[BlackSwanManZ]

It's because software engineers don't need capital to do their job, giving them a ton of leverage compared to other engineers.

Imagine if you make airplane engines for GE as an ME, and you want a higher salary, who else are you going to go to? There's barely any companies in the country that have the capacity to make airplane engines, so there's less competition for your labor. Your work is probably fairly specialized to, so if you transfered into some other engineering domain, you'd start at entry level salary.

Now look at a software engineer working for google, if he wants more there's a dozen companies, in silicon valley, FAANG, wall street that will take his services, he and a few friends can even start their own thing with their laptops and a garage. And skills transfer relatively well between different software engineering jobs.

Because software as low entry to barrier and many employers and non specialized skillset, the competent generalist has massive leverage in the labor market. Mr PhD in electric optics, has 3 employers in the country that can give an opportunity to actually use his degree.

[midoridensha]

>Imagine if you make airplane engines for GE as an ME, and you want a higher salary, who else are you going to go to? There's barely any companies in the country that have the capacity to make airplane engines, so there's less competition for your labor.

Sure, but what happens when you decide you're sick of a poor salary, and you learn Python and CS in your spare time and interview for Google and then quit your airplane engine job to make 3x as much working for Google? Where is GE going to get a replacement with your expertise and experience? What happens if all the engineers at GE do this?

It seems like the only reason this doesn't happen is because of inertia: the airplane engine engineers just aren't ambitious enough to leave their field for much higher pay. That doesn't seem like a good long-term strategy for a company making a critical component of a globally-important industry however.

[BlackSwanManZ]

Most don't even know that they can leetcode themselves to a way higher salary. And if you got a PhD in something, it's very hard on your ego to leave it behind. Plus the corporate propaganda on taking a paycut to do "cool things" works very well. Look at how many smart people work at SpaceX

[midoridensha]

Yeah, so basically these places are propped up by tons of people willing to sacrifice their time and lives for some corporate execs to get rich. I'm not really sure what can be done about that, except to opt out for myself and choose a career for myself that's a better balance of compensation, working hours, etc.

If people are going to let their ego put them in a position to be taken advantage of, isn't that basically their own fault?