As an indie dev, you don't have to work 9 to 5, killing your eyes, killing your back, killing your social life. Instead, you can work from home and develop games on your own, by working 12 hours workday, killing your eyes, killing your back, killing your social life and killing your savings in the hope of being in the minority of indie game developers that make enough money to live of it. Making your own games is not the comfy position of the two when compared to working in a large company.

I can settle for just not being poor.

Let me put out a prophecy. If you keep coming out with content like this, you won't have to look for a job anywhere else.

In my 10 years of software engineer/computer programming experience, I haven't seen any distinction between Software Engineer/Computer Programmer

Thanks so much for all of the comments guys! It definitely doesn't feel great to get something wrong but I always prefer being corrected on my mistakes than ignoring them. You guys definitely helped me gain a better understanding of things so I thank you for that!

Frontend usually involves more than just HTML and CSS, nowadays its mainly JS and all of its many, beautiful frameworks, followed by a lot of testing

It’s easy to see why you’re blowing up. Clear communication, and concise. Info coming at a speed that is time efficient and easy to understand. Few people have that balance of abilities.

God job on the video! I'm not a software developer or programmer. I'm working towards security related fields. But I really enjoy watching your videos and love the way you present! Keep going 😊

My first programming job as a self taught is 68k with potential for 10% bonus. I'm hoping I can learn true software engineering and cruise on up past 100k in the next couple years. Honestly it's way more satisfying than I thought it would be.

Thank you for the thought provoking content!

You're really good at explaining things in an entertaining way. I'm looking forward to new videos! 🙌

Your editing style is so fun! I‘m really glad I found this channel

I resonated with your outro. I hve pressured myself a lot to find my "dream job" but after all this research the most effective way is to explore multiple fields and commit to one that I find interesting. Not really in crazy love with it but interesting enough to not get me bored. Its a long way to go but absolutely worth it!

Solid #2, keep it going and good luck on the job search!

Congrats on finishing up college and thanks for another awesome vid!

I'm studying both art history and computer science. Art history skills like writing and visual analysis can be pretty transferable! Also it may be of interest that larger museums need a lot of computer scientists now for websites, databases, apps, etc. The fields intersect more than people think :)

really chill and grounded video I discovered there was geology data science, indeed IT is vast it's so cool So many choices, always choose the best for you !!

thanks for the links in the description! they were so helpful

Thank you so much for the information and congrats on becoming a graduate 💖💖

This was so good, keep it up!

Thank you, sis! Awesome video! Love your content!

Great explanation of those key career pathways! Just one slight correction. You mentioned JavaScript was considered a backend language. It's actually more commonly associated though with frontend development, but can be used as a backend language if you use the NodeJS runtime to run JS code on a server (and not through the browser). Other than that, everything else seemed spot on 👌 Keen to see where you go with this channel!

Congrats!! I’m looking forward to your new content

I like your style presenting your content ❤

Leaving a comment to help the algorithm because you seem super cool and the video was dope!

Good luck with your channel! If you keep honing your technical skill and keep creating content like this I think you will do very well for yourself.

This is one of the best vids about programing jobs ive seen, well resumed, well researched and fun to watch. Im a sistems engineering student and i am looking at the same things as you but i couldnt find anyone to give a good "student thats decideng on its carrer path" POV video on the subject, great content and thanks it helped :).

Excellent video and excellent explanation! Keep working hard people!

Thought this was a huge channel for a sec. Great stuff. I dropped out of school doing a CS degree . Now I’m really wanting to build something. The indie game dev has also been on my mind but seems so daunting especially with my current minimal skillset. Though I know it would scratch that creative / technical itch. Guess I should just start now as a hobby.

Good to see that you had a headstart in your KZfaq channel.

Hello, just found out your channel and I'd like to say that you have such a nice humor. Also, i rly liked your edition and your speech too! Definetly a new sub :) Props from Brazil

Wow, well done video! Love the funny cuts

Very interesting video indeed. I look forward to your upcoming AI Video. I am considering going back to my programming life as it keeps me engaged with my imagination and problem-solving skills. Your content is good and informative. Keep creating more videos and keep going!!! - Love from Chennai, India

I’m a programmer or software engineer based on the resume requirements. I’m currently a programmer Analyst on paper but I’m a software engineer when I work . my job doesn’t want to pay me a software engineer salary but I love working here so I took the job.

