Being a Software Engineer, Is that a piece of Cake?

I am a Software Engineer. This neither means I know every stuff on the internet nor earning is just a cup of tea for me.

Yes, I am a Software Engineer, Yes working from home is not a big deal for us, but I do work hard to make money, sitting 8 hours in AC does not mean I don’t sweat out.

There are times we feel exhausted even just sitting and doing our regular coding tasks. At times, the client pressure takes the shit out of us. We also face thunderous timelines and pressures from the managers and peers.

We need to continuously remain updated with new development frameworks and languages. And believe me, this is not at all easy. It takes a hell of a lot of work, just to get going with new tech stuff. For us, the task and work we do can never be monotonous, and believe me, at times, in real life, doing monotonous work is a relief. It is just you do not have to learn every passing day.

We even work as a freelancer but this does not mean we will work for free. We have bills just like you. We pay hefty rent, We pay for the much-required fast internet, and we pay for themes, plugins, design modules, and hosting fees. We also pay our helping hands who help us in getting jobs done on time.

Still, some people think a job in software engineering is the easiest job to work on the planet. They ignore the fact that we (the developers) make our living hood by doing hard work over 16 hours a day. Each project let it be small or big, we do all projects with the same sincerity. We treat all kinds of clients the same. We never discriminate between clients. Some clients pay $200 for a web project. Some pay $10 for a task. We never compromise on work quality.

At times, I hear from relatives/friends from other fields, that what is the work that makes the company pay you lakhs per month? You do not invest, you neither have to take a sunbath every day, you do not have to take much risk, you neither have to convince people all day long nor do you have to reach a particular sales goal every month. You just need to sit and type. To answer this and all others, I would say:

On investing, we invest our precious time in learning new techs and if money is considered, we invest in hosting, internet, hardware, courses, and many others.
On Sunbath, we sweat out for logic even in chilled Air-Conditioned rooms.
On convincing, we beg out with clients to make them understand our stand on their requirements.
On goals, we have short deadlines and long pipelines.
At risk, we risk our health by sitting all day long and spending sleepless nights.

People do say that you just shift companies and earn growth!! That is super easy. Damn not!!! An individual has to pass through rigorous testing and multiple rounds of interviews to get eligible for a job. Switching jobs gets difficult after certain age and people here in India do wish to stick to their jobs if that’s rewarding enough.

Competition:

Here, in the Software industry, experience does place certain importance but competition would win over it. As the technology gets updated now and then, for a new language or framework, a fresher and a person with long experience may stand in the same place. At times, for a company, it’s highly desirable to hire 2-3 freshers instead of one experienced as the budget of an experienced can be higher than 3 freshers. 24 hours of work from freshers would be greater than 8 hours from an experienced. No doubt, there are perks of being an experienced person, but you can not neglect the competition.

Conclusion:

We as software developers make money after an equal amount of hard work. We also have our troubles as people from other industries. Earning money anywhere most of the time is not a cakewalk.