Be A Python Dev

Edited and approved by: Stefan Bradstreet

If you’ve been wondering “Should I become a software developer?” then you’ve come to the right place. The field of software development is vast. It requires extraordinary creativity, but it’s in demand and is exceptionally rewarding. By jumping into this field, you have the opportunity to gain more knowledge and interact with the latest technology in the industry. There are at least 6 huge reasons being a software developer is a great career that I can name off the top of my head. You can read them below to motivate yourself in case being a full-stack computer wizard is your biggest dream.

1. Software Developer Salary

Generally, software development jobs come with a good salary. You just need to be a diligent and responsible employee, and you will be making money pretty easily. In 2011, the annual amount of software developer salary was rated at an average of $89,280. It was the acceptable figure nearly a decade ago. Unsurprisingly, that number is still much higher than what highest-paid content writers could make in 2019, which was between $60,000 and $80,000 at most.

In 2019, the average of software developer salary went up to $101,709. It’s worth noting though, that these figures may vary depending on where you the developer lives. For example, according to Mobilunity.com, the average of developer salary in Switzerland was $95,800 in 2019, while in the UK was $82,300, in the US $76,400, in Germany $57,200, and in Ukraine $23,300. But there are more important factors than the region, which determine how much salary you will receive in a year, those factors are coding skills, leadership ability, and experience.

So if you manage to develop your programming skills and experience to a professional level, you will be able to make big money regardless of where you live. As indicated by Salary.com, a highly experienced US developer can earn up to $164,009, which is a fantastic amount surpassing even the aforementioned number in Switzerland. Eventually, it’s your diligence in learning and gathering experience that matter most in determining the price of your service.

According to Levels.fyi software engineers at the FAANG companies of Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google can earn total compensation packages of 225,000$ after 5 years of working experience and over $300,000 as a senior engineer. Landing positions here usually demand tremendous skills acquired from universities, master and doctorate programs, previous industry experience, and a persons internal drive for success and passion to code. Here is my own previous 10 year roadmap that has landed me one of these coveted positions.

The main thing that drives the high salaries for developers and engineers is the supply and demand. There are thousands of open job positions for programmers, developers, and engineers alike with different specialties and expectations between them. And as jobs get filled, and teams create new technologies often these end up creating even more jobs over time to build off of those. As long as you do the tough work to learn the skills and demonstrate them during your interview then you should always be able to find employment.

2. Work Life Balance

Many software developer positions are salaried which provides you the ability to work flexible hours. As long as you finish the assigned jobs and are able to make it to your required meetings you can usually make your own schedule. If something important comes up like needing to pick up a child from school or you land tickets to an outing last minute you can generally just inform your team you are heading out early and will make up the hours and you can go.

Even if you do find yourself in a release week where you may have to work more than 40 hours doing deployments and running through QA test cycles. This is an infrequent occurrence. And most bugs can always be fixed and learned from. Compare that to if a doctor or a lawyer makes a big mistake it can really be costly.

There are developer positions that also allow you to work remotely full time or and most positions typically allow at least one or two days a week you can work from home. You might not realize it, but being able to work remotely is the biggest dream of many people. Why? Because working from home or in a place you love doesn’t only make your job more enjoyable, but it can also have a big impact on the way you live. And these are the benefits you can get when you become a software developer if you land one of the numerous remote positions available for programmers.

Working remotely as a software developer gives you more opportunities to think about life, what you will do and what you will achieve in the future. So it influences the major decisions in your life, in addition to saving you money on transportation and other needs you would have to meet if you work from an office. Thanks to the flexibility of this job, you will also have more free time to talk with your family, enjoy a cup of coffee, or just do what you love in your free time, all of which will boost your overall work life balance.

3. Low Stress

If you want a job that fits into the low stress category, then becoming a software developer is one of the best choices you can make. Because unlike some other types of jobs, which are very demanding, software developer is not a really stressful position. In fact, it’s named the best low stress job in America by U.S. News & World Report in 2019 and by CNNMoney in 2017. The latter’s study even said that the profession provides a lot of personal satisfaction. So the job is actually rather fun. However if you do find yourself in an extremely stressful position this article should help root cause why and give suggestions to east that stress.

4. Building Cool Tools

Being a software developer is an awesome profession, since among the things you do is building cool tools. With the coding and programming skills that you master, you can create applications that will be useful for many people. There’s no doubt that building cool tools is equivalent to creating something new, and such ability is still relatively rare today, so you can expect employment opportunities to be plentiful. Well, there might not be a vacancy for you in a world-class company, but local firms everywhere are always hungry for programming talent.

5. Automating Boring Stuff

Perhaps, automating boring stuff is the best part of programming. Imagine you have to rename hundreds of files in a short time and you don’t have time for that, or you need to search and download many files online, which can be troublesome. But if you’re a software engineer, you don’t have to worry as you can develop a program that will automate your computer in carrying out such tedious tasks.

It seems like nothing is more satisfying in the world of programming than automating boring stuff. By doing so, you cut the uninteresting part of working in front of a PC and replace it with more efficiency and personal satisfaction. To put it differently, you make the boring fun. So what could be better than that?

6. You Can Become a FreeLance Developer and work anywhere

There are a number of reasons that might cause a software engineer to go freelance. It’s either the company they work for goes out of business, they get laid off or they get bored working for others. Either way, going freelance is never a bad idea for experienced developers who want to enjoy the next-level of work freedom.

While most jobs require an employer, software development comes with a segment known as freelance development. If you work in this segment, you can create something yourself and make money off it. It can be a desktop app, mobile app or web app that you sell for yourself or picking up gigs on freelance sites like fiverr or upwork. This is where your past experience can be leveraged to help you reach the next place you want to be in your career. You can read more about freelancing here.

You Decide What You Do

In the end, it’s up to you whether you want to be a great developer. But opportunities are always there to be embraced. Today you can connect with the world’s resources using only your fingers. With countless of eBooks and software development courses available online, you can always learn and improve anytime to any level you can imagine. Here at beapython.dev we are here to help developers and students everywhere learn software development more in depth so they can achieve their dreams and thrive in their careers.

Yes, it will take time to become a highly capable programmer and land those top positions. But with a high desire to learn and invest in yourself, your perseverance and patience will allow you to achieve everything you want. Moreover, the rapid development of technology will make the process of developing software a lot easier for developers as new libraries are created, powerful IDEs get released, and more content to learn the software development process is published.

If you didn’t find what you expected feel free to use the contact page and let us know ways we can improve or what would help you grow as a developer better! I am honored by every view and it takes a village to really make this great.