Your content already resembles that of a 100k sub tech youtuber, ofc you deserve it

Congrats on graduating! I’ve also graduated and *ecstatic* about my SWE job 🫠

lmao the yale school of art was so funny. Thanks for the video! Great stuff :D

As a self-taught dev, I started out last year at 67k. A bit on the low end for me, I took it as I wanted to get started directly in the industry, and getting that first job is often the most difficult. I was lucky, though, as I had already interned at this company for months before being hired and I just recently retired from the Army, so I'm at least adding my retirement money to my salary. But I've spent this first year improving my skills and I'm up for my annual raise soon. How much the raise is will determine if I start actively looking for a new job. I LOVE where I work now, and couldn't imagine any other place topping it, but you know...... money. Where I live is NOT cheap. The last few months I've been getting a lot of recruiters messaging me with open positions, so that's good to know.

Good thing to know jobs exist in any fields too. Thanks for the guidance.

You’re so funny, I have really enjoyed that past 2 videos keep making them!!

Amazing video! Subscribed.

I love your vids keep up the awesome work!

Love your energy, humor, and editing! I hope to hear more about your career progress in the future. Your perspective was interesting to me as a mid-career software developer. As others have commented, your initial take on software engineers being just a fancier way of saying programmer is actually fairly accurate. In the industry, a software engineer is merely a professional programmer who does it as their primary role. A lot of other roles, such as data analyst, data scientist, or accountant, might do some amount of programming as part of their jobs (writing some Python, R, or even more complex SQL or Excel macros), but they don't produce software as their primary output. I've never seen an engineer directing a team of programmers. It's going to be a senior engineer directing a team of more junior engineers. The other people who program in the organization do it pretty ad-hoc and the professional engineers just try not to look too closely at their horrible code. It's also important to remember that in some countries, "engineer" is a regulated title, and most people who write software do not have an engineering degree from something like an ABET accredited program. That's totally fine, especially since we tend to make more money than "real" engineers anyway.

Okay, I'm another subscriber. Expect more subscribers because you're great!

Please keep making videos. Thats the content we need like self-study programming and jobs. Best of Luck.

Really liked your video. Thank you! You got skills

I don't know about the coding ("btw I am also a computer science student in my second year")and stuff but I really like your sense of humor and your every joke is very relatable.... congrats on graduating from college

This channel gonna blow up pretty damn soon, your videos are actually fun to watch and learn from!

congrats, the algorithm loves u and now u have 11k subscribers. youtube has been incessantly recommending this video for weeks and i’ve only now checked it out and was surprised to see u didn’t even have 1k subscribers less than a month ago. also, cool video! keep up the nice work 🙂

Cool content, def worthy of a sub :D ! also love your vibe!! I got two years left so seeing people actually making it out into the real world is motivational!!! good luck with everything you hope to achieve! :)

I'm currently in my first year doing computer science, been learning python and AI, can't wait to see your AI video soon!

My sister is choosing a career path soon and this was super helpful! Thanks!

I cant wait for more and to see how far your channel will go

I have a feeling that you will become big one day, I had the same feeling when I watched Johnny Harris and Sam Kolder similar to your stage. I am on a similar journey, best of luck 👍

It's always a pleasure to see a new potential youtuber emerge, especially in the programming area. Here's a sub to help with the cause :P , I'm studying for full-stack developer. I can't wait to find my first job.

Congrats! Be proud of yourself! Keep up the enthusiasm! In work and finding work, things will get tough, but it's all worth it! Good luck on your job hunt!

I love people who celebrates "small victories", cheering about your new subs was really nice, keep it up :P

Nice video. One trend ive noticed on videos like this (yours included) is that a lot of these videos are putting a lot of the emphasis on front end and backend engineers (which is usually a term used in web development mostly) - to me in my professional life it seems web development is a somewhat small part of the engineering space, but on youtube videos all the emphasis is put on frontend/backend engineer even though the jobs being referenced might be like 1/5th of software engineering jobs (like nothing on devops engineers, sys admins, network engineers, embedded systems engineers, software devs on cloud platforms (i would say this is most jobs), and many more)

The last part really resonated with me, I don't know how KZfaq knew this but it recommended this video at the perfect time.

