r/financialindependence Aug 13 '21

What do you do that you earn six figures?

It seems like a lot of people make a lot of money and it seems like I’m missing out on something. So those of you that do, whats your occupation that pays so well?

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u/aluramen Aug 13 '21

Definitely not for everyone. I've had developer colleagues who stuggle daily and honestly aren't very good, and will never get very good. They can implement some familiar patterns but nothing original, and most debugging just flies over their heads.

It's not an enviable position, hard to change careers and anything else they'd find def would pay less. But they don't like the work and are of course stressed about not performing.

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u/rcl2 Aug 13 '21

Do even bad developers make good money? Or are the high six figure numbers mentioned here for the top performers?

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u/n8dev Aug 13 '21

In the southeast you can get 50-80k as a junior. Maybe more. It’s crazy right now.

You can be bad and still make a lot of money. I’ve seen guys make 150k plus bonus that wrote dog shit code. I’m talking code that would bring ultra high end hardware to its knees. I think it’s pretty common and when they finally get pushed out they do it again at the next company, and will most likely get a pay bump in the process.

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u/ArtFUBU 29d ago

And this is why I keep writing code. I know I can be better than some of those guys. I'll never be a rockstar but I think I can do some pretty neat things. Plus, I'm easy to work with and I am really inventive in terms of ideas. My analytical side is the only thing that has ever lacked but I train it regularly lol