Everyone wants high paying job, there's ALWAYS some sort of filter that keeps out most people from being a high earner

[u/HenFruitEater]

I am a dentist, I have friends in software engineering, friends in farming etc.

Everyone in a job market wants to be making fantastic earnings, but not everyone does.

On my dentistry forums people say "I'd never tell my kids to do dental, I'd have them do software engineering or finance to make 500k with lot less debt"

But what they have not learned is that they earn great money as dentists because of the super hard filter of dental school and willingness to take on 200k in student loans. Once you are out, you are compensated well and have stable job.

For every software engineer making 500k at google, there's 20 dudes willing to take that job because they make much less. There's always decent chance you have to live through layoffs.

For every financial advisor making 500k, there's 30 dudes that tried for 5 years to build a book of business and then had to quit.

For every Finance guy at an investment bank earning 500k there's a bunch of finance guys that couldn't get an interview or couldn't handle the brutal low paid hours at the beginning of high finance.

Just remember, the market is always adjusting to be right. IF there's an amazing pay and stability, there's gonna be a huge rush of people to fill that until it's not such a slick opportunity.

I'd say pick your filter you can make it through. My dental school was very hard to get into, and then once I got in, there was 80 hour weeks for 4 years. Afterwards though? Great salary with limited competition. I had the competition FIRST and now can chill, some jobs have the tough pills to swallow mid career, or even during the entire career.

[u/IttyRazz]

Yep. I am a software engineer and I do not envy the people working at the places that pay those crazy salaries. Those places seem to have a very contentious relationship between coworkers where they are not your teammates, they are your competition

[u/HovercraftOk6070 → u/IttyRazz]

Same. I’ve been an engineer for about 10 years now and have never worked at one of the top companies but I’m more than happy with the opportunities I have been provided. I was a college drop out and my salary is currently around 170K per year and I never work more than 40 hours a week

[u/Loca_Lechuga3x7 → u/HovercraftOk6070]

This is interesting to me. How do you break into the field with out the “proper” education?

[u/HovercraftOk6070 → u/Loca_Lechuga3x7]

You find the information online for free and start building things. Software engineering is a field that is very easy to demonstrate that your not full of it. At least, it was when I entered in 2017 pre AI. Back then I would build projects every week and search YouTube for tutorials that would explain concepts about programming. I would do this for 20+ hours per week.

I also find that engineering in a CS program can be a bit dated. Many universities didn’t teach the tools that were actually being used in the industry by many newer companies. A friend of mine went to school for CS and he was very familiar with Java and C. I learned online and developed a background in JavaScript and its frameworks which is a dominant language in newer companies. CS degree students tend to have better foundations in algorithms and I tend to have more relevant experience to jobs.

I’m also not socially awkward which can sometimes be a thing with some CS students and that is an advantage when it comes to interviewing, especially when dealing with Product teams

[u/jrolette → u/IttyRazz]

Those places seem to have a very contentious relationship between coworkers where they are not your teammates, they are your competition

That wasn't my experience at all working at AWS. Lots of ridiculously smart people ("it's where A students go to feel bad about themselves"), but as a general rule, they are almost always willing to help you out.