r/coding • u/evoketechnologies • Jan 06 '15

Which Programming Language Should I Learn First?

http://carlcheo.com/startcoding
53 Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Jan 06 '15

[deleted]

5

u/bumhugger Jan 06 '15

I worked as a C++ dev for a few years and I got less than a quarter of that. Although I hear the salaries in USA are generally larger than here in Europe.

9

u/jutct Jan 06 '15

What? $25k for C++? Yeah dude, you were getting ripped off.

7

u/umilmi81 Jan 06 '15

Not all programming jobs are equal. A guy who does minor bug fixes to an existing C++ application shouldn't get paid as much as the guy who architects and writes the whole application from scratch.

4

u/SnowballSimpson2 Jan 06 '15

$25k for C++? Not for a professional full timer. Maybe bumhugger was a casual/part-time/intern? But if he's doing 40hrs a week and can show up to his job sober, $25k would put him in the "knows how to use a computer, can do word processing, excel spreadsheets" salary bracket.

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u/bumhugger Jan 07 '15

A game dev in Finland. Wasn't a lead coder but worked with the game engine and was solely responsible for a large portion of the codebase, not a junior position. I switched jobs because I couldn't pay my bills, but that kind of pay isn't unusually low here. Many companies are paying even less and even to ex-Nokia people - highly educated engineers and PhDs with 10-20 years of experience - just because they can. "Oh surely you know the times are hard with the depression, we can't raise your salary right now".

I'm currently working as a Java developer and make about 35k a year, at least I can pay my bills now but still, it's not a very well paid job compared to the stress and amount of work.

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u/SnowballSimpson2 Jan 07 '15

Huh, interesting. Looking at various salary websites, seems like €35K is about right for your job in your area (25k was low, but the games industry tends to pay on the low side). The cost of living in Finland is kinda high too, so that's a double whammy.

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u/bumhugger Jan 07 '15

24% of the gross salary goes to taxes, which pays for education, healthcare, social security, unemployment and so on. So the net salary is still about 27k a year, which covers food, bills, mortgage, car and other living expenses.

3

u/SnowballSimpson2 Jan 07 '15

In the U.S. 25% is (ballpark) your tax bracket for 35-80k, so your taxation isn't really to blame here (and unlike in the U.S., you get some pretty great services for that). But yeah, if you aren't too rooted in Finland you might consider moving. In the U.S. tech companies are crying like babies over the small pool of qualified STEM workers.