As someone in cybersecurity, don’t fall for the claims that they pay more and the money is somehow worth it.
They pay a competitive salary just like everyone fucking else. They will not shower you in money. Companies like Google, OpenAI and Meta will pay way more than the average company, and defense contractors are generally average.
Check https://levels.fyi/ if you doubt me. Check Raytheon software eng salaries. It’s like $70k to $200k. Companies like Meta are literally something like twice that. $70k might sound nice but software engineers make twice that easy in tech centers like San Jose, San Francisco, or Seattle.
They get a lot of applicants because people fall for this, and thus don’t have to pay as much as you think.
There are plenty of dipshits who just need a job who don’t care who they work for. You will not get rich working for them. you will just compete with other fucks like yourself that have no morals, and somehow think they’re special and that the company is less evil with them there.
Your salary is mostly tied to the company, what they’re willing to pay, and how hard you’re willing to negotiate. You will find high salaries elsewhere if you know how to play this game.
Used to be a tool designer in US SE.
Left $20/hr 60hr/week automotive job for $21/hr 40hr/week defense job temporarily while waiting for a tech support job.
Now I moved to NZ and got a really cushy job in the architect sector and make double.
What’s really weird to me able that defense job was no-one has filled it for so long because of lack of pay the due dates for the designs on my desk ranged from the 90’s to early 2010s.
In automotive you couldn’t be a single day late, doesn’t matter how many hours you have to work or how many warm bodies to cram into a single office. Architecture you can be a couple weeks late, but no more. But to have designs 2 decades late and still be wanted/required and valid is so wild; and not a penny extra for overtime or if they can’t hire anyone at that rate.
“$70k might sound nice but software engineers make twice that easy in tech centers like San Jose, San Francisco, or Seattle.”
If you like eating scraps out of a trash can and counting pennies coins.
I gave up on c-sec. I only wanted to do it because of all the scamming these days. Then one day I realized, fuck it. The amount of stupidity and neglect is incredible. The classes are so far behind that I joked that I was taking computer history classes. I learn on my own and oh boy do I hate college. I give them a real world solution and they want someone to parrot the shitty outdated textbook (ebook). Like this book is outdated the moment it was released, maybe even written.
Then none of these classes prepare you for anything without independent study. Over the time of taking several semesters, I kept bringing up that the school website is very vulnerable. Yeah they got hacked twice. That’s when I realized that this is likely what working in c-sec will be like. You get ignored and then blamed and then told to go fix the problem.
So I’m going to just sit back and watch the embers. There’s plenty of other stuff I can do.
As someone in cybersecurity, don’t fall for the claims that they pay more and the money is somehow worth it.
They pay a competitive salary just like everyone fucking else. They will not shower you in money. Companies like Google, OpenAI and Meta will pay way more than the average company, and defense contractors are generally average.
Check https://levels.fyi/ if you doubt me. Check Raytheon software eng salaries. It’s like $70k to $200k. Companies like Meta are literally something like twice that. $70k might sound nice but software engineers make twice that easy in tech centers like San Jose, San Francisco, or Seattle.
They get a lot of applicants because people fall for this, and thus don’t have to pay as much as you think.
There are plenty of dipshits who just need a job who don’t care who they work for. You will not get rich working for them. you will just compete with other fucks like yourself that have no morals, and somehow think they’re special and that the company is less evil with them there.
Your salary is mostly tied to the company, what they’re willing to pay, and how hard you’re willing to negotiate. You will find high salaries elsewhere if you know how to play this game.
Trust me you’ll go to hell working for OpenAI or Google too.
Was just about to say, tech companies are increasingly taking defense contracts so that’s a distinction without meaning.
be fair, Google amd OpenAI are defenae contractors (and Facebook might as well be one too)
Used to be a tool designer in US SE. Left $20/hr 60hr/week automotive job for $21/hr 40hr/week defense job temporarily while waiting for a tech support job. Now I moved to NZ and got a really cushy job in the architect sector and make double.
What’s really weird to me able that defense job was no-one has filled it for so long because of lack of pay the due dates for the designs on my desk ranged from the 90’s to early 2010s.
In automotive you couldn’t be a single day late, doesn’t matter how many hours you have to work or how many warm bodies to cram into a single office. Architecture you can be a couple weeks late, but no more. But to have designs 2 decades late and still be wanted/required and valid is so wild; and not a penny extra for overtime or if they can’t hire anyone at that rate.
Well put.
“$70k might sound nice
but software engineers make twice that easyintech centers likeSan Jose, San Francisco, or Seattle.”If you like eating scraps out of a trash can and counting
penniescoins.I gave up on c-sec. I only wanted to do it because of all the scamming these days. Then one day I realized, fuck it. The amount of stupidity and neglect is incredible. The classes are so far behind that I joked that I was taking computer history classes. I learn on my own and oh boy do I hate college. I give them a real world solution and they want someone to parrot the shitty outdated textbook (ebook). Like this book is outdated the moment it was released, maybe even written.
Then none of these classes prepare you for anything without independent study. Over the time of taking several semesters, I kept bringing up that the school website is very vulnerable. Yeah they got hacked twice. That’s when I realized that this is likely what working in c-sec will be like. You get ignored and then blamed and then told to go fix the problem.
So I’m going to just sit back and watch the embers. There’s plenty of other stuff I can do.