Software engineering is one of the best paid fields to work in. It's definitely possible for Software Engineers to become millionaires. Let's go over the many ways this is possible.
Join a Big Tech company and get a high salary
One of the safest ways to becoming a millionaire as a Software Engineer is to climb the ranks of a big tech company. The FAANG companies (Facebook/Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) traditionally pay the highest salaries in tech. There are obviously lots of other high paying companies like Microsoft, IBM and newer companies like Coinbase.
A Principal Engineer at Google earns $1.2m whereas the equivalent position at Facebook pays $1.4m. Over the course of it's lifetime, Microsoft is reputed to have made 12,000 people millionaires.
Join an early stage startup and get equity
A more risky strategy to become a millionaire as a software engineer is to work at a small but fast growing startup and get equity. For instance, the payment processing company Stripe is the most valued private company in the world at over $100bn. Software engineers at Stripe who joined early and gained equity will certainly become millionaires once the company goes public on the stock market with an IPO.
When Apple went public, 40 employees became millionaires over night. MoPub, a startup which sold to Twitter in 2013 for $350m, made 36 employees into millionaires according to the EliteSavvy blog.
Obviously, being an entrepreneur is a lucrative option. You don't even need to have venture capital funding to get started these days. The most expensive hire for a software company is usually the programmer so if you can code already you have taken away the biggest expense on day one.
As there is an abundance of cheap software, it's a lot easier to start a business than it once was. You can use Stripe Checkout instead of coding your own payment systems. You can use Heroku or AWS for hosting your website in the cloud instead of the bad old days of having a physical server.
Jason Grishkoff created SubmitHub in order to help musicians share their demos more easily with record companies and get genuine feedback. The founder is a self taught software engineer and as of 2019 the company was making 7 figures in annual revenue. You can check out how Jason learned to code in his exclusive interview here.
Pieter Levels is a self-taught developer who has created the successful websites Nomad List and RemoteOK. As someone who has rode the wave of digital nomadism and remote work, Pieter has grown rich in the process. All this has also been accomplished with no outside funding from investors and no traditional advertising. You can read how Pieter taught himself to code in this article.
The founders of Mailchimp last year sold their business for $10bn and that was also a company that hadn't taken outside investment. So with entrepreneurship, the sky is the limit.
You don't need a degree
The best part of all of this is that you don't even need a degree let alone a CS degree to become a software engineer. You can either learn coding on your own or learn at a coding bootcamp. You can read hundreds of interviews with self-taught developers and people who have learned at coding bootcamps.
One of the safest ways to becoming a millionaire as a Software Engineer is to climb the ranks of a big tech company. The FAANG companies (Facebook/Meta, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google) traditionally pay the highest salaries in tech.
Programming is still a great profession, but don't expect to become a millionaire in a short time. You can work in programming your whole life and not become a millionaire, or you might become one, but it's not very common.
1. Engineering. Coming in at the top is engineering - which might surprise you, but the scope of engineering is huge and widening all of the time. 22% of the world's top 100 billionaires studied some kind of engineering.
-- There are only two main career paths in tech that lead to becoming a millionaire -- The first one is becoming a founder, launching your own thing. - Extremely high risk - Outsized reward.
While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $205,500 and as low as $63,500, the majority of Software Engineer 300K salaries currently range between $120,000 (25th percentile) to $173,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $205,000 annually across the United States.
Quick Summary. Making money from coding can be achieved through web development, game or app development, and freelance programming. Web development involves creating websites, selling plugins and themes, or improving WordPress software.
It's definitely possible to make $200k as a Software Engineer. Salaries are very high, especially in the US, because venture capital puts so much money into startups. Investors are eager to find the next unicorn e.g. a company worth more than $1bn. So tech companies have a lot of money to spend on Software Engineers.
The highest-paid engineers are computer hardware engineers, petroleum engineers, and aerospace engineers. Data on average earnings and number of jobs comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We are showing the latest available data, which is for May 2022.
According to Forbes, Ramesh Kunhikannan, Founder and Managing Director of Kaynes Technology, became a billionaire because of Chandrayaan-3's successful launch. Kaynes Technology's shares reportedly soared by 40% after the company's role in India's Moon Mission success became public.
How to get rich? The key to becoming a millionaire is to start saving regularly when you're young, stay disciplined, and make and keep a long-term financial plan. You'll be pleased with the results. Making your first million won't be easy, but it's not impossible.
The highest-earning when it comes to engineering fields is computer hardware engineers. With a median salary of US$128,170 and those in the top 10% making more than US$208,000 a year, this is the way to go if you want to get rich quick.
Software Engineering is a very well paid career field. It's definitely possible to make $200k as a Software Engineer. Salaries are very high, especially in the US, because venture capital puts so much money into startups.
Software engineers typically enjoy much higher than average salaries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median annual salary for a software developer in the United States is $110,000. This number is higher in cities with higher costs of living. Was this answer helpful?
Introduction: My name is Carlyn Walter, I am a lively, glamorous, healthy, clean, powerful, calm, combative person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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