioning market employers would simply offer more money. Workers realizing they could make more money would get training in these fields and as more workers are available wages would come down.
The Zuckerbergs of the world just want cheaper labor.
Man, $40/hr must be nice. I'm nowhere near that, have an engineering degree and have several years of IT experience.
Is your job doing development, or basically server admin/tech support? IT is an incredibly broad field, so you may or may not be getting underpaid.
Before I got my degree, I was making $40/hr. After I got my degree, my pay didn't change (why would it?) Median salary for a mid level software developer is in the mid $70k range, which is about what I get, so I don't consider myself overpaid. If you have several years of software development experience and you make significantly less than that, you are doing something wrong, I think. I know a guy with not even a high school diploma and only three years of experience who makes over $100k a year doing backend web development. He puts in pretty harsh hours, however.
It is worse in some areas of the country. One candidate for State Rep in Illinois mentioned her son graduated with an engineering degree. He was able to get hired but had to go to Texas. Presently the Houston area has openings, but that will change when this oil boom ( like the one thirty years ago) bombs.
What region are you in? I'm in a fairly low cost region, my company starts junior SE at about $70k a year. That is straight out of college. $50k in the Valley or DC would get laughed at.
I'm in Dallas, a huge tech hub, and salaries are nearly as high as what you'd get in Silicon Valley or DC. Yea, the $50k a year salary was laughed at, but if there was such a shortage of software jobs and a glut of out of work developers, even the $50k salary jobs would get taken. It just shows you that the job market for software developers is still very healthy, despite all the outsourcing. I do mostly consulting work, and some clients are willing to pay me $100/hr! Wish they gave me 40 hours a week though instead of 4-5 a month! My main client who gives me over 20 hours a week still pays me $40/hr, and that is without any degree or a whole lot of previous experience, and for mostly easy work. I get so much cash flow from consulting work, that I don't see the point of a conventional office job at this point.
It is worse in some areas of the country. One candidate for State Rep in Illinois mentioned her son graduated with an engineering degree. He was able to get hired but had to go to Texas. Presently the Houston area has openings, but that will change when this oil boom ( like the one thirty years ago) bombs.
I have an uncle that got caught in that bust... he never did really find a job in the petroleum field, at least not one that lasted. Which is why I'm wary of majoring in "the latest thing" since by the time you graduate, it may be over-saturated with grads or just played out. Of course, in a sane nation, we'd easily retrain people into other fields in their majors, but we don't do that in America anymore, sadly.
At any rate, almost everything is open to automation. It doesn't mean that these careers will be bad choices, but it does mean the future may not feature as many jobs as we are used to. I think this is a great thing... Fewer hours of work required during the week. Maybe in 10 years, we will all be working 20 hours a week instead of forty. I would have no issue with this whatsoever.
As long as some kind of basic income system is implemented.
Once you cast the economics and labor market forces aside here, you have a very human element that needs to be looked into. I work in a small office of a software with four people in my room, two of whom are or were H-1B.
The guy who is an H-1B faced a lot of bureaucracy to simply go from the student visa to the work visa, and as a result of his visa status, is very tentative about any long term commitments. He has complained about unskilled illegals having an easier time rather than people like himself who are honest and trying to following protocol, only to encounter red tape every step of the way. His parents are coming to visit this summer and even that is rife with red tape.
For the most part, the H-1Bs from India have uprooted their lives to come here. Most of us natives don't have to go through such a degree of personal upheaval to find a career.
H-1Bs and Indian IT workers (where this article is going - stereotypical or not) run the gamut of anyone else - from very lazy and subpar to overachievers. You can't say that because someone is H-1B or Indian, that they are subpar.
I think there is plenty of merit in that companies are trying to take advantage of H-1B workers to reduce labor costs, but that's not the fault of the individuals taking the jobs. Blame the greedy companies and the home countries that are so bad that people want to flee for this issue.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
