How much will you make in the first IT job?

Have you ever wondered how much will you be actually able to make if you gonna become a developer?

I'll give you an answer straight away based on the region:

• Europe: $3000 - $6000+ / month with 3 years of experience
• US: $6000 - $10 000+ / month with 3 years of experience

Of course, this number can vary on the country and your negotiation skills, but it should be a pretty easily achievable salary if you care about what you do.

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But what if you don't have experience, how much can you make on your first job?

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Is salary important?

I often like to say, that there are 2 stages in a developer's career:

• Learning stage
• Earning stage

And as the person who is looking for the first job, you are at the learning stage.

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At the learning stage, your priorities should be:

• Getting real-world experience
• Learning as much as you can
• Improving your communication skills
• Building a cool portfolio of real-world projects
• Building your reputation in the company & industry

While at the earning stage you should focus on:

• Improving your interview and negotiation skills to get better offers
• Changing jobs
• Doing freelance
• Asking for promotion
• Getting an extra part-time job

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As you can see, at the learning stage you aren't thinking a lot about money.

But before you gonna close this article with a sad face, I want to say one thing:

Not thinking about money initially, will help you to make more money in the future.

It might sound counterintuitive, but you shouldn't think about money if you want to make a lot of money.

To make more money you need to know more and be better at various things (interviews, coding, communication).

But if you are thinking about how to improve your income, you're wasting your focus on it, instead of focusing on the things that will actually help you to improve your income.

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So, how much will I make on the first job?

The easiest way to get an answer to this question is to google: "average X developer salary in Y",

where X is your specialisation and Y is your country.

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But if you find an opportunity to work for less, I believe you should still take it.

It's better to be working for 4 months for a low salary and getting real-world experience, than just spending these 4 months job hunting for a position with a higher salary.

Moreover, your first job isn't forever.

I strongly believe that you should change your first job after 6-12 months.

This is the only way to double or even triple your salary overnight.

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Time goes very fast, and while 2-3 years might sound like a lot, it's not a lot.

And in just 2-3 years of experience, you can make 3x-7x more than the average salary in your country.

I think that opportunity is even worth working for some time for free.

But, of course, you should still value your time, and not allow anyone to enslave you.

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Okay, but what If I want to make more now?

I totally get you.

Actually, I am the same.

I wasn't ready to wait for 3 years to start making the desired $10k per month.

So what I did is I just started working more.

I got the second job and was working around 16 hours a day.

It helped me to get a higher income faster.

Moreover, I was learning x2 faster, so it also helped me to become more experienced x2 faster.

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Was it hard? - For sure!

Was it worth it? - For me, yes!

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You should do it only if you'll be able to deliver high-quality work on both jobs.

Because your reputation is WAY MORE IMPROTANT, than your salary.

So the choice is up to you)

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