5
MrR0bot
7y

Not a rant!

But I want to know how much do programmer make? (Money wise) and would it be better to be a freelancer or to work for a company? What are some pros and cons for working in a company and for being a freelancer.

Comments
  • 1
    The biggest factor here is where you live. A new grad in the SF Bay area can expect to make something like 90k USD working at a reasonably sized company, depending on your skills, and that typically goes up with work experience. The bay area is in the upper range though (and you pay for it with a much higher cost of living); other US cities it's probably more like 70-80k; I have no idea how much you'd make outside the US.
  • 1
    get good, you will earn a lot of money as a dev, company or freelance.
    There are a few surveys online, I think SO did a big one not too long ago.
  • 0
    As freelancer in the Netherlands you will earn about 12 to 20k euros a month depending on skills, experience and role. That's way more than on a permanent position.
  • 0
    As other stated before, it depends where you live. If you tell us in what country you live, people from that country can give you an estimate.
    Besides the country (and where in that country) you live, it also depends on what kind of work you do. Frontend, Backend, Fullstack, DevOps, ... And in those fields what technologies/languages you use.

    About the freelance vs. normal job
    Pros about freelance:
    - You are your own boss a.k.a. decide when to work on what
    - You can get a higher salary, as there's no company taking any of the profits

    Cons:
    - no paid vacation, sick leaves and such stuff
    - you are responsible to get work. (When you have a job, you get a monthly salary, wheter they give you some work or not), so you'll need to find a lot of customers
    - no fix income. (In some months you'll make more, in some less money
    - you have to be aware of taxes and pension and such stuff

    These are the things that come to my mind. Don't get me wrong. Freelance isn't all bad, it's just more work.
  • 0
    How much you get paid as a freelancer boils down to your negotiating skills(which you'll have to learn) and the saturation of market for your particular skillet.

    In a employee setting, your only real negotiating tactic is to quit or show offers from other companies.

    As a side note, as a freelancer you can take other forms of benefits than money. Just put it in the contract.

    As examples, I had a free car lease for a year for doing development for a auto retailer. And I still receive payments from one of my other projects where I negotiated a % cut of revenue for 5 years.
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