HN ate up my first comment so here's a shorter one (relatively).
1) Becoming a Top 5% coder will end up being a much better thing to focus on than how much money you can earn by leaving grad school.
2) I got a 48% pay increase once. An article at Quintessential Careers - you never name a price/desired salary and never disclose your past salary. There are a TON of little things like this that programmers just don't realize.
Most companies are losers - they would rather pay you $50K for $100K of work and have you miserable than pay you $100K and have you happy and contribute $1 million worth of work.
You have to get them to pay you a lot.
3) Do you really want to leave grad school for an offer like this? Is it the money - because if you like grad school but would leave for a job that you don't like just for money then it would be a colossal failure.
4) Eastern Wa and Portland. Waste of your life if you're a developer.
Ideal - Silicon Valley, NYC.
Very Good - Seattle, Austin, Boston, perhaps places like Colorado etc.
Portland people are cool and girls are amazing. However, if you want to be the best you have to go where the best are.
5) Your post about 'Let down by School' etc. Get out of that thinking - You are responsible 100%. You were let down only by yourself.
6) You have to figure out what markets out of the ones you like are hot.
iPhone and Android App developers are charging $100 per hour or more. So 470 hours (10 weeks) for what you are saying average salary ($47K). It's going to become even more. I'm not even talking about the best. This is top 15% of mobile app developers.
7) Why exactly do you care whether you make $50K a year or $100K?
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
1.) It's not just the money, or even mainly the money (I lived quite happily on my $45k). I want a place where I can become a Top 5% coder and I don't see that happening in Eastern Washington.
3.) I do enjoy grad school, but I'm at a mediocre school and I've learned that I enjoy coding much more than research.
4.) I'm in Eastern WA temporarily due to personal reasons, my next stop is either Seattle or the Valley.
5.) That post was more in response to what I hear from other people, trying to encourage them to get out of that thinking. If that's how I came across I'd better look it over again though. I'm quite happy with where I'm at and I do try to take responsibility for my actions.
7.)Main reason I can think of is companies that value software pay those kind of salaries vs. companies looking for code zombies. I've been in a shop nearly like that and I don't want to repeat it.
1) Becoming a Top 5% coder will end up being a much better thing to focus on than how much money you can earn by leaving grad school.
2) I got a 48% pay increase once. An article at Quintessential Careers - you never name a price/desired salary and never disclose your past salary. There are a TON of little things like this that programmers just don't realize.
Most companies are losers - they would rather pay you $50K for $100K of work and have you miserable than pay you $100K and have you happy and contribute $1 million worth of work. You have to get them to pay you a lot.
3) Do you really want to leave grad school for an offer like this? Is it the money - because if you like grad school but would leave for a job that you don't like just for money then it would be a colossal failure.
4) Eastern Wa and Portland. Waste of your life if you're a developer.
Ideal - Silicon Valley, NYC. Very Good - Seattle, Austin, Boston, perhaps places like Colorado etc.
Portland people are cool and girls are amazing. However, if you want to be the best you have to go where the best are.
5) Your post about 'Let down by School' etc. Get out of that thinking - You are responsible 100%. You were let down only by yourself.
6) You have to figure out what markets out of the ones you like are hot.
iPhone and Android App developers are charging $100 per hour or more. So 470 hours (10 weeks) for what you are saying average salary ($47K). It's going to become even more. I'm not even talking about the best. This is top 15% of mobile app developers.
7) Why exactly do you care whether you make $50K a year or $100K?