$1M per year while solely being a programmer seems a bit high to me unless you've got other sources of income.
I've thought about the video game idea (pc games) and actually made 2 crappy ones during high school. But I quickly scrapped that idea since I felt like no one would see the effort and time I put in.
I also thought about the website idea but not too sure about what target market to have. I made a non-profit one for testing just to see how much traffic I can get (for a game) but closed it down when school started. A few of my friends did a blog-type website and say those can make quite a lot of money if you manage to find people to get interested.
The latest idea which my friends and I have been thinking is some sort of tutoring school.
$1M is based on multiple sources of income. Might include stuff outside the programming world too if that doesn't pan out. I was in the financial business for awhile. That pays really well.
According to my "research" blogging can indeed pay pretty well. For that I would probably hire writers though.
Steven;24325 said:
Starting salary of $100k as a programmer seems a bit over inflated. $1M starting salary is basically impossible unless you are some genius kid that produced something like Facebook and sold it to a large corporation like Microsoft. Especially nowadays considering the supply of freelance web designers and programmers, salaries like that don't come if you don't have a huge competitive advantage.
As well, do you have a portfolio of your work to show us?
Who said anything about a starting salary? I'm going to start small and work my way up. Could take many, many years. I'm not quite that delusional. And I don't expect any company to pay me any significant sum of money, which is why I'm trying to run my own business(es). And despite the supply of freelance web designers and programmers, work has still managed to find me. I've gotten a few contracts now without putting out a single ad, or portfolio. Word of mouth FTW. But regardless, I'm not aiming to get hired.
No, sorry, I don't have a portfolio anymore. My site just went down. My friend was hosting it for free, but he sold his company. Haven't purchased a new domain yet. Most of my work is in bits and pieces though anyway; lots of experimenting and learning. But if you stick around, I should have something to show by Sept 1 :) (Maybe if I say it enough times, I won't be able to back out).
The goal here was never to make myself look great and awesome or superior. I'm a decent web designer, but by no means professional, and a pretty good programmer. I'd say better and more experienced than most of my classmates, but the only thing that really separates me is that I'm actually going to do something with my knowledge.
And no, I don't need to hear all the "pyramid scheme" rubbish :p It was a good company, with great people. However, the starting commission was low compared to other companies, from what I hear, but it was relatively easy to get promotions. And, I don't think they offer the absolute best products (ie insurance) to their clients, although at least they aren't screwing their clients and making them worse off.
The position was essentially selling insurance, and investments. Also did some debt management stuff. Oh, and recruiting. Recruiting sounds sleazy, but it pays so damn well >.< Moral dilemma. Anyway, I couldn't do it, so I quit.
"Everyone can read a book. Everyone can come up with an idea. Everyone has a cousin that's a web designer. Everyone can write a blog. Everyone can hire someone to hack together some code.
The difference between you and everyone else will be how well you execute. Success is all about great execution."
I wish i was ambituous, maybe I'd try harder and get good grades. Oh well, I'll graduate with my 2.4 gpa, haha
:omg: Hey! That's a step up from the 2.35 from a while back, eh? Glad to see you're on the road to academic success Triple :wink:
On a more serious note, there's really no need to blame yourself for not trying hard enough or not being ambitious enough. After all, we're all products of our environment, right?
This post is only like 5 months late, mostly just because I didn't want to buy someone a beer.
Plans didn't work out quite as well as I intended :) I made, maybe like $10 off my schemes over the summer (outside my job). But, it landed me a $4000 web contract, if that counts for anything.
In recent weeks, however, things are turning up. I got a scholarship, a free trip to Japan, some funding for a commercial project I'm working on, and some other stuff. Things are going well, but I'm not nearly where I want to be yet :) These next 3 months should be pretty life changing though.
From what I know software developers get paid quite a bit...over the next few years the ones that focus on web application development will be paid the most, as "cloud computing" grows in popularity.
Google doesn't even pay entry level programmers half that much.
Is that what I said? I don't really want to reread my own thread :p Sounds a bit high to me now, anyway. Everything's so freaking arbitrary. I make $15 an hour one week, and $40 an hour the next. Bah. But that's all contract work, so that's not saying much at all.
Anyway, like I said. A job is just my fall back plan. I'm going to avoid them for as long as I can. I've made it about a year, and it's been working out pretty well so far. If I can make twice as much, but only get half the amount of work... I'll do it.
