Comment by fileeditview
3 years ago
Your comment already has a lot of responses but one thing I didn't see mentioned is about the tough physical labor. It is often neglected that working at the computer is really bad for your body. Sitting for hours is unhealthy and creates all kinds of problems: obesity, disc prolapse, bad circulation, so much more. Also your eyes suffer a lot and become worse much faster than in most other jobs.
I agree that being a SWE is certainly not the worst thing in the world but it has also a lot of bad properties that often are overlooked and the most positions do not have moon salaries, that we see on HN regularly.
Also to do whatever lower income job you don't need to study for 5+ years (master). You need to compare with jobs that have similar requirements to your education.
You do not need a 5+ year degree. I have no formal qualifications and have no issue securing six figure jobs. And I have seen many others do the same.
You also have the ability to get a standing desk and take breaks to walk around.
Yea so maybe that degree thing is a German problem. I do not know the other markets/countries. Here, what I said is certainly true.
A standing desk is better than no standing desk but won't correct everything by itself. Taking a break and walking around is fine but I still need to get back to staring into the computer screen to do my work.
I don't know your age but for me it started with about ~35 that I realized that this has negative effects on my body.
After 1 year of SWE, I realized my body was becoming frail and mushy relative to when I was slugging cast iron fittings in the warehouse. Took me about 2 weeks to put together a workout regime with built in progression.
One of the things I’m glad of is the flex time and working from home so I can crank out workouts whenever it suits me.
The trick for Germans is to find a remote job at an American company. Much better pay - and you don't have to live in America! Win all around.