Ask HN: Electrical Eng. PhD, Thinking of Moving to Programming Jobs. Worth It? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Electrical Eng. PhD, Thinking of Moving to Programming Jobs. Worth It?

6 pointsee_throwaway11 comments

So, I've a PhD in Electrical Engineering from one of the good schools and am doing okay at my job. However, my earning potential doesn't seem to be as good as those at Google / FB etc.

I have some experience in programming and web development. But not a lot.

These days I see these grand packages for people working at the big software companies and wonder if I should move to programming as a career choice. I would say I am currently at Senior Engineer to Staff Engineer level at a semiconductor company. I am in the Bay Area.

Here are my motivations:

1. I seem to like programming tasks in my current job, but that is usually not my primary responsibility. I am good with logical thinking / reasoning etc.

2. I think I have at least 25 years of career ahead and making a switch in early 30s to a more lucrative area doesn't sound like a bad idea.

3. I believe I can come back to my area and get a job, even after doing some programming jobs, as being good in programming is usually seen as an asset.

But I wonder if it is really practical to leave a pretty good job, and start as a beginner at software company (possibly at a lower salary) assuming that you will do better in the long term.

It would be interesting to see the thoughts of the HN community.

I'm an EE (with both electrical and electronics/communications experience). I'm wrapping up a P/T PhD in software engineering.

From my perspective the big new opportunities are more in the IoE / IoT / WoT area. Hardware is becoming a lucrative new frontier for startups.

With your background you might want to explore that area where you existing semiconductor engineering skills would be very well regarded.

Web development is a rather competitive space. Wouldn't be my idea of a good starting point. IMHO looking at Google / FB, et al with your level of experience would be a huge step backwards. Researching the up and coming opportunities that capitalize on your existing and desired skills should identify better options for the future.

Shoot me an email (in my profile) if you'd like to explore / debate this issue deeper. BEST OF LUCK!

Thanks for the perspective. I too am thinking of going in that direction, moving outside of my current comfort zone, but try to stay in the hardware area where I will be able to contribute more.

Simple question you should ask yourself. Will switching to programing will make me happier?

Personally, programming is a passion I have and would most likely will do regardless of payment.

Goodluck.

Hang on. Your lifetime expectation value of earnings may be higher than those of flash in the pan coders, with more young coders coming up every year, and advances in coding automation.

Also, you made this decision already. You knew how to code some, at a young age. But you chose against it - you went for straight EE. This says to me that you were not particularly enamored of coding, and probably had no particular talent for it. Coding is not the same as learning language syntax. Aptitude means you can do it quickly -- quicker than 80% of people -- so you can earn above average wages. Aptitude you're interested in it, that you'd consider doing it just because you like it.

Finally don't snoop at other's wages so much. Shitty apartments might be $2500-3000 in coder hives. And you lived better in grad school, anyway.

Thanks. I agree that it is probably wise to give up on hard-earned specialization and pursue something seemingly lucrative in short term.

But I am slightly concerned if the semiconductor market itself is not very good in the long term, and software is.

I guess I am looking for a risk free way of testing if I could do better in software jobs in the longterm. I don't think there is ever going to be such an option.

May be next time I am looking for a job, I would take short break and try something different just to see how it is.

Why start again as a glorified code monkey? From a similar pattern and ten years down your line, you might want to consider exploiting programming techniques within your hard-earned domain expertise to make the biggest impact.

I used be in the same situation and software is a better option. Semiconductors is very cyclical. The pay sucks. Even if you aren't at goog/fb there are a lot more options when compared to semi.

What do you think the cause of the pay difference is?

I guess this what bill gates realized 40 years ago. Compare the number of hardware chips to all the software being written. There is one Intel or arm or ..., but think of how many people write software for it. Therefore there are more opportunity for software making salaries higher.

Motivations;

0) Why did you get your PhD in EE? What was your expectation?

It depends, what are your career ambitions?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com