Seems you just started a channel. I liked it. I study AI & DS, I've heard from a lot of people that data science is booming. But some educators didn't agree on that because most of the data scientist are doing data cleaning or very easy jobs. I am exploring the software field. I became at descent programming but can't decide what would be the best fitting job to me in future. I asked a professional, he told to learn whatever I'm learning and at the end do what I love. But I realized I don't necessarily needs to love a job to do it. I always thought that's dodging the question.

love this video; subscribed

keep going, you are good, make me laugh a lot with the fullstack cat

I was just about to mention Machine learning! I am quite interested in that myself, curious about this journey! Good luck!

It is good that you have a possibility of chasing your dreams and congratulations on having finishing your degree, I hope I will be able to go to college soon. You are a motivation to me, I wish you the best and hopefully your channel will keep growing, Thanks for the content.

Love it! What are your thoughts on JavaScript? I would love to see video content talking about your favorite languages.

Heyo, I'm currently studying Data Science and AI on Python. Enjoyed your video quite a lot. I've been studying this for a while now, but I still wasn't entirely sure what I was meant to do lmao. I feel like I ignored my choices a bit on what field of programming I wanted to jump into. I felt somewhat interested by cyber security and was kinda bummed I was into AI, but the wonderful thing is how one can mix the skills together and each do their own kind of thing. In my case, AI seems to be flexible enough to be useful in whatever field of programming I end up tomorrow.

I'm a game dev myself :) +1 to other folks' point that indie dev is NOT the easier road. Good luck in your journey!

look at that channel growth! congrats. pretty nice video. an area you might want to look into further is web development, as you didn't quite nail frontend/backend right. its a complicated subject though

The salary ranges you listed were pretty accurate. A big contributor is how close the job is located to a medium to big size. Cities will usually have starting salaries in the 70-80k range with mid-level in 100k-120k. Senior level is usually 120k-140k+

Maria, your videos are really good and funny 👍

Great Video!

keep us updated on ur journey

You’re a cool person, I like you. Just subscribed :)

You now got another subscriber. Cz i like your voice

This is a very simplified way to describe a front end dev

Just wanted to suggest a niche but extremely fun alternative programming role - Research Software Engineering. I've been an RSE for a few years after finishing my PhD (not a requirement) and it's great. RSEs usually work in academic institutions but many work in R&D focused companies, charities, government, etc. The work is much more interesting than standard software engineering (maybe with the exception of game dev) and your work genuinely makes a difference. I myself work on high performance computing, using some of the most powerful computers ever built to do very cool science like tsunami prediction and climate modelling. Some of my colleagues work on prototype medical software, others build services for citizen science, and some even maintain a text editor for writing in a dead language! There's usually some opportunity to get involved in teaching if that intrigues you. As in many academic/academic adjacent roles, it doesn't pay particularly well (I'm relatively senior and still on ~£45k ~= $55k) but it more than makes up for it in the good work-life balance, interesting and impactful work, and tight-knit, friendly community, both globally and in the UK.

thanks for doing my research homework for me.

I was here at 4610 subscribers ;) This channel will skyrocket soon with those neat editing skills. Btw programming is really the best skill, you will never struggle to find a good job.

A good way to find out what part of software industry you want to be in, is to understand if you like exploring/experimenting or building more. After that you should decide you prefer working on a product or the infrastructure of a system.

I don't think I've ever heard of a distinction like the one you describe between software engineer and computer programmer. I've only been in the industry for 5 years so maybe it's more of a historical term, dunno. Typically the people who are responsible for overarching systems decisions are called software architects, and it's a very senior role that you get promoted to by working as a programmer for a long time instead of becoming a manager. You can't really start as an architect. The rest of us software engineers, programmers, devs, whatever are responsible for implementation details, but it still involves a significant amount of design work. As a software engineer you tend to have a lot of say in the design of the applications you work on mostly because the architect is busy with other stuff and usually doesn't have time to talk about the best class level implementation of some business logic or other. There's also a bit more nuance with backend devs. The database devs work in languages like SQL and work on databases specifically. The rest of the backend devs work on APIs that either talk to the front end or talk to each other. These two groups don't usually have overlapping skills and they're basically two different fields.

