Is coding a good career?

So that you assume you need to be a coder? You have weighed the variables, labored out the way you wish to operate, and now you may have one ultimate question to execute: Is coding truly a superb profession? Nicely, learn on to search out out.

For those who nonetheless want the fundamentals on the right way to code, be sure you try our newbie’s information to coding and programming (opens in new tab). We even have a information on the worth of coding bootcamps (opens in new tab), should you’re contemplating doing a crash course in pc programming.

You will want one thing to code on too, and that is the place our greatest laptops for coding information is available in. Now, let’s dive in and have a look at those and zeros of beginning a profession in coding.

How a lot may I earn as a coder?

Stacks of 100 dollar bills

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The common wage for a coder in the USA is $73,473 (£58,700) per 12 months, based on job searching for web site Certainly (opens in new tab). However coding salaries range considerably. On the high finish of the market, a coder working at Apple, Amazon or Salesforce can count on to earn upwards of $100,000 (£79,900).

Geography additionally performs a task in a pc programmer’s wage. Maybe unsurprisingly, California (dwelling to Silicon Valley and a little bit place known as Los Angeles) is the highest-paying state for a coder, with a median annual wage of $79,627 (£63,600). That is $10,000 (£8,000) greater than the wage in Kansas, for instance — although there’s additionally the price of residing in these cities to think about.

Some corporations, significantly new start-ups, pay low base salaries however give workers inventory choices. The thought is that by proudly owning a small chunk of the corporate, you could possibly be in line for an unlimited payday if the corporate blows up. Nonetheless, outcomes like this are clearly onerous to foretell. Taking a share choice in a small firm may very well be the way you make your tens of millions. However keep in mind, most start-ups finish in failure.

Do I must stay in San Francisco, London or one other massive metropolis?

Aerial view of San Francisco, California.

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One of many appeals of a coding profession is that, in principle, it may be carried out wherever there’s an web connection. Why work in a grey workplace in an industrial property when you could possibly be sitting by the seashore, on a tropical island, tapping out code between Zoom calls?

Nicely, there are nonetheless benefits to residing in a metropolis — significantly a big, tech-oriented metropolis corresponding to San Francisco, New York or London. Before everything, massive cities are the place most tech corporations are situated, and most tech jobs nonetheless have some office-working necessities (see beneath).

There are additionally casual advantages that include residing in a tech hub, significantly early in your profession. You’ll be able to attend tech occasions the place you can sharpen your expertise, and you may go for in-person drinks with colleagues in the identical business. And in an business the place corporations are created and destroyed seemingly in a single day, you will need to construct a powerful community of contacts. In coding, you are impossible to work on the identical firm for various years — and your subsequent job would possibly simply come from that particular person you understand socially, from business drinks.

What is the work/life stability like?

People working on laptops in an office

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It’s onerous to explain the work/life stability of a complete area, however there’s some proof we will level to. For instance, as a result of writing code is a desk job, it’s effectively positioned to make the most of post-pandemic distant working, which may imply you’ll be able to count on extra versatile working hours and circumstances, and spend extra time with your loved ones. However this is not a given.

There was a shift again towards workplace work in a number of the largest tech corporations since 2020. At this time, Microsoft requires its employees to work from the workplace 50% of the time, whereas Google and Apple now count on their employees within the workplace three days per week. So being a coder would not essentially imply you can work remotely perpetually.

One other work/life strain to think about is the idea of “crunch.” It is the scenario when so as to ship a product or function by a given deadline, managers put strain and expectation on workers to work extraordinarily lengthy hours — upwards of 60 to 80 hours per week — to get what they’re constructing over the road. Although this has grow to be most infamous within the video video games business, the remainder of the tech business just isn’t immune.

There’s additionally the truth of how the tech business is structured. Many tech start-ups elevate cash from buyers to fund themselves for, say, a 12 months, with the aim on the finish of the method being to “exit” — both to a inventory market IPO or acquisition from a a lot bigger firm, incomes the preliminary founders an enormous payout. There will be profitable rewards, however there is a robust incentive and structural strain towards working extraordinarily onerous. For those who work for a start-up, count on lengthy hours.

Is the business stuffed with sexist tech bros?

Laptops for coding & programming - GettyImages-1288272415

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I am going to depart the worth judgment as much as you, however the actuality is that the tech business continues to be closely skewed towards males. In line with the web site Ladies in Tech, simply 26% of the U.Okay. tech workforce are girls, and figures are related within the U.S. However there’s just one option to change that: The business wants extra girls.

Am I going to get replaced by AI?

Artificial intelligence brain in network node.

(Picture credit score: Yuichiro Chino)

The issue with planning a profession within the trendy, digital world is that it is very onerous to foretell what would possibly occur sooner or later. A job in tech just isn’t essentially a job for all times. And as we have seen in current months, the emergence of generative AI may upset job prospects for even extremely expert employees corresponding to coders.

What’s more likely to change is the precise job of coding: As an alternative of ranging from a blinking cursor in a clean window, you will have an AI companion corresponding to GitHub Copilot, which is able to assist you to work in the same option to how a mathematician makes use of a calculator. This variation may make your job extra fascinating. As an alternative of getting to write down traces and contours of boring, fundamental code, AI will deal with that for you. And that may depart you with the extra fascinating challenges past the AI’s present capabilities.

So will AI take away your coding job? It is onerous to say for positive, however it appears possible that understanding the right way to code will nonetheless be an necessary talent sooner or later economic system — not least since you may very well be serving to to construct the mind-blowing AI instruments of tomorrow.

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