How is MS with remote positions these days? I live in Oregon and don't really see myself moving for a variety of reasons but mostly parents that are getting older. Plus I don't really want to live in Seattle.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
I'm over 45. Is it possible to make over $150k a year?
- Thread starter Mr Jones
- Start date
How is MS with remote positions these days? I live in Oregon and don't really see myself moving for a variety of reasons but mostly parents that are getting older. Plus I don't really want to live in Seattle.
Also, I just want to say, a degree is not needed for a lot of the software jobs out there. It's just preferred. A lot of companies would rather you already have the experience and certifications for said job that you're looking for. Case in point, I was retired medically from the military without a degree. Networked myself into an Integration job and accepted an offer letter that I thought was great for someone without a degree, but had experience (I was actually one of the military customers at the time). I got my degree while I was working that job and accepted another job for Software Engineer and then LM paid for me to get my masters.
OP
OP
captive helping folks out. I see you dude. 🙂
As for why? A few reasons.
1. Bad decisions early in life. I don't have a lot in my 401k, and am now behind the 8-ball playing catch up.
2. I have a kid on the spectrum who goes to a lot of expensive therapy. I also want to be able to provide him a college fund, if that's something he wants to persue later in life.
3. My mom is pushing 70, and is going to need help in the next few years. She also takes care of my sister, who is disabled.
I'd like MORE than 150k, but that is the number after taxes that would put me in a comfortable place.
Lmao my self esteem is fine, and saying not to worry about what my salary is, is peak privilege.
I really don't want to start over. I'd like to build upon what I already have, which is experience in the tech field. I flubbed early on my not getting past an associate's degree. I have companies near me like 3M, Ceridian, and Medtronic that are always posting IT positions. But they won't give you the time of day without a bachelor's. I've seriously considered going back and getting in debt for that piece of paper. But then the debt offsets the bump in pay.
As for why? A few reasons.
1. Bad decisions early in life. I don't have a lot in my 401k, and am now behind the 8-ball playing catch up.
2. I have a kid on the spectrum who goes to a lot of expensive therapy. I also want to be able to provide him a college fund, if that's something he wants to persue later in life.
3. My mom is pushing 70, and is going to need help in the next few years. She also takes care of my sister, who is disabled.
I'd like MORE than 150k, but that is the number after taxes that would put me in a comfortable place.
My recommendation: get an Oculus Quest, get used-to VR, and learn to program in C# with the Unity game engine (there are tons of online tutorials for learning Unity, both official and unofficial tutorials). VR developers are currently one of the bigger growing needs out there, and Facebook/Meta is hiring so many people this year for their "metaverse" project, they are driving up salaries and benefits everywhere as other tech companies (like Apple) are competing for the same developers.
If you have somewhat related experience, and you just need the paper…community into the local state college in whatever major?
MIT looks great on a resume early on but as you go deeper in the career less and less. If you have the degree (and no one cares about dates once you're knee deep in a career) and experience it might not be that hard. Im in Finance and I have people making a quarter mil with degrees in their office from ok colleges in majors like Drama, lol. At a certain point no one cares about the specifics of an undergrad, as long as you have one, since experience is weighted so heavily.
pretty good. im full time remote. But its manager dependent. Though I have not heard of anyone saying they specifically are being forced to go back to an office.
Coding can be pretty hard to learn, if you fall off it there are other ways to work in tech and make decent money That aren't just being a developer.
QA needs significantly less coding skills and can still make low six figures once you reach senior status. Entry salaries can be low though and don't ever take a gaming QA job.
I have a lot of friends who went into product/project management and work in tech companies making high six figures.
If you are artistically inclined UI/Product Designers can make six figures once you reach senior.
If you're more into settings things up and configuring stuff, dev ops type IT positions can make decent money. Just learn about AWS or Azure and how to script together deployment pipelines.
QA needs significantly less coding skills and can still make low six figures once you reach senior status. Entry salaries can be low though and don't ever take a gaming QA job.
I have a lot of friends who went into product/project management and work in tech companies making high six figures.
If you are artistically inclined UI/Product Designers can make six figures once you reach senior.
If you're more into settings things up and configuring stuff, dev ops type IT positions can make decent money. Just learn about AWS or Azure and how to script together deployment pipelines.
Exactly. You have places here like McDonalds and Starbucks paying over $20 an hour. With the cost of living here that's barely affordable which would seem absurd to some living in other states.
To the OP its definitely possible this late in life to achieve that goal. I've known people that have gone to prison or are recovering drug addicts that pissed 20 years of their life away on nothing. One makes more than that on Onlyfans per year and the other now manages a Traders Joes after starting off as a bag boy 4 years ago.
