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Comment by __rito__ | Hacker News Reader

I have pondered much on such things.

Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.

For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own. There are good sides, too, of course. But you have to live through these.

Do you choose these or getting VIP treatment in society with tenured jobs and after MD + 10 YoE, you can say fu to any boss and open your own clinic, and economically be forever in the 0.1%?

And honestly, outside the US, many of the positive sides of being an SWE disappear completely (like crazy compensations, having too many options, etc.).

Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.

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Not every MD gets to work on interesting cases, furthering the field, and all while it being low stakes and purely theoretical.

For the vast majority, it is facing the medical colleagues who don't care, and will bury you from envy if you do, and get any better than them for it. It's facing patients who don't take care of themselves, or who just take your time, want favors from you outside of your working hours, but most importantly, the burden of having many people die despite you trying your very best.

Do you choose these, or getting chill treatment in society with freedom, where after 10 YoE you can say fu to any boss and open your own consultancy, and economically be forever in the 0.1%?

And honestly, outside the US, many of the positive sides of being an MD disappear completely (like crazy compensations, having too many options, ease of opening your own business)

I understand the point that you're trying to make, but being an MD is hell of a job, and honestly, as a unit, I don't wish it on anyone who does not specifically want to be there. And even then, your good motivation to do it might be your undoing.

It's really not all that it's cracked up to be, and the only reason I wouldn't recommend to be a software engineer is that the future of it is fairly uncertain.

> Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.

Not every developer wants to work on those. Many developers even find at least one of those to be unethical. It is possible to find rewarding challenging jobs as a developer without having to go work for the big names.

You raise good points. Looking at the statistics, the average doctor has significantly better compensation than the average code jockey. Most programmers won't ever get a job at $TrendyCorp, as you point out.

> Not every developer gets to work on Sora, Quantum AI chip, or CUDA source code.

> For the very vast majority, it is facing stupid PMs, MBA bosses, daily standups, and getting fired with no fault of your own.

Those two are not mutually incompatible. I saw examples of all of that while working at outwardly glamorous companies. Thankfully I didn't experience any of that personally.

> Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.

You could say the same about medicine. It is a tough stressful job for most.

I think this experience is true if you work in software companies.

I work for a factory maintaining it's existing custom ERP and building new software for it (basically imagine a programmer consultant for 1 costumer just with regular contract). Mix of maintaining legacy code, writing new one and servicing hardware is dynamic enough not to be bored and I have a lot of independence in the job. It's comfy af.

How did you get a job like that? Sounds pretty good

Word of mouth.

The point is to realize that almost every non-IT company of certain size (lets say 50-100 employees+) that started before SAP&similiar became popular in your country has large body of custom software and that the guy who built it is probably thinking about retiring.

Minus is of course that most custom software is pretty horrible from code quality standpoint, so you need to have a high tolerance for debuging and that you need to have a little knowledge of everything (specialisation is not possible).

Even if the company has been sold on some SAP or Oracle solution, they always need someone how can customize and take ownership of that stuff.

You'd be surprised how many such jobs are there. Mostly not listed though. If my experience is any guide, one generally starts as a temp / consultant and you slowly expand the role from there. There's generally a point some years later where you're almost "too big to fail". Too many small odd jobs that are needed maybe once a year, but when they happen, they are pretty important.

Important to note that this too big to fail point occurs very quickly in some cases. Non-IT companies are generally very risk/change averse in regards to their IT infrastucture (and for very good reason, see e.g. [1] and [2]). So if you are capable enough to learn their legacy codebase you will be very quickly the only person worldwide capable of maintaining it.

[1] - https://www.cio.com/article/274138/enterprise-resource-plann...

[2] - https://www.theregister.com/2024/12/06/birmingham_erp_budget...

Many doctors I know don't have their own clinic (it's too expensive) and still contend with terrible management decisions, and have no work/life balance.

On top of this, school is long and expensive.

Getting a good dev job is better in comparison.

Not sure if it’s the people who survive med school or just who’s interested in being a doctor but every medical doctor I know has serious personality flaws that makes them hard to be/live with.

As opposed to us totally balanced and not unhinged in the slightest devs?

I suspect that any heavily technical field has a risk of causing flaws personality flaws, but maybe I'm projecting.

FWIW all the doctors I know socially seem pretty well balanced other than maybe a tendency to crowbar the word Doctor into the conversation. MBAs are still worse though.

> Programming is crazy cool, but the profession of Software Engineering is not always that cool.

The hours, work expectations and imposition on daily life can be pretty grim for a medical doctor, presumably with a strong correlation on speciality and role. I’m very much not-a-doctor.

my experience in australia was that it was like being a fancy receptionist. stupid overtime and low compensation. im not great at selling myself but it id rather be a tradie in this country than in s/w.

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