The $200K Developer Dream Is Over – Here's the Reality in 2026

gentooflux an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I suppose I can't afford to become a "member" in order to read your article about it then.

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DivingForGold 13 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Waste of time. Article cuts off. Medium is useless.

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billy99k 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A company I just left hired all of their development teams from Eastern Europe.

Their rate was a fraction of teams in the US and communication was great.

Perfecting remote work during covid showed companies how easy it is to hire cheaper developers in other countries.

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skajsjshs 20 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

My companies been pretty turbulent since COVID so I’ve had to do a lot of near shore and off shore hiring. “You get what you pay for” still mostly holds true. There’s a lot of arbitrage in junior devs, but good senior talent has mostly realized they can get a lot more.

I can’t imagine ever working with India, etc again though. If you’re already eating the time zone cost Eastern Europe is much better.

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unsupp0rted an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I regularly interact with devs and project managers in Eastern Europe. Their quality is top-notch and their English is good enough you'll forget they're not natives. Most importantly, their mentality is American. Like... weirdly American.

Yes means yes, no means no, "how was your weekend" and then down to business. It's a pleasure interacting with them.

	▲	actionfromafar an hour ago \| parent [-]
		There must be different strains of American out there.

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ptero 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

TLDR: "previous years of boom provided 100k jobs straight out of college, 200k jobs and a guaranteed path to wealth soon after that. That time is over."

Right. And this, IMO, is not a bad thing. We had a long, multi-year bubble and bubbles are not good for anyone. Deflating bubbles can be painful, but they are less painful than bursting ones.

And the current software bubble is deflating, not bursting -- there are still plenty (say, compared to the last 50 years average) of jobs where a good engineer comfortable with programming will make a very good living. So do still learn CS or SE in college, but as a minor to another STEM field. My 2c.