What do you earn?

T

TheLaggingShaman

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What do you earn? What is your stack? How many years have you been doing it? How good do you think you are relative to your peers (regardless of your experience or qualification)?

It would be nice to get some direct, hopefully genuine information, and with a bit more context than surveys provide. So for that reason please be 100% honest, or give a ballpark, or don't share.

I am a Javascript dev, with no associated degree, two years professional experience and a high level of skill in ES6/7, Node (Express) and React + ecosystem (Redux + middlewares, react router, webpack, express).

I earn 24k/pm, or ~25.5k including perks.

Transparency!
 
I'm terrible at React but that is what they now pay me to do with some python in-between. On the odd occasion I maintain some PHP.

I've a National Certificate in Datametrics and a BSc Informatics. Just started my Honours. Would recommend you get a degree as it might not help you much at your age but when you get to mine (heading to mid 40s) it's the difference between getting head hunted for better jobs vs sitting unemployed / earning a junior salary writing websites.

I've only been a software engineer for 12 years, before that I was in retail sales for 16 years. Find myself now in ecommerce as it is a perfect fit for my experience and studies.

What I earn, that I won't say as it is confidential but it is not always about money.

My perks:
* Parking, a big thing in Cape Town CBD.
* Discounted DSTV (not that I watch it).
* Good coffee machines.
* Semi-flexi hours.
* Casual dress code.
* Access to premium online training.
* A huge office filled with the most awesome people to work with.
* My view of Cape Town mountain from my desk is also amazeballs.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
I'm terrible at React but that is what they now pay me to do with some python in-between. On the odd occasion I maintain some PHP.

I've a National Certificate in Datametrics and a BSc Informatics. Just started my Honours. Would recommend you get a degree as it might not help you much at your age but when you get to mine (heading to mid 40s) it's the difference between getting head hunted for better jobs vs sitting unemployed / earning a junior salary writing websites.

I've only been a software engineer for 12 years, before that I was in retail sales for 16 years. Find myself now in ecommerce as it is a perfect fit for my experience and studies.

What I earn, that I won't say as it is confidential but it is not always about money.

My perks:
* Parking, a big thing in Cape Town CBD.
* Discounted DSTV (not that I watch it).
* Good coffee machines.
* Semi-flexi hours.
* Casual dress code.
* Access to premium online training.
* A huge office filled with the most awesome people to work with.
* My view of Cape Town mountain from my desk is also amazeballs.
Click to expand...
So you work for Naspers( or MultiChoice )?
 
Earn: Can't say (also won't :) ), but it's at the high end (for Silicon Valley).
Stack: C/C++, R, Assembler, Python.
Relative to my peers: Very few people do what I do, so I can't really draw a direct comparison, but I work with some really smart people, who are among the best at what they do.
Qualification: PhD, CS/Maths.
Experience: ~20 years professional experience. Coding for 35 years.
 
Last edited:
cguy said:
Earn: Can't say (also won't :) ), but it's at the high end.
Stack: C/C++, R, Assembler, Python.
Relative to my peers: Very few people do what I do, so I can't really draw a direct comparison, but I work with some really smart people, who are among the best at what they do.
Qualification: PhD, CS/Maths.
Experience: ~20 years professional experience. Coding for 35 years.
Click to expand...
Wow
 
cguy said:
Earn: Can't say (also won't :) ), but it's at the high end.
Stack: C/C++, R, Assembler, Python.
Relative to my peers: Very few people do what I do, so I can't really draw a direct comparison, but I work with some really smart people, who are among the best at what they do.
Qualification: PhD, CS/Maths.
Experience: ~20 years professional experience. Coding for 35 years.
Click to expand...

Wow
Impressive
 
cbrunsdonza said:
What I earn, that I won't say as it is confidential but it is not always about money.

.
Click to expand...

I used to believe that, then I woke up. Its always about money. You can have the most awesome work environment but if they pay you peanuts you're not going to survive until the end of the month.
 
