Comment by Geisterde
2 years ago
Starting pay in the field isnt worth my time, unfortunately, so I have spent the last few years of my twenties agressively pursing linux knowledge on my own time. Only hitch is that im spinning the wheels but not moving!
I want to say we brought on 1s around 90 but in full honesty that's just my assumption and what I would probably pay one if I signed the check.
I have had a lot of SWE 1 friends who wanted to move to SRE 1 and it's around 20k less than they want. They're usually around 90-120.
Which one is the best decision long term is very subjective. Personally I think an SRE needs far more experience in various things than a SWE so they should be someone further along in their career.
My first sysadmin job (around 2005-6 I think) was $40k, but I went from $12.50 so I was happy. Very SR SREs are in the 250s+ easy. Datadog and the faangs etc are in the 300ks.
And thats the other problem, my current job will eventually kill me, and to reach those levels of pay requires a level of stress that I see breaking people. That starting salary is nothing to bawk at, an incredible step for most, but that would be ~30% paycut given my circumstamces.
Im banking on someday being the guy that responds on reddit when you have an issue, "oh yea, just run sudo zap -wtf ${: | grep %". When I eventually master this arcane art, ill apply for a paygrade that keeps my lights on.
I’m so surprised that more companies aren’t offering full-time positions as 20-30 hours a week and a corresponding drop in salary. “My current job will eventually kill me” is on the minds of some of the best people out there and I see many subconsciously (and consciously) avoiding positions that have a risk of that.