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by e12e 4360 days ago
I agree with most of what you say, but: 2000 euro/month -- as a finished Phd in CS?! That's ludicrously low?

Still, there's a difference between working as a developer/architect/engineer -- and doing CS research. I'm guessing op meant a career in "software engineering", not "computer science".
2 comments
roel_v 4360 days ago
Sorry I meant that as the salary for a post-doc, which you will be for 2 (if you're top of your field) to 6-8 years (if you are a postdoc for longer, you should reconsider academia imo).

Also I meant 2000 pre-tax, but when I look at it, it seems that in some Western European countries you get paid more; like 2500-2800 pre-tax (I know several postdocs in Southern or Eastern European countries who would jump with joy with 2000 pre-tax though).

Don't think a PhD means you will earn a liveable wage! I personally know of a post-doc in economics (not paid like CS I think, but certainly normally one of the better-paid fields) who came from Eastern Europe to Belgium where he qualified for the equivalent of welfare payments ('leefloon'), which basically meant he made less than 817 euros a month!

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e12e 4360 days ago
Ah, yes, that makes more sense. I was more thinking as a researcher/architect at a private company after getting a phd -- in which case it sounded very low.

I never read op's post as an "actual" "career in computer scinece", more as a "career in software after maybe taking some CS (be that bsc ms phd or just a few courses)".

As for a post-doc in economics -- I would expect them to make more than minimum wage -- but again, if the goal was to make as much money as possible, I'd assume working as a consultant for Pwc or somewhere like that would be much better paid than continuing doing research in academia. Very different career goals though!

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Kurtz79 4360 days ago
Depends of where you are.

Probably ludicrously low for Germany/Switzerland/Nordic countries, likely on par for Spain/Italy/Portugal (and maybe Eastern Europe ?).

Company and sector also factor heavily, and number of paychecks as well (in Spain/Italy is common to have 14 paychecks for year).

Edit: Also, depends whether we are talking about pre or after tax (I assumed the latter)

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