This American programmer named Rajiv Prabhakar, majored in computer engineering (hardware) at university, graduated with a master's degree in 2009, worked in integrated circuit verification for Intel and Sun for 5 years, and then entered the software development industry, successively in Startups, Google and Amazon jobs, pay skyrocketing, very gratifying.
Recently, he started his own business, established a B2B SAAS company and served as CTO, and now he has raised $3 million in venture capital.
He documented his own income growth over the past decade:
| time | company | Annual Income (USD) | Expenses (excluding taxes) | Cumulative Revenue (USD) | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Intel | 100,000 | 38,000 | 35,000 | Master's Degree in Hardware |
| 2010 | Intel | 100,000 | 38,000 | 75,000 | |
| 2011 | Intel | 105,000 | 38,000 | 122,000 | |
| 2012 | Intel/Sun | 115,000 | 38,000 | 175,000 | |
| 2013 | Sun | 125,000 | 39,000 | 236,000 | |
| 2014 | Sun | 125,000 | 39,000 | 320,000 | |
| 2015 | Hedge Fund | 230,000 | 56,000 | 450,000 | Career Turning Point: From Hardware to Software |
| 2016 | Hedge Fund/Google | 230,000 | 56,000 | 505,000 | |
| 2017 | 300,000 | 64,000 | 850,000 | ||
| 2018 | 330,000 | 68,000 | 990,000 | ||
| 2019 | Amazon | 475,000 | 94,000 | 1,130,000 | |
| 2020 | Amazon | 475,000 | 78,000 | 1,470,000 | |
| 2021 | Amazon | 625,000 | 78,000 | 2,400,000 |
(Friendly reminder: the table can slide left and right)
(Note: Sun was acquired by Oracle in 2010, and Sun in the table should be Oracle)
It can be seen that the transition from the hardware field to the software field is an important turning point, and the income has risen sharply, almost doubling.
From 2017 to 2021, he joined Google and Amaon, the major Internet companies in the United States, and his income has increased significantly every two years, which just reflects the extreme popularity of the Internet in these years.
After reading his experience on his blog, the most touching points are the following points:
1. The income of the US software industry is really high
A programmer who switched careers from hardware can earn more than 200,000 U.S. dollars a year. After entering a "big factory" like Google and Amazon, his income has continued to rise, reaching a maximum of more than 600,000 U.S. dollars.
The little brother also said, "The software engineers of these big factories can earn huge amounts of money, comparable to doctors and investment bankers. In other industries, even with the same talent, the income will be much less. Career path choice It's going to have a huge impact on pay."
In comparison, it is difficult for people with the same talents to earn so much in countries other than the United States, so my brother said, "If achieving financial independence as soon as possible is your primary goal, I strongly recommend moving to the United States."
In the past two decades, software development has been a good industry, and the software industry in the United States is at the top of the world. The IT companies here, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc., are multinational companies with products and services covering the world. It is possible to make money from all over the world, and the income and profit are very scary.
Our country's IT companies, whose market is mainly in the domestic market, are crazily involved in the business model and application layer. Now that the mobile Internet traffic is peaking and the dividends are exhausted, they can only wait for the next wave of technology.
2. The U.S. financial market is really strong
By investing in the stock market in the United States, this little brother has increased his net worth by nearly one million US dollars.
To diversify risk, the portfolio includes US equities (VTI), developed countries (VEA) and emerging markets (VWO). Although the stock market is also very risky (especially during the economic recession), the US stock market has been going up, and the time is prolonged. On average, the compound growth is very strong.
So he advises: "Young people have long careers, can take risks, invest your money, don't let it sit idle in the bank."
But this sentence has to be looked at separately. My brother’s money is invested in the US financial market, and he has enjoyed the dividends of the growth of the US stock market. If it is A shares, I am afraid that there will be a question mark.
3. Strong sense of purpose and strong action
At the age of 20, my brother set the goal of financial independence and began to practice it.
When he gets a big raise, instead of buying "luxury goods" (a house, a luxury car), he curbs his urges and spends the money on experiences like travel.
He said that "in many cases, renting is more economical than buying a house", so for a long time, you can share with someone, so you only need to pay $1000. He said that "shared living saves a lot of rent and creates a fun social life. .”
When he found out that he didn't like the hardware industry and found that the salary in this industry was not high, he decisively changed careers.
Changing careers is not easy. He can only use evenings and weekends to study software development by himself, learn data structures and algorithms on coursera, take online courses on databases at Stanford University, and learn various web development technologies on edX.
Confidence came when he "beat" the Stanford students in projects and exams, "I felt like I had the ability to move into software development."
My brother's programming journey also started from Hello World, and then slowly climbed up.
By reading "Design Patterns", he began to realize that good software requires his own thinking and design. Through "Clean Code", he knew that writing code is far more than just "workable", readability and maintainability are equally important.
My brother spent many Sunday afternoons sitting in a cafe, using Eclipse to type codes frantically, and practicing some exercises in TopCoder.
These unremitting efforts finally paid off. He entered a software start-up company and successfully changed careers. After working for a year, he entered a large Silicon Valley factory, where he dug gold.
My brother said: My goal has always been to optimize my career and financial situation so that I can retire in my 30s. Now that I am "retired", I can theoretically spend the rest of my life sleeping and relaxing on the beach, but this is not the case. what i want. What I want is to want to pursue my life goals on my own terms without worrying about money.
This is a bit like the finale of "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty": there is only one success-to live life in your own way.
So I was on the road again, as someone who found frustrating problems in many companies, he wanted to try to build a company from the ground up, where he could work independently, make quick decisions, hone his leadership skills, and solve those company problems.
He also likes to write and wants to publish a book.
He enjoys assisting and mentoring others and wants to be a mentor.
His last wish is to invest in charity. He has donated $300,000 to charitable foundations and hopes to set up a charitable foundation by himself one day.
My brother’s life is very exciting. You can say that he is in the United States, and he has some advantages that people in other countries do not have: the IT industry is extremely developed, the work is easy, the salary is very high, and the stock market is on the rise for a long time...
But can we also learn something from other places?