Senior Product Designers making less than junior Software Engineers?
I am a product designer with more than 5 years of experience in the SF bay area. I’m new to Blind, but looking at a bunch of compensation posts here, seems like the pay gap between designers and engineers is enormous. Except for a few anamolies here and there, junior software engineers are making the same amount as me, if not more. I have been coding a fair amount and I am thinking about switching careers and becoming a SWE. It does require investing time and effort to switch but seems like the long term financial outlook is worth it. What are your thoughts on the pay gap and the sanity of my desicion to switch?
There’s two questions in your post. I disagree with the implication of your title, save for the edge cases. Devs of equal tenure will of course make more considering only one designer is needed for many engineers, and the supply of aspiring designers is plentiful.
Supply and demand. You can compare what you make with whoever you want and in the end the answer will be what you make and they make is based on supply and demand in market. Regarding your wish to switch career, do it if you like coding and think you will be happy doing it everyday. Design and software engineering has very little overlap in terms of skill set, so you will have to learn a lot and gain some good expertise and experience in software engineering, before you can dream of the Blind level fang TC. Remember not all the high TC you see in blind is real or average.
Thanks for your thoughtful answer.
Want to quickly point out that there is a lot of overlap in the frontend world and I was able to successfully make that transition.
Yes, junior devs make more than senior designers.
Great Idea. This is economic 101. Mostly based on offer/demand. If you’re in the bay area, I think you are simply making a logical choice.
I’m surprised that OP is surprised that Engineers make significantly more than Designers 😂
Also depends on the company. Engineers at small/non-tech companies don't make nearly as much in TC
Levels shows that this shouldn’t be the case. Ask for a raise or switch to a company that pays market rate for designers.
It’s not just about coding. You pretty much find all code online.
Would you care to elaborate?