I kinda agree with this sentiment, I've certainly known plenty of software engineers who weren't half what they were getting paid, mostly juniors but also a few seniors. But I've also known plenty of software engineers who were worth every cent. However, I'd argue the bigger problem is other engineers are underpaid, especially considering many types of engineering require a strong grasp of advanced mathematics and physics. Then again, most professions in this world are woefully underpaid.
1. How differentiated is engineer output in a measurable way?
2. How much profit is unlocked by the engineers work at market rates?
(2) tells you how much room there is for an engineer's share of the profits to grow. In traditional engineering fields there often isn't as much profit to share everything comes from margin off a physical product).
Physical constraints also mean that it's difficult to differentiate in traditional engineering. The problems my EE friends solve are harder mathematically but they're almost all using design patterns and even components created decades ago, it's unusual to have a chance to do work that's "different" in a way the market might care about.
I disagree. Companies make way more money of what they offer. Otherwise they would go bankrupt. They are not a charity.
From my experience, from colleagues and friends, equity is worth 100x that of salary, if you know where to "bet" yourself. You can add the option to retire really early with equity as an engineer. One can't with salary before one's 60s.
That other engineering fields might be extremely underpriced is a different topic. But that is not true either. But again I am not seeing the salary data that support that argument.
Companies either pay for an "average web developer" perhaps with some experience, which is maybe what you are hinting? Or they pay for a specialist or strong generalist that will design a system to ensure they don't lose millions to billions if it goes down.
You need to calculate your Shapley value. And that usually in the Bay area says you are vastly underpaid if the stock doesn't pay out. The cash is nothing compared to the value a good engineer could add.
Again depends on the specialty. If you are one of the 10-20 people in the world that can build a particular system in production -- my case say -- you are valued differently.
OpenAI is hiring software engineers in the $200-400k range. The startup I work for has me in that range as well.
Alphabet went from 119k employees in 2019 to 190k employees in 2022. Microsoft went from 144k to 221k.
The fact is there was a massive amount of hiring done in the last few years, and these layoffs have yet to come to close to rolling these numbers back. Have these layoffs made Amazon any less of a behemoth?
I respect the engineering professions, but software engineers are still separated by a huge gap in opportunities and compensation.