Last edited:
OP
OP
I'm real wishy-washy about it. I know the piece of paper would help. But I'm looking at 50k at the University of Minnesota, and 28k at community college.
The only real debt I have right now is my mortgage. Trying real hard to get my money caught up in anything.
But who knows. That might be the best course of action...
happy to help anyway i can from just connecting one person to another, or helping with resumes.
There's money out there to be had in IT and it doesnt necessarily have to be from being a programmer/developer. I went from making 45k thinking this was just my life and that there wasn't more money out there for someone working helpdesk for five years to making over 6 figures in ~3 years with the skills i learned from being on helpdesk.
the resume is probably the number one thing to address though, you have to have to stand out. Recruiters and hiring managers might give your resume 30 seconds to a minute if you're lucky.
take formatting, your formatting being jacked could be a reason for your resume getting dropped. which is why ive been telling anyone that has asked for my help to export their resume in PDF because if you send in a word/google doc, there is no guarantee that your resume won't get garbled by whatever program the person looking at it is using.
Without knowing someone, your resume is your foot in the door. Also recruiters, i know people like to clown on them, but all but one of my jobs ive ever worked i was found be a third party recruiter and they sent my resume in directly to the hiring manager, which bypasses HR, typically.
I went back to school in my early 30's for my bachelors with just a community college degree just to have that checkbox done. Not to say it's easy, but I will say that while those years of drinking and partying made me slower than the 20 year olds (shit, I was still doing both that time too) the natural maturity discipline evens out and made it 'easier' to keep up. I graduated with honors which was a 180 from that Community College when I was 20.
It all depends on your budget; at that time I was single by myself in a relatively cheap apartment so those semesters kind of folded into my budget where I didn't have to take out any loans since I had a full time job (took night/weekend classes). If its 30k spread out over four years, maybe three it might not be too bad if you can fit it in and pay it off while doing it.
Well after doing it myself this weekend I think being a luxury vyinl plank installer is insanely easy and low barrier to entry. Literally just need like a box cutter and maybe a hack saw or jigsaw for intricate corners. I've heard of people making 100k+ just doing that because it's in high demand.
Speaking as someone in QA you're under valuing the coding skill set for automation engineers
Take a course on AGILE/SCRUM and see if you can get your Scrum Master Certification.
A friend of mine that has worked for a ton of tech companies has been pushing me to do this lately. Says she doesn't know any SM's that started for less than 90-100K. That can help open you up to other opportunities that could take advantage of other latent skills you may possess.
A friend of mine that has worked for a ton of tech companies has been pushing me to do this lately. Says she doesn't know any SM's that started for less than 90-100K. That can help open you up to other opportunities that could take advantage of other latent skills you may possess.
I wouldn't include software engineers in a blanket statement regarding salaries as it will be very industry/location dependent.
I've been in software engineering at my company for almost 20 years (so I'm mid-40s) and even as a Senior Consultant in Fin-tech my base salary is less than $100k (Canadian), but I can get into six figures with overtime since I'm on-call 24x7.
Realistically, the only way I'd be able to make significantly above $100k is to change companies or change my current growth path into senior leadership. It would be possible to do, but we've made decisions that make my home availability more important as my spouse's career is very demanding for her time. Still, you'd think that a Senior Consultant in Software Engineering role would be over $100k yet it's not always the case.
Last edited:
I went back to school and got an AAS in software development and CS, graduated with honors. Didn't really find work after college because everything requires a bachelors+ experience here, now I do driving for Uber eats/instacart/door dash working 60Ish hours a week so hopefully I can go back to college again at 30 because despite all the siren calls about learn to code apparently I'm the exception lol. In reality I have no idea where to look or how to market myself and now I've got a big gap. So sadly can't help you.
I get that - it's not just bad luck, some of it is self-fulling prophecies. I'm just saying it's hard to judge what the hoops really are like for people on average looking from inside out/backwards. Especially for those of us that enjoy the work a little 'too much' so it never felt like much of a sacrifice no matter what hours you put in etc (making it feel even easier in that respect).
Yes there's a fly-wheel effect to accumulation of certain skillsets -> opportunities -> skillsets -> etc. Goes back to what you said about ability and willingness to learn for sure.
