> I don't have any disdain for the freelancer in question, and I think it's quite an achievement to be earning $120k without training in the given field.
I was only pointing out that there are a lot more people who earn really good incomes in tech-related fields who don't have formal STEM educations. This isn't as uncommon as your comments seem to suggest.
Frankly, a lot of web and mobile app development doesn't require a computer science degree, nor is a formal computer science education the only form of "training" there is. Heck, assuming computer science curriculums are the same as when I was college-aged, I wouldn't even consider them "training" for a typical development job today.
> I didn't say it was easy. I just said there are not other routes I'm aware of that are easier.
I've dated both a lawyer (who worked at a Big Law firm) and an investment banker (who worked at a bulge bracket firm) in the earliest stages of their careers. Frankly, I don't think making a really good living in these professions is any more difficult than "FAANG worker". Different people have different aptitudes and when someone aligns his or her aptitudes to his or her career choices, everything sort of looks "easy".
> Frankly, I don't think making a really good living in these professions is any more difficult than "FAANG worker."
That doesn't match the reports of work life balance I have heard from practitioners of those professions vs. practitioners of programming. But I don't have any reliable, objective evidence to share on this point of view.
I was only pointing out that there are a lot more people who earn really good incomes in tech-related fields who don't have formal STEM educations. This isn't as uncommon as your comments seem to suggest.
Frankly, a lot of web and mobile app development doesn't require a computer science degree, nor is a formal computer science education the only form of "training" there is. Heck, assuming computer science curriculums are the same as when I was college-aged, I wouldn't even consider them "training" for a typical development job today.
> I didn't say it was easy. I just said there are not other routes I'm aware of that are easier.
I've dated both a lawyer (who worked at a Big Law firm) and an investment banker (who worked at a bulge bracket firm) in the earliest stages of their careers. Frankly, I don't think making a really good living in these professions is any more difficult than "FAANG worker". Different people have different aptitudes and when someone aligns his or her aptitudes to his or her career choices, everything sort of looks "easy".