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by amarant 743 days ago
I agree on all your points, but find it funny that you mention game-dev as a bad example. I know the industry has a bad reputation but some of my best gigs were at gaming companies(and, as per your suggestion, those were the best paid ones too!)

probably relevant detail is that I did contractor work for backend/server stuff for those gaming companies. And the two studios in question have each published the biggest games in their respective categories in the world(which basically means they both have infinite money)
1 comments
tombert 743 days ago
> and, as per your suggestion, those were the best paid ones too!

I've never worked in game dev, but at least in NYC I was being interviewed by Rockstar Games for a pretty senior-level position a couple years ago, just to find out that it maxed out at considerably less than my previous job. I didn't continue the process and I just assumed that it was standard in the games industry.

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amarant 743 days ago
It actually might be the standard. One of us has had an unusual experience in the gaming industry, and I'm not sure who.

We also live really far away from eachother, so that might be a factor as well. I'm based in Stockholm, which is _very_ different from NYC.

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SOLAR_FIELDS 743 days ago
It's probably more that non-game-dev-Swedes actually make significantly closer to what game-dev-Swedes make in general. Regular software engineering jobs have pretty inflated salaries in the States - Swedish take home salary for software engineers (and indeed, much of the rest of the Western world) is about 1/3 of the equivalent USA salary. Obviously there are other factors at play here, like the functioning healthcare system and social safety net, but all other factors aside the take home pay for non game dev engineers is significantly inflated in the States compared to the rest of the world.
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tombert 743 days ago
I'm pretty sure that at least in the states, game dev jobs pay somewhat mediocre. Looking at Rockstar and Activision's job posting, even for senior level stuff they're paying considerably less than some of the more unsexy senior engineering jobs.

As I said, I've never worked game dev, but people who have here told me that they are pretty brutal, expecting you to work a lot of extra unpaid hours. It would not surprise me if Sweden has better labor protections in this regard.

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