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Why I Took a 50% Pay Reduction to Become a Software Developer

Jr. Dev 👨🏾‍💻 on August 10, 2020

Well… it was actually a 55.5% decrease in salary but 50% reads better. But why did I accept this? Was it a stupid mistake? I know my partner probab...

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scroung720 • Aug 11 '20

Glad to hear your story. This is the most amazing thing about programming, it is one of those few things in life where what u put is what u get. There are other jobs where talent and hard work is not enough.

Pacharapol Withayasakpunt • Aug 11 '20 • Edited

Eventually, I got bored of basically doing nothing productive on the evenings during the working week. I wanted to make a bit of extra cash and utilize my time better.

I dedicated 4-5 hours on an evening after work to programming. I started with HTML & CSS, and moved on to JavaScript and PHP as time went on and my skills progressed.

It took 20 months.

The job was located 40-minutes away from my house. I had been living away from home for 3 years and the idea of me being back sounded great.

Thanks for sharing. If you like it, it is the best. Also, for productivity freaks, it is probably more productive as well. (not about the money.)

Shawn • Aug 16 '20 • Edited

Unless you get paid more, you're going to regret in the long term. Money cash is the most important. It's the $$/hr that matter, because money gives you big choices.

So if you are a sucky coder and can't earn cash, go back to your original day job. If you are getting better at coding, invest all the time and commitment to become a better coder, because, unlike what people think, money is important. You can have choices: travel the world, buy whatever you want, donate etc.

I am a developer for 15 years.

Arnaud Cortisse • Aug 11 '20

Interesting story! Money isn't everything :)

William Britton • Aug 11 '20

Great story, my story is very similar and now after 10 years I’m making beyond anything I was before. It takes sacrifice to get the things we really want and this proves it right here.