Just wanted to comment here. No secret. I'm a black guy. What you're typing has pretty much been my attitude for, well, life. I come to ERA daily. Multiple times a day. You can't count the number of 'Living while black" threads or "The system sucks..." threads here that I've seen or participated in, so I get it. Newsflash: it TOTALLY sucks. The odds are TOTALLY stacked. If you're in this thread and over 40, you've gone to the school of hard Knox called life. However, what are you gonna do, right? We've got a BINARY choice. Do or Don't. Door 1 or 2. Live or Die. Just accepting it is DIE. You can accept that the best it's going to be is 40k or we can figure out an angle or do a thing that's hard to get out of that trap.
This isn't a low-key bootstraps post. Some of us don't even have SHOES.
What I'm saying is that one of my best friends told me a few YEARS ago that EVERYBODY in life is dealt a deck of cards. Cliche, right? Some people have better hands. Some people have hands so SHIT that they literally CANNOT win - at least not by playing THAT GAME BY THOSE RULES.
Make your own rules and get out of that game. Don't accept that 40k is the best it's going to get. Don't let Age be a limiter. If you like food, find another way to monetize food. Think unconventional. If one person will eat your food, then one person will pay to eat your food. Maybe that person isn't even in America? Just look at your strengths/assets and stop thinking that you've got to have some unique angle or be AMAZING to break the mold. Fact is, most people are just happy to get a paycheck, have creature comforts, and die. Most people don't TRY to do much better unless it falls in their lap. Because doing ANYTHING otherwise is HARD. So best believe that getting into that 3%, 5%, 1% is hellla hard!
Yeah, some people have a much better deck of cards and the game is TOTALLY rigged in their favor when you've got a bunch of junk clubs or hearts. You have an asset. More schooling might help you find ways to bolster that asset. Mentors, too. But just remember that whatever we have to do, it's either 1 or 2. Live or Die.
Don't just lie down and die.
I'm 39, went to school 2 years ago to learn coding and web design. Finished my internship last summer and been hunting for a job ever since (In Montréal, no less) Many of my classmates are in the same boat. I will eventually make it, I keep practising daily...but the thousands of jobs I find online are all for senior devs or people with 3-5 years experience. I still apply mind you, I just don't get calls back. It's probably a "me" problem, I can accept that, but it's still difficult no matter what.
I was told that once I hop into the wheel and gain some experience, I'll be safe.... but getting there is a grueling process unless you have contacts in the industry... which i don't : ( My reserves are dwindling and it's starting to stress the fuck out of me.
I was told that once I hop into the wheel and gain some experience, I'll be safe.... but getting there is a grueling process unless you have contacts in the industry... which i don't : ( My reserves are dwindling and it's starting to stress the fuck out of me.
Oh I agree with you. I always tell people that I'm privilege even though I grew up poor. I didn't have to pay much for college thanks to applying early and getting the federal grants. I know other people that had to work that whole time to afford college.
I am lucky in that I have an analytic mind and can pick up some of the technical stuff easier than other. But honestly, I never tried very hard. I'm like the opposite of an Asian overachiever(I'm Asian), I put in just enough work.
I also work in QA. When I worked in dev the coding was substantially more complicated than anything I had to do as an automation engineer.
But you don't need to be an automation engineer to work in QA and make 6 figures.
I'm not sure I'd agree with that as a general case.
In FAANG or similar companies, SDETs are usually paid on exact same scale as the rest of software engineers, and for a good reason, It's a specialization, but not exactly a less demanding one.
I know - and I wasn't trying to do that.
I should probably have qualified 'bigtech' more (There's only a subset of companies that compensate on that scale, regardless of the industry), my point was that it's a fairly small subset of world population that gets the opportunity, making it even more exclusive group than '1%' and thus by definition not 'easy' on broader scale.
There's a further subset of people that do command a market-value that is almost location independent - but that's even further narrowing down the % to something tiny.
TBH - You have to be smart about your resume and interview tactics. First course of action is to revamp your resume....there are paid services for that, or perhaps you can look into local college career centers. But this is a must. You have to update and gear your resume to a set of sharp, pointed skills which also at the same time glosses over academics and hones in on experiences. And you have to be able to boast and constantly talk yourself up, and only way to learn to do that is to constantly apply, get interviews and get rejected. You get experience and know what to say and what NOT to say the next time.
Don't say "I worked for a liquor distributor and it stunted my growth" but "I worked for a liquor distributor and I made efficient upgrades to such and such systems which lead to efficiencies in operations which led to xx cost savings".
You have to be able to take every one of your core activity and turn it into an amazing skill. And its doable, you need to practice.
