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Old 22-03-2021, 07:53 PM
xin xin is offline
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Programming is a useful skill to have under your belt but neither guarantees high pay, much less success in life. But I agree with the hype now, you are definitely getting more offers with programming skills. Yes, tech/programming in general is booming now and I don't doubt it is here to stay. But the average coder is not gonna get a job at FANG with close to 5 digits starting salary.

What I also want to emphasize is don't be a generalist who focuses so much on programming and ignore whatever domain you actually like (e-commerce/genomics/finance). Your programming skills ultimately have to be applied to some industry. Code itself has no value. How you apply it to the domain is the ultimate value driver.

And I think there is this trend right now called the "low-code/no-code" movement. Many software companies are helping to democratize coding by developing platforms so that end users can just drag and drop application components, connect them together and create mobile or web apps.

And the point about everyone becoming a programmer. If half of the population applies for programming job, good luck getting any decent pay. The sheer amount of supply will just drive down everyone's pay. Ultimately, only the top few companies pay top dollars to candidates. And only certain programming jobs like software engineer or data scientist are considered highly paid. Basic code monkey is usually outsourced to foreigners for low pay. Candidates will be forced to search jobs at SMEs and accept the lower pay.

Plus coding is boring as hell to most people who don't enjoy it. Eventually, they will get burnt out and leave the industry for good.

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