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Ask HN: What jobs are as high-paying and comfortable as a software developer?

9 points by aerovistae ↗ HN
I'm just wondering if there's anywhere to go from here other than slow incremental salary improvements in the same position over the next 30 years. Is there any way to make more money and maintain the work-life balance that a remote software dev has?

12 comments

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yuppie_scum
Write a hit novel or song? Real estate you can do pretty well. Or other forms of sales. Those are the ones that pop to mind that don’t require serious specialized education or licensure.

Other forms of engineering - civil, etc. but that will require a degree. Economics - same deal. Lawyering. But that will require a JD and working your way up the ladder.

Nursing is probably not something you’d consider comfortable but can be very lucrative, especially travel nursing or becoming an NP. But will require you to lift a finger.

If you have the capital - become a landlord.

the_only_law
My understanding is that traditional engineering fields do not pay on par with software at all.

Sales I agree with though, at least in the right role. I’ve been surprised by how much people can make in that career.

high_byte
when I rented an apartment from a real estate agent, cost me about $3k just for him opening the door. of course you take 100 no's before a yes, but it seemed fun to travel ask day and meet people. compared to my 10 hours sitting at the same spot, especially when the agent said he can make about 20k a month (so he claims but entirely possible). and this isn't silicon valley nor US. and that was rental, just imagine the fees from sales.
cm2012
There are other high paying career paths but most are parallel to software or worse for the same level of seniority and effort.

To make fundamentally more money, go work at FAANG. To make more than that, become a high paid consultant.

speedgoose
How do you become a high paid consultant?
shahbaby
Probably not as much as high paid FAANG employees.
ozzythecat
If you want a relatively high paying job, I recommend working at a FANG. Depending on the team you’re on, you’ll get to work on some hard problems at massive scale. It’s a great opportunity to learn. Note: this is not true on every team.

The trade off is that these jobs often come with immense stress and a lack of work life balance.

I took the FANG route and even bounced around big tech companies to get bigger pay increases. Financially it worked out extremely well, but emotionally I had to figure out how to deal with constant stress, anxiety, and at some level my job became a significant part of my identity.

high_byte
I have friends at fang and although it varies, generally I can't say they have work-life balance. they are mostly expected to justify their pay.

on the other hand, other f500 companies offer similar benefits, possibly more stocks in value and better work-life balance.

but again, it varies company to company, even between teams and between different people.

ozzythecat
Not debating you on the work life balance part, but I’m curious to know which F500 companies have total comp comparable to big tech.
high_byte
wife of friend is UX designer at Wix about 4 years now I was surprised compared to friends in early stage cyber security often not getting as much.
gaws
> The trade off is that these jobs often come with immense stress and a lack of work life balance.

Not at all. I have a close friend making close to $500K building internal dashboards at FANNG. He's on at 10 a.m. and off by 5 p.m. Every day. The only time he and his team are stressed are the final few days of a project, and that usually requires working "overtime," according to him, which is past 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

high_byte
window cleaning. in both software dev & window cleaning you basically just sit there :) I heard they make roughly similar salary, perhaps like junior or so, at least where I'm at.

but on a serious note - own a business.

the thing is for software the bar for entry is fairly low while the pay is sufficiently good considering you don't own the business. like you could make millions off a pizzeria chain but you gotta start from square one. you could start your own law firm but you gotta go to law school usually followed by years in the field. or you could start your own e-commerce store selling rubber duckies. sky's the limit when it comes to owning a business.

p.s. look at skyline robotics, they seemed to crack the window cleaning business.