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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a CS/math major and I make more per hour worked than my surgeon brother in law who didn’t start making money until nearly 40 (phd-md).  The majority of his family’s major decisions revolve around his career, it constantly takes priority in his family’s life and has nearly led to divorce more than once.  Granted, their life has gotten better since he finished his training, research and fellowship, but it was a grueling period of time while trying to also start a family. They have told us after going through the process to become an elite surgeon/researcher, they would never have either of their kids go into medicine unless they were the best of the brightest and could get into something cushy like dermatology (highly competitive).

I love my stress free job, complete flexibility, can work from anywhere, 20 hours per week. If you like and are good at math, are also good with people and American , you will do extremely well.  Every industry is in desperate need of tech workers not just Big Tech.

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I’ve been in software development and engineering management for almost 30 years.  I’ve never met anyone in tech who worked 20 hours per week. Not doubting PP, just saying that experience is not typical.  Much more common to work 60 hours per week.  Also, you have to stay current.  I spend at least 10 hours per week learning new languages, frameworks, and tools (outside of work).  There have been some studies about the stress of needing to stay current on software developers over time, and it’s a more stressful gig than you would think for that reason.  Also, something like 60% of software projects either fail outright or end up way over budget or late.  Depending on your personality, that can be very stressful.  [/quote]

I realize that many CS people look down on government work, but that’s where I took my CS degree over 20 years ago and I have worked 24 hours a week (part-time when my kids were little). I know it’s not the same thing, and you’re right that longer weeks are standard. When I was an IT PM I used to tease one of the contractors I was closer with by telling him I never work weekends because I have people to do that for me. ;) It wasn’t really true, because I filled in for people on leave and would participate in testing for deployments when it was needed, but nothing like they were doing in a regular basis.

I don’t make what other people in my field make in private, but my CS degree had been an ever present asset to my career since so few in Federal Service have that educational background. I have never worked more than 40 hours a week without getting paid. I am not a tech geek….I went into the field because my Parents insisted on a degree that would land a job. I don’t have to keep up with brand new tech because government is basically always 10 years behind, but I do have to attend training and read websites and go to conferences and vendor presentations and learn new platforms and talk very skeptical people into shifting their entire work process based on me saying I know it will help them. So, while it’s not the career path that many take, it’s one that’s available to new graduates who value their time more than a higher paycheck.[/quote]

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