Earn: Can't say (also won't ), but it's I am getting paid the avg salary for my years of exp(I think) according to MYBB articles..
Stack: PL/SQL and MS Sql(I do data integration)
Relative to my peers: I am still new in this position(6 months) but the technical work itself is pretty easy. Learning the business is not.
Qualification: Matric
Experience: I come from a .Net(5 years in financial services) and IBM RPG(3 years in insurance services) background. Now doing PL/SQL and data integration in the retail sector. Playing with Python at the moment to get into some more fun data stuff!
age: 31

I am just glad I can work in this industry and that i have a job and I enjoy what I do!
 
Last edited:
semaphore said:
I used to believe that, then I woke up. Its always about money. You can have the most awesome work environment but if they pay you peanuts you're not going to survive until the end of the month.
Click to expand...

Alan Watts has a very popular speech about "What if money did not matter". If you do what you love and you become very good at it, then one day people will pay you very good money.

So I live by "it is not always about money" else I would still be in retail sales in an industry I hated, but earning a premium salary that few would ever achieve in IT. Money does not buy you happiness as I never had time to enjoy it in my old career.
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Alan Watts has a very popular speech about "What if money did not matter". If you do what you love and you become very good at it, then one day people will pay you very good money.

So I live by "it is not always about money" else I would still be in retail sales in an industry I hated, but earning a premium salary that few would ever achieve in IT. Money does not buy you happiness as I never had time to enjoy it in my old career.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but I still won't work in an awesome office that doesn't pay me what I am expecting.
 
Earn: My contract says I can't say but it's normally higher than whatever the mybb articles always say we earn
Stack: Full stack: Java EE, Spring, HTML, CSS, JS/Node
Relative to my peers: We're all pretty close I think
Qualification: BSc. Honours Computer Science + Informatics
Experience: 6.5 years
 
Where are those actuaries who should be top earners on average in corporate??
 
therealace said:
Where are those actuaries who should be top earners on average in corporate??
Click to expand...

Probably not in the "Software and Web Development" subforum. :) Also, I expect that I earn more than the vast majority of actuaries. I'm overseas and Acc Sci doesn't have the same financial heft outside of SA.
 
S1ght said:
Earn: My contract says I can't say but it's normally higher than whatever the mybb articles always say we earn
Stack: Full stack: Java EE, Spring, HTML, CSS, JS/Node
Relative to my peers: We're all pretty close I think
Qualification: BSc. Honours Computer Science + Informatics
Experience: 6.5 years
Click to expand...

Employees are often contractually prohibited from disclosing the details of their remuneration to any person, including colleagues. A clause to this effect is often found in employment contracts. In some instances, employers flag such a disclosure as a disciplinary offence. The rationale for such prohibition is understandable in that employers do not want to upset the employee relations climate by having the details of their employees' salary information floating about in the workplace.

However, s78(1)(b) of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, No 75 of 1997 (BCEA) provides that "[e]very employee has the right to discuss his or her conditions of employment with his or her fellow employees, his or her employer or any other person." In this regard, the Labour Court recognised in Schoeman & another v Samsung Electronics SA (Pty) Ltd (1997) 18 ILJ 1098 (LC) that "[r]emuneration is always a term and condition of the employment contact."
Click to expand...

https://www.labourguide.co.za/most-...t-out-of-right-to-disclose-salary-information
 
therealace said:
Where are those actuaries who should be top earners on average in corporate??
Click to expand...

Not actuary but head of legal of a medium sized investment and construction company.

Earn: over 1 bar a year.

Relative to my peers: almost on par with our local c levels.

Qualification: LLB + 2 masters

Experience: 8 years.

Downside: a lot of travel in crappy places, a lot of «*fixer*» or firefighting job on projects.
 
f2wohf said:
Downside: a lot of travel in crappy places, a lot of «*fixer*» or firefighting job on projects.
Click to expand...

Some might view those points as positives. Personally, I really enjoy sorting out issues, with down periods in between, versus continuously doing mundane work.
 
Messugga said:
Some might view those points as positives. Personally, I really enjoy sorting out issues, with down periods in between, versus continuously doing mundane work.
Click to expand...

Sometimes I do, but close to 5 days a week for 6 years for usually stupid mistakes of lack of planning sometimes gets tiring.
 
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