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$$$$$$$ how much

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rjvh

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Hi a friend of mine is a software developer and is wondering what a profesional C programer cost for a hour or day (earning of the person will give a better picture because of the different taxing systems in countrys)

he recons that there is not that much work around because if something is programed it is duplicated for a million time in a comercial processor and assambeled in a mass product
and induvidual projects wil be more in the hobby corner then that it's comercialy intresting to start a service for it

personaly i working into a different business and can not tell him how or what

anny indications???

Robert-Jan
 
Perhaps but there are tons of projects being developed out there and they all take a LOT of time to finish. It's not like all the projects are done really quickly and no more are made so suddenly no more programmers are needed.

You could say the same thing about designing a plane. Once the plane goes into mass production as is assembled a million times, then does that mean aerospace engineers are suddenly out of work? No. There are lots of projects going on and they all take a long time to finish.
 
i do understand that but how many days you spent on programming a (for example a pic processor) that have to work in a coffee machine or in your hand drill
and than it gets produced a million times without having to look at it anny more (no maintenaince, nothing afterwarts)

he recons that the demand for the programmers is a lesser number than for programmers that make software products for computer aplications and he is wondering if that also reflects in the pay a man get

I am in the plumbing buisines so that's a different story al together
Robert-Jan
 
rjvh said:
i do understand that but how many days you spent on programming a (for example a pic processor) that have to work in a coffee machine or in your hand drill
and than it gets produced a million times without having to look at it anny more (no maintenaince, nothing afterwarts)

he recons that the demand for the programmers is a lesser number than for programmers that make software products for computer aplications and he is wondering if that also reflects in the pay a man get

I am in the plumbing buisines so that's a different story al together
Robert-Jan

The company probably (hopefully!) does more than just design one kind of vending machine and just stop. It probably makes other bigger things and has other projects to go onto. Otherwise they would have hired you as a contractor (in which case you go looking for another contract) rather than as an employee.
 
rjvh said:
i do understand that but how many days you spent on programming a (for example a pic processor) that have to work in a coffee machine or in your hand drill
and than it gets produced a million times without having to look at it anny more (no maintenaince, nothing afterwarts)

he recons that the demand for the programmers is a lesser number than for programmers that make software products for computer aplications and he is wondering if that also reflects in the pay a man get

I am in the plumbing buisines so that's a different story al together
Robert-Jan

I always wonder about these questions myself. But microcontroller applications can be in huge areas. Car industries, home entertainment such as VCR, DVD, TV etc, industrial equipments like security and safty sensors.

It'll take long time to develop one model of equipment. When one design is complete, there'll be next one. So in theory there should be planty of jobs.
That's what my teacher told me years ago anyway. Maybe different now. :(
 
Money is made in "Maintaining". An application can be made in a day, but believe me it must be maintained for years. Sadly the maintainers are not the original designers. Constant custom changes per customer, constant upgrading to new standards, and constant killing of bugs.

The $$ how much depends on the persons background.
 
donniedj said:
Money is made in "Maintaining". An application can be made in a day, but believe me it must be maintained for years. Sadly the maintainers are not the original designers. Constant custom changes per customer, constant upgrading to new standards, and constant killing of bugs.

The $$ how much depends on the persons background.

I don't think the application such as VCR system control, car central system, or an robot arm can be made in a day.
As far as money making in maintaining is concern, it depands on what sort of products. If it's coffee machine, DVD or VCR, you'll go broke in maintaining them. Evidence shows that there are many Electronics repair shop closed down.
 
Wingmax said:
I don't think the application such as VCR system control, car central system, or an robot arm can be made in a day.
As far as money making in maintaining is concern, it depands on what sort of products. If it's coffee machine, DVD or VCR, you'll go broke in maintaining them. Evidence shows that there are many Electronics repair shop closed down.
Nope, I don't think that is what donniedj was saying. The firmware in embedded products is under constant maintenance. It has to be to keep up with changes in the world around, or the product will eventually die.
 
BeeBop said:
Nope, I don't think that is what donniedj was saying. The firmware in embedded products is under constant maintenance. It has to be to keep up with changes in the world around, or the product will eventually die.

Yes, I must have misunderstood. He was talking about software/ firmware maintenance/ upgrade. But still, depends on what sort of products.
 
The conversation is too general to say anything useful.

I was tempted to stop there.

Even if you limit it to embedded software it is still to general. Some applications never get touched once the product shipped. Others seem to go on forever with updates and maintance.

Even the length of the original project varies widely. Most of my project lasted from 6 to 18 months.

The pay and term of project also varies with education and experiance. I would not give a 2 year graduate as complex a project as I would a person with a solid master degree.
 
I'll refrain from discussing my views on higher degrees... or graduates of any form really. Suffice to say that of any population of technology staff I have found that no matter the qualifications (even those without a degree) there are at best 2-5% of them worth employing. That's mostly due to personality traits not qualifications.

I should remind people that an Operating System is very close to the hardware and typically written in C. I have a friend working for Apple on OSX who is earning $200K+ per annum... so big salaries are there for those interested in working on software below the application layer. Operating systems need constant maintenance and new driver software for new devices :)

P.
 
People are people, turds are turds. An educated turd is still a turd. Esp if it is a tech only education.

EDIT:
:p :p :p I got whacked for a few points for this post and do not understand why?

I was not putting down tech only educations, just thinking that a rounded educating might have some positive effect on a person.

Or maybe turd is a real bad word in some parts of the world.
 
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3vo: indeed... though I was as much referring to lacking creativity, lateral thinking, inquisitiveness etc.

I'd take someone without a degree who is passionate, is excited by learning new skills and reads voraciously over many, many people with degrees.

P.
 
aussiepoof said:
3vo: indeed... though I was as much referring to lacking creativity, lateral thinking, inquisitiveness etc.

I'd take someone without a degree who is passionate, is excited by learning new skills and reads voraciously over many, many people with degrees.

P.
In Engineering or CS
turd = person lacking icreativity, lateral thinking, inquisitiveness etc. :)

WRONG_PERSON+DEGREE != RIGHT_PERSON

A degree has value. Just not enough to justify hiring the wrong person.

I have no problem with students that need help getting from A to B. But when they are clueless regarding what to do for a project it is large red flag for me. If they are not creative enough to come up with a project of their own, they are in the wrong field of study.
 
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