| > it took me 5 years to catch up with the salaries my friends who didn’t take the pause were making Worth exploring the opportunity cost in a bit more detail. One possible trajectory is to get a junior permie SWE job on some commercial project, spend a few years learning the ropes, switch to a different org and a different project, get a better salary while learning a bunch new stuff from the new project context, then enter the wonderful world of daily contract rates. It seems very plausible to be making the median SWE daily contract rate (£600) [1] as a contractor after 5 years of relevant commercial experience, one could probably do this even faster if working toward this was a goal, with a little luck. Suppose you bill 45 weeks per year, 5 days per week as a contractor, with a daily rate of £600 - that's an income of £135k. Money isn't everything, and life isn't a race, but what's the opportunity cost to delay earning good money by pausing a year or so to accrue additional academic credentials? Another possible trajectory is to start climbing the leadership ladder, towards a technical leadership role, or perhaps sideways to a management role. Doing this likely requires more time spent working in the same organisation, to be internally promoted into one of these roles without having prior experience. For this trajectory, getting some non CS / non-SWE training might be more valuable (MBA?). [1] https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/uk/software%20engine... |