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No you absolutely won't, unless you luck out and end up on a good team. Big companies are notoriously bad about rewarding hard working and talented engineers. That is in fact one of the main reasons people leave them (including yours truly).


If startups don't reward engineers and neither do big companies, then what does?


Nothing. In all my years ( 13 ) software engineering, the people who made the most were the ones who could sell. And I don't mean like "sales engineer", but rather who could sell their projects to team members, bosses, etc. Making money really comes down to being able to sell

A) actual, i.e. what you've built or

B) potential, i.e. what will you build

And then to get rich you need a multiplier on those things. But just being a good engineer, in general, does not get richly rewarded. If you show me a pure engineer who makes 1 million, I can show you a founder who made 100x from his work.


I'm just pointing out that its not absolute. So in general I recommend being open to switching jobs/companies until you find and environment that you personally find enriching, both professionally and financially.


Selling own labor in capitalism won't generally get you very rich.




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