The word is like the face, I am Brother Jun!
Today's article is different from previous articles. Let's take a look at the world of a programmer from the beautiful country!
This American programmer named Rajiv Prabhakar studied computer engineering (hardware) in college. He graduated with a master's degree in 2009 and worked in integrated circuit verification for 5 years at Intel and Sun. Then he entered the software development industry and worked successively in Working at startups, Google and Amazon, the salary has skyrocketed and it’s very gratifying.
Recently, he started his own business, established a B2B SAAS company and served as CTO. He has now raised US$3 million in venture capital.
He recorded his income growth over the past decade:
| time | company | Annual income (USD) | Expenses (excluding tax) | 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 be slid left or right)
(Note: Sun was acquired by Oracle in 2010. 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 revenue has increased significantly, almost doubling.
From 2017 to 2021, he joined Google and Amazon, the major Internet companies in the United States. His income will increase significantly every two years, which also reflects the extreme popularity of the Internet in these years.
After reading his experience on his blog, the following points struck me most:
1. The income in the US software industry is really high
A programmer who switches careers from hardware can earn more than 200,000 US dollars per year. After entering "big companies" such as Google and Amazon, his income continues to rise, reaching a maximum of more than 600,000 US dollars.
My brother also said, "Software engineers in these big companies can earn huge amounts of money, comparable to doctors and investment bankers. If you are in other industries, even if you have the same talent, your income will be much less. Choice of career path There will be a huge impact on pay.”
In comparison, it is difficult for people with the same talent to earn so much in countries outside the United States, so I said, "If achieving financial independence as soon as possible is your primary goal, I strongly recommend moving to the United States."
Over the past two decades, software development has been a really good industry, and the software industry in the United States is at the top of the world. IT companies here such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc. are all multinational companies, and their products and services cover the world. You can make money from all over the world, and the income and profits are very scary.
The market for our country's IT companies is mainly domestic, and they are crazy at the business model and application level. Now that mobile Internet traffic has reached its peak, all dividends have been eaten up, and they can only wait for the next wave of technology.
2. The U.S. financial market is really powerful
This guy has increased his net worth by nearly $1 million by investing in the stock market in the United States.
To spread risk, the portfolio includes U.S. stocks (VTI), developed countries (VEA) and emerging markets (VWO). Although the stock market is also very risky (especially during an economic recession), the U.S. stock market has been rising. Over time, the compound growth rate is very strong on average.
So he advises: "Young people have long careers and can afford to take risks. Invest your money and don't let it sit idle in the bank."
But this sentence should be viewed separately. My money is invested in the US financial market and I have reaped the dividends from the growth of the US stock market. If it is A shares, I am afraid there will be a question mark.
3. Strong sense of goal and strong ability to act
When I was 20 years old, I set the goal of financial independence and started to practice it.
When he gets a big raise, he doesn't buy "luxury goods" (a house, a luxury car). Instead, he restrains his desires and spends the money on experiences, such as traveling.
He said that "in many cases, renting is more cost-effective financially than buying a house," so he shared it with others for a long time, so that he only had to pay $1,000. He said, "Sharing saves a lot of rent and creates an interesting social life." .”
When he discovered that he didn't like the hardware industry and that the salary in this industry was not high, he decisively changed careers.
Changing careers was not easy. He could only use evenings and weekends to teach himself software development, learn data structures and algorithms on Coursera, take Stanford University database online courses, and learn various Web development technologies on edX.
Confidence came when he "beat" those Stanford students on projects and exams, and "I felt like I had the ability to transition into software development."
My 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 learned that writing code is far more than just "can work", readability and maintainability are equally important. important.
I spent many Sunday afternoons sitting in a cafe, typing code crazily in Eclipse, and practicing some exercises in TopCoder.
These unremitting efforts finally paid off. He entered a software startup company and successfully changed careers. After working for a year, he entered a large Silicon Valley factory and struck gold there.
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 What I want. What I want is to pursue my goals in life 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 hit the road again. As someone who found frustrating problems in many companies, he wanted to try to build a company from scratch where he could work independently, make quick decisions, hone leadership skills, and solve those company problems.
He also likes writing and wants to publish a book.
He likes to assist and guide others and wants to be a mentor.
His last wish is to devote himself to charity. He has donated US$300,000 to charity funds and hopes to set up a charity foundation one day.
My life is very exciting. You can say that he is in the United States and 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 has been rising for a long time...
But can we also learn something from it?
Finally, I want to say that most technical people do not make career plans based on their own strengths/interests, and there are countless pitfalls in the career. This Saturday I will live broadcast to share the technical people (front-end, back-end, algorithm, big Data, testing, operation and maintenance, product manager) at different age stages, such as 25 to 30 years old, 30 to 35 years old, how to make career planning? How to break the 35-year-old crisis among technical people? Of course , you are also welcome to ask questions in the live broadcast room with your personal questions. We will see you there~
Recommended popular articles from the past:
Do these 6 things well and there will be no 35-year-old crisis!
Obviously, the more work experience you have, the more popular you are, so why aren’t programmers?
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