Simon;49018 said:
From what I know software developers get paid quite a bit...over the next few years the ones that focus on web application development will be paid the most, as "cloud computing" grows in popularity.
I know, I hate buzzwords too
Yeah... I didn't want to be web apps but people kept throwing money at me. Now I seem to be stuck in this realm :p
Insatiable;48958 said:
I haven't forgotten about this.
Darn :p Well, I try to be a man of my word... so... let me know when you're going to the SFU pub (some Wed or Thu night after March 11 preferably), and maybe we can meet up.
JayDub;48954 said:
Who are you?
Mark.
vonnie;49022 said:
How'd he get a free trip to japan :sad:
Well... I had to work a little bit for it. As part of my research, I submitted a paper to this big machine vision conference in Japan... it was accepted, so my prof's research grant is going to pay for me to go present it.
Comments
According to my "research" blogging can indeed pay pretty well. For that I would probably hire writers though. Who said anything about a starting salary? I'm going to start small and work my way up. Could take many, many years. I'm not quite that delusional. And I don't expect any company to pay me any significant sum of money, which is why I'm trying to run my own business(es). And despite the supply of freelance web designers and programmers, work has still managed to find me. I've gotten a few contracts now without putting out a single ad, or portfolio. Word of mouth FTW. But regardless, I'm not aiming to get hired.
No, sorry, I don't have a portfolio anymore. My site just went down. My friend was hosting it for free, but he sold his company. Haven't purchased a new domain yet. Most of my work is in bits and pieces though anyway; lots of experimenting and learning. But if you stick around, I should have something to show by Sept 1 :) (Maybe if I say it enough times, I won't be able to back out).
The goal here was never to make myself look great and awesome or superior. I'm a decent web designer, but by no means professional, and a pretty good programmer. I'd say better and more experienced than most of my classmates, but the only thing that really separates me is that I'm actually going to do something with my knowledge.
I am personally in the financial business too. I'm wondering which company did you work with and doing what?
And no, I don't need to hear all the "pyramid scheme" rubbish :p It was a good company, with great people. However, the starting commission was low compared to other companies, from what I hear, but it was relatively easy to get promotions. And, I don't think they offer the absolute best products (ie insurance) to their clients, although at least they aren't screwing their clients and making them worse off.
The position was essentially selling insurance, and investments. Also did some debt management stuff. Oh, and recruiting. Recruiting sounds sleazy, but it pays so damn well >.< Moral dilemma. Anyway, I couldn't do it, so I quit.
You?
"Everyone can read a book. Everyone can come up with an idea. Everyone has a cousin that's a web designer. Everyone can write a blog. Everyone can hire someone to hack together some code.
The difference between you and everyone else will be how well you execute. Success is all about great execution."
From Getting Real @ 37signals
be proud triple..=D
@Triple: Lol...my GPA is slowly going downhill too... but as long as I pass, I'm not too concerned about that.
On a more serious note, there's really no need to blame yourself for not trying hard enough or not being ambitious enough. After all, we're all products of our environment, right?
This post is only like 5 months late, mostly just because I didn't want to buy someone a beer.
Plans didn't work out quite as well as I intended :) I made, maybe like $10 off my schemes over the summer (outside my job). But, it landed me a $4000 web contract, if that counts for anything.
In recent weeks, however, things are turning up. I got a scholarship, a free trip to Japan, some funding for a commercial project I'm working on, and some other stuff. Things are going well, but I'm not nearly where I want to be yet :) These next 3 months should be pretty life changing though.
100k starting salary? As a programmer?
Really?
Really?
Google doesn't even pay entry level programmers half that much.
I know, I hate buzzwords too
How'd he get a free trip to japan :sad:
Anyway, like I said. A job is just my fall back plan. I'm going to avoid them for as long as I can. I've made it about a year, and it's been working out pretty well so far. If I can make twice as much, but only get half the amount of work... I'll do it. Yeah... I didn't want to be web apps but people kept throwing money at me. Now I seem to be stuck in this realm :p Darn :p Well, I try to be a man of my word... so... let me know when you're going to the SFU pub (some Wed or Thu night after March 11 preferably), and maybe we can meet up. Mark. Well... I had to work a little bit for it. As part of my research, I submitted a paper to this big machine vision conference in Japan... it was accepted, so my prof's research grant is going to pay for me to go present it.