Ask HN: What's the most likely way to earn a ton of money as a programmer | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the most likely way to earn a ton of money as a programmer

I don't mean it in a get-rich-quick scheme sort of way. I'm interested in steering my programming career in the right direction, long term.

A bit of background: I'm a 27 year old programmer from Sarajevo, Bosnia. Wrote my first line of code when I was 11, and I loved programming ever since. I've been doing it professionally for the last 7 years; mostly outsourced web stuff.

So, good people of HN, what say you?

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Learn to build what people want, not what they say.

I've met so many programmers who focussed just on implementing whatever was specified. But a great programmer understands the needs of the customer, and comes up with solutions that are even better than whatever the customer actually said they wanted.

Find a partner and start a business where the value you create from writing software accrues to you, rather than to the firm who hired you to write code.

I really, really like this comment - especially coming from the outsourcing body-shop type of world, where very little revenue derived from the software trickles down to developers.

Probably the conventional way. Work for a good paying company and keep doing it for a few years. Spend very little. Move up or to a different company when you can. This is the safest way probably. I don't work in tech anymore though and make a meager living as a woodworker, so what do I know.

Got fed up and quit, or just retired?

Woodworking sounds like a perfect thing to do after retiring.

Quit, I'm still under 30 years old. I was a decent programmer but never a good employee. After running the cycle of finding a job, saving up for a year, quitting, running out of money, I ended up quitting for good.

Woodworking is something I don't recommend anyone try to make a living off cold. It gets expensive quick. Woodwork isn't particularly valuable as a skill and almost anything you make can be mass produced.

You'll end up needing more space than you have. You also can't get completely away from the computer either as you'll need to market the things you create.

For anyone even thinking about quitting their job and trying it full time I would recommend having 100k in savings first.

Software development by itself is not a technical profession that gives the best results from this point of view. Having said this, I’m pretty sure that strong and passion-driven skills in a few fields can make a difference: embedded electronics software better than web, high quality and functional safety oriented better than plain software, ML specialist (but with real experience in challenging embedded applications) better than generic algorithms, and so on. Again: the one professional that specialises in designing the architecture and requisites of a functional safety concerned piece of software (think of an automotive code under ISO26262 norm) will easily monetise his skill much more than the ten software developers that realise the same code.

So what you're suggesting is picking a field and specializing, no?

Yes, with an eye to the quality and consciousness of what you’re doing

Basically there are three career paths in engineering.

A: Start your own company or series of companies. This is fraught with risks especially if you're not living in SF. It's harder to get known, get talent, network, etc.

B: Become a Manager/Executive. Technically it's not programming anymore, but the lifespan of a coder is maybe 25 years perhaps at best.

C: Consulting/Contracting. Large companies are often more willing/able to pay for top talent, more so than startups. The more companies you have experience with, the more you'll learn about what works and what doesn't. This is true for Devops/Architecture/Processes. Once you develop regular clients, it's possible to develop products for common problems and sell them to your clients.

I think the most lucrative software career path involves the overlap of 'really new' and 'high in demand', so things like cryptography/encryption, AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning).

That sounds like a good point. Are you going in that direction yourself?

Not yet, I’m doing web which I really enjoy, but someday I may switch over to encryption or something else to do with user privacy/safety.

A lot of it has to do with the company you work for-- different corporate compensation strategies will leave you with differing amounts of savable income. So change jobs if you aren't making progress.

Above all: Save regularly and invest in some way that will bring the power of compound interest. Live below your means, never withdraw the money, always add to it. After a reasonable amount of time, you will find yourself relatively 'wealthy', no matter how much or how little you are accustomed to earning.

Good luck!

P.S. Read 'Bogleheads.org'. If you aspire to gain wealth, it will reveal the surest paths.

Learn COBOL. Cloud everybody uses and everybody is driving the idea of migrating to cloud. But all the top business applications in the world are still in Mainframe it's very secure and less down time 99.98%, 30year old programs still runs perfectly fine. Only the top companies have the Mainframe and it's not open-source so only people have access to it can become experts eventually.

Machine learning / AI is generally better payed than web development, as it needs some statistics and math understanding. Also it's good to learn algorithms and data structures, as it's a very valuable skill for job interviews (and also it doesn't hurt to understand them).

I remember reading recently that the best-paid positions in SV were for product, not engineering. Take from that what you will.

Generally, programming ability is considered less rare and impactful than leadership/people skills.

Yeah, that's sounds about right. Wish I was as good at that stuff as I'm at programming.

Like programming skills, people skills take research, practice, solicitation of feedback, and time. If you want those skills, you can develop them.

Alongside other good recommendations here, Learn to be proud of your accomplishments; then you will accomplish more and more.

What is your definition of "a ton of money"?

Well, I suppose it depends on the denomination!

"According to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, all U.S. bills weigh the same: one gram. About 454 grams make a pound, which means that a ton of dollar bills would be worth $908,000.

With coins, it is a different story. A quarter weighs 5.7 grams, according to the U.S. Mint; therefore, a ton of quarters would be worth $40,000. With pennies, it gets worse. You need 363,000 pennies (at 2.5 grams each) to make a ton, and the value of the pennies is a paltry $3,632."

https://www.michigan.gov/kids/0,4600,7-247-49025-34615--,00....

Eh, not sure - I just don't want to depend on a job/salary for the rest of my life.

I'd say that the majority of these comments are fantastic advice for that path, then. The hardest part is actually going to be curbing your expenses, living well below your means, and investing soundly.

Get a full-time position as a software engineer at a mid-sized enterprise company that is hiring in-house developers to build internal software used for their various business processes. They'll give you a great salary & full benefits, not to mention a very professional environment to work in. I work at an insurance company and I love my team, my work, my development stack, and the work is fairly easy and not very stressful at all.

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