I started in 2013 as a software developer (as a trainee tb exact). I did not have proper formal education in CS or IT (I was 21 years old) - So I did not know much about the industry nor the salaries. It was sheer passion that drove me in that direction. I had been coding since age 14 or so.
My starting salary in this job was 15k, (At the time I had a job and I was getting 25k there. I resigned from that job to join the software dev. job...it was a 10k deduction, and also I had a loan to pay as well). I completed couple of diplomas, certificate programs related to web development.
Then in 2014, I joined another company which was located close to my home. I was offered 35k salary as an associate SE. I started thinking about my career and thought of starting a degree. So I started UCSC BIT in 2014.
In 2016, I was promoted to SE position, and I was offered 45k something. Missed couple of semseter exams due to work and stress. :'( I worked with foreign clients (US) and some big companies. I got the opportunity to learn a lot and communicate directly with overseas people there.
In 2017 May, I resigned from that place and joined a new company as a SE, the salary offered was 55k, but my previous company wanted to keep me, and also the new one wanted me so badly, so they offered 70k. I accepted and joined them. While working there for a few months,, one of my friends referred my CV to his company and they offered me 100k as a SE. That was one of the biggest mistakes I ever did..Although the pay was good, the company never paid salaries on time :/ They did not pay ETF / EPF nothing..it was a shit hole and I was kinda trapped in it. Somehow I managed to stay there for another couple of years. Too bad I did not get any increments since 2017 to 2019 ( they did not even pay salaries).
I could not work there for free anymore as I needed money. I resigned from that shitty place and joined a new company in 2019. I asked 130k and I got the job. Was working there for about an year until covid hits the parent company. It was located in the UK and they had to shut down all development work in SL. We were asked to leave
Then I got a few good offers from several companies. Finally I joined my current work place.
I work as an SSE and I'm getting just 200k.
One thing to note is that salary is not a fixed thing. It is solely based on how well you negotiate and how well you market yourself. Some uni grads get this automatically by the time they graduate (good for them). so they get paid well. But for self taught software engineers, like me...it is not going to be easy
you got to work hard to prove yourself. The other thing I have noticed is that there are lots of fresh graduates joining the industry. That has an effect on the salaries as these new grads are willing to work for any salary they are given.