And don't mention current salaries or anything with recruiters, mention years of experience, what you learned and what you are looking for from salary and responsibilities perspective. Here you have to practice a lot and ask yourself what responsibility you are looking for - if you are not sure about managing, don't go for managing. Say "I am a very experienced individual contributor, I am looking for a more challenging and dynamic role with more responsibility". etc etc.
To summarize:
- Revamp resume
- Apply through all channels: Monster, CB, Dice, Linkedin
- Interview Interview Interview
- Concurrently you can look into getting certs in whatever you want to do (AWS, Azure etc)
An SDET is a different beast than a Quality Engineer, though. Or at least that's what I'm experiencing now as a Senior QE with about 5 years experience of building automation systems. I was never a 'developer' and that's limiting me now.
OP, First you have to ask yourself if you are willing to do what it takes. If yes, right down your interest and then see if one of them can get you started on your way to your goal. Research the median and top end salaries of those position is a good start.
If none of your interests will meet your goal, research jobs that can. Once you do, put a plan together. DO NOT START WITHOUT A PLAN OF ACTION.
Once your plan is in place, start chipping away. Block out anything and anybody in your way. Cut them out of your life if you have to. That's what I did. You need people that are supportive of your goals to help you achieve them faster and more efficiently.
If that means getting a degree, get that degree. More than likely, you are looking for something STEM related. Don't say you can't be an engineer, be an engineer. Focus on your goal and you can achieve it.
I was homeless for six months a time ago. I never told my mom or my family because I wanted it to burn. I wanted to understand how I got in that position so when I went to sleep in my car, I would alway take notes because the road there was obvious once I started to reflect.
I wanted to be a Software Engineer and I had no clue how I was going to get there. Fast forward, I met a new friend, now my wife that took me in and let me stay with her. She asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I told her. By that time I had found a job and was working night shift. One morning I came home and there was a stack of books on her table. She said that if I want to be an engineer, I need to started.
She taught me math all over again and how to write better and read faster. I took the entrance exam to get into college and I got in; the rest is history. I now have a BS in Software Engineering and Masters in Engineering Management. All this from a guy who previously struggled with math and writing. I went all the way to Calc 3 and Diffy Q and got As.
You can do it OP, I did all of this in a span of 3 years. I get paid a very nice salary and my wife and I are still reaching new goals because I believe in myself and she believes in herself. Focus and pace yourself. You can do it.
Make sure you understand yourself too. Understand who you are and what makes you tick. Take care of your mind and body in the process. Go for walks or runs to help clear your mind to think positively. You got this.
If none of your interests will meet your goal, research jobs that can. Once you do, put a plan together. DO NOT START WITHOUT A PLAN OF ACTION.
Once your plan is in place, start chipping away. Block out anything and anybody in your way. Cut them out of your life if you have to. That's what I did. You need people that are supportive of your goals to help you achieve them faster and more efficiently.
If that means getting a degree, get that degree. More than likely, you are looking for something STEM related. Don't say you can't be an engineer, be an engineer. Focus on your goal and you can achieve it.
I was homeless for six months a time ago. I never told my mom or my family because I wanted it to burn. I wanted to understand how I got in that position so when I went to sleep in my car, I would alway take notes because the road there was obvious once I started to reflect.
I wanted to be a Software Engineer and I had no clue how I was going to get there. Fast forward, I met a new friend, now my wife that took me in and let me stay with her. She asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I told her. By that time I had found a job and was working night shift. One morning I came home and there was a stack of books on her table. She said that if I want to be an engineer, I need to started.
She taught me math all over again and how to write better and read faster. I took the entrance exam to get into college and I got in; the rest is history. I now have a BS in Software Engineering and Masters in Engineering Management. All this from a guy who previously struggled with math and writing. I went all the way to Calc 3 and Diffy Q and got As.
You can do it OP, I did all of this in a span of 3 years. I get paid a very nice salary and my wife and I are still reaching new goals because I believe in myself and she believes in herself. Focus and pace yourself. You can do it.
Make sure you understand yourself too. Understand who you are and what makes you tick. Take care of your mind and body in the process. Go for walks or runs to help clear your mind to think positively. You got this.
Last edited:
I'm not a developer and just self taught to get here but it's just diverging paths in your trajectory. It's like comparing a front end dev to a dba. They both require skill sets but one wouldn't call the other less demanding.
I was severely limited just because I never worked out of my mundane and routine aspects of automation tests. Then I got a job writing tests for an Electron app and now digital drawing tool, and they both pushed me super hard and taught me a ton.
You gotta think ROĂŤ. You can easily make that up in a salary bump.
Well how likely are you to get a job in those fields with just the boot camp? The worry would be not getting a job in a field with just the boot camp.