If you can handle the immense amount of stress of work environment, I think the game development path is the one that rewards you the most, not necessarily financially, but overall.

you're amazing!

Very cool video output!!!

Wow ur doing so good for ur first 2 videos

Congrats on your schooling! For myself, initially got into tool dev/scripting, leading into programming over the years. With a BFA in computer art, for that art history joke :P hehe Started on python pipeline dev for 3d graphics programs, now doing realtime OpenGL and Direct3D on the regular. Had no clue it would give me leway to only need to work 8-9 months a year, giving freedom for 3-4 months to do my own thing. (After a few years, certainly) Everyone's path is different; but if you have that spark in your eye, it'll be noticed by those you work with! Curious your thoughts on AI, as a (soon) fresh grad, staying tuned. Best of luck out there!

Quality content 🤌

This distinction between programmer end engineer is in principal correct... Hover, in my experience companies often look for programmers to do software engineering, programming, testing, team coordination, administration, quality assurance... But then, maybe it's just my experience.

Yes gurl go for it!! Get that cash

enough money to feed my bodybuilding, weed and car addiction

Best of luck in your job search, but don't worry, because you can always consider becoming a youtuber. you're so fun to watch

I'm not even a programmer but this video was actually more helpful to me than I thought.

as a current art history graduate i feel atacked lol but no jokes, loved your video, tysm

Really great video! I'm a software engineer and have been attempting indie game development. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, but I'm also not an expert or anything.

im still finding a job and couldnt have graduated iany time perfectly than in the era of covid where all tech layoffs are happening... but videos like this realise im glad there are people like me that have this journey and am hoping to see how it goes for you :) , hope you get your job this year

Through the past 5 years at the same company I’ve transitioned from web developer, to software engineer to team lead and now solution architect Your outro was spot on, my 10 cents after 10 years in industry is not just to chase the big pay cheque. Sure it’s nice but I’ve found it far nicer to work for a company that respects me, provides clear career progression, gives opportunity to deliver interesting projects and has very generously increases my salary over time. Sometimes it takes a little longer to ramp up to that 6 figure salary but I’ve still got 35 years of work ahead of me, kinda in it for the long haul 😂. Keep up the good content!

Hi 👋🏾, all the best on your future endeavors. I haven’t graduated yet but I got my first job 9months ago as a Mobile Engineer making 80k/yr in remotely in Chicago. There’s tons of jobs for Android and iOS if that would peek your interest. Building a portfolio of real world projects will greatly set you apart. All the best!

Yes, tolerate that job! In my last year of college I had to choose an internship and I had a few options but chose one that seemed fun (and was pretty close), but oh boy was I wrong. Never doing that again. Got really lucky when the time came to get an actual job, and I ended up in a small company where I get the freedom to do a wide variety of things to do. From React development to C# web apps and automated systems that do whatever and interact with API's and what not. If you hate your first job try something else, just make sure you don't end up a job hopper, companies don't like investing in people (think training) that'll leave soon after anyways.

I started learning basic game programming and it's been so much fun. It also helps that I could make assets like weapons and environments myself so I able to somewhat realize my vision how I imagined it. And all of this despite being an engineering major

And your comparison between Computer Programmer and Software Engineer may be TECHNICALLY correct, realistically they can (and will often) have the same responsibilities in job descriptions. I've seen postings for Software Engineers where their job was to code webpages in HTML, CSS, and JS and others where they were responsible for building complex AI programs for use in government systems. So when looking for job, focus on the job description vs the title, there's often overlap.

There's a heck of a lot more to Frontend Development than what you said, so much so that HTML and CSS end up being a small part of it, the Javascript/Typescript side of it with their respective frameworks is where the bulk of the work is.