Agreed. It is quite a small group in the grand scheme that can command that level of compensation.
I mean nothing is guaranteed, but many boot camps only charge if you get a job.
Have some recommendations for those? The ones I've seen offered at colleges all ask for tuition.
Like 5% of people in trades make anywhere remotely close to that kind of money. People need to stop making it sound like 50% of trades make 6 figures whereas it's more accurate about 80% make 20 something an hour.
Regardless, ignore your age. A lot of people, both successful and not, have changed careers in their 40's and later. It can take more work to learn new things, true, and harder to get the motivation to take the little spare time you have towards learning the new thing. But it's not like new careers are limited to only young people.
If you're a coder in the US yes. As a UK coder l envy the pay provided in the US to software engineers.
Entrepreneurship is probably your best bet.
Figure out a low cost and low overhead way to start your own business that doesn't need a big risky capital investment. Start small and grow from there. Lots of successful, even multi-million dollar businesses started in people's basement or garage with pretty much no capital. As one example, you could find out the regulations in your area for the cheapest way to get and operate a food establishment permit. Invest a few hundred dollars in ground beef, buns, etc., advertise and push your shit on social media and let people pay money to taste your delicious burgers. If the product and price is good, the business will grow through word of mouth. Colonel Sanders shit.
You hear anecdotes of folks with only high school taking home huge salaries, but I realistically if it was that easy everyone would be making 150K. Most of the options where you'd be depending on an employer to pay you that 150K as a salary would need specialized degree. That means a few years of school. Then several more years of paying student debt. Plus several years of grinding it out at entry-level salary until you have enough years of experience to command a 150K+/year salary. By the time you're debt-free and making that salary you'd be getting close to retirement age.
Best bet is be your own boss and hustle instead of depending on an employer.
Figure out a low cost and low overhead way to start your own business that doesn't need a big risky capital investment. Start small and grow from there. Lots of successful, even multi-million dollar businesses started in people's basement or garage with pretty much no capital. As one example, you could find out the regulations in your area for the cheapest way to get and operate a food establishment permit. Invest a few hundred dollars in ground beef, buns, etc., advertise and push your shit on social media and let people pay money to taste your delicious burgers. If the product and price is good, the business will grow through word of mouth. Colonel Sanders shit.
You hear anecdotes of folks with only high school taking home huge salaries, but I realistically if it was that easy everyone would be making 150K. Most of the options where you'd be depending on an employer to pay you that 150K as a salary would need specialized degree. That means a few years of school. Then several more years of paying student debt. Plus several years of grinding it out at entry-level salary until you have enough years of experience to command a 150K+/year salary. By the time you're debt-free and making that salary you'd be getting close to retirement age.
Best bet is be your own boss and hustle instead of depending on an employer.
yeah I live in Canada not too far from the border. If I did the same job on other side of the border it would almost double my salary.
Hey OP. Checking in on your progress. Don't want this thread to die as it's inspiring and is personally helping me through a tough bout with depression. I'm rooting for you! Keep us updated!
Hey OP. Checking in again on your progress. Wondering what way you decided to go. Like i said before, this is actually helping a lot of people. Personally, it's like a life preserver when you're sinking in your own struggles. My wife just got a raise in her job and I haven't been able to land a job in nearly a year. So yeah, this thread is…valuable.
Have you considered dentistry? It will take four years of education but the pay off could be worth it. It's a stable road to a 150k salary and the schooling is not as brutal as the MD/DO track
Honestly, I had a close friend pass recently at 46, so I'm not even sure how many years I have ahead of me. It's difficult to plan for years down the road when, at my age, heath issues feel more present. I'm not expecting/hoping to make 150k. At this point, I just want to make sustainable money, even if it's just 50k or 60k. Depression and lack of work plays havoc on your confidence. Doubt makes you question if your skills ever had value, and if you've been a lucky imposter for years. So, yeah, I'm kind of looking at a career path that won't put my family in more debt in case I croak. Is there a path to being a dental assistant that takes less time and a fraction of the money?
Dental hygienist could be up your alley. Fraction of the cost and typically 2 years of schooling,
I will definitely look into this! Thanks! I was looking into VR game development as a solo developer and I have time. Dental Hygienist could pay the bills and allow me to contribute while I work on VR!
Last edited:
Gotta be able to pay, right? I considered how much it would cost to outsource utilizing FIVERR freelancers, but it would still require more money than I make currently (ZERO), and be funded wholly by my wife who is the sole breadwinner right now. Unless I can outline a clear path and timeline to making money, "that pig don't fly".