Why You Should Learn To Code - Is a Software Developer Career Worth It?

How much do you guys think a programmer makes?

Imagine you were trying to build a video game and you wanted to put it on an interactive website. Using programming, you could build your very own game that nobody has built in the very specific way that you want it built, and you could put it on your very own interactive, fun website.

Now let's talk about maybe more practical ways for some of you people who are like, "I wanna make that money," right?Business intelligence, it helps you make better and more informed decisions not just based on your intuition, sometimes intuitions are good, but you need it backed up by evidence and data, which programming will allow you to do, and the field of data science and data analytics is all based on computer programming. It helps you take a lot of these features that you can't process all at once and let's the computer decide for you what decisions to make, how powerful is that? And you can generate more leads and more money for your business.

But, why do I need to have myself learn how to program, why can't I just have anybody else digitize my idea for me? Imagine Mark Zuckerberg. The idea, the specific idea that Mark Zuckerberg had, a lot of other people had similar ideas how to create social media, but his idea was the key, so a lot of you folks, who have these brilliant ideas, you wanna be able to execute them.

So yes, you can hire somebody to do it for you, but I promise you it's not gonna be as good as if you did it yourself. If those weren't reasons enough for you, let's talk about instant scalability. Any idea that you digitize and that you create on your own, you can scale it infinitely.

Imagine you create an app that solves some kind of problem. Maybe it's a fitness-related issue or a finance-related issue like a budgeting app or like a working out app, all of a sudden with the click of a button, thousands and millions of people are having that problem solved 'cause they're able to download your app or go on your website and use what you've created.

What other medium allows you to scale at that level and so fast? There are not many that I can think of. Like, when you think of a computer programmer, what do they look like to you and what do you imagine in your mind? 

The job market for a computer programmer looks pretty fantastic. Now, don't get me confused by thinking that it's instantly easy to become a programmer, it's not, I personally, myself, have failed a tremendous amount of times, you guys, while I was trying to become a computer programmer, and even to this day, I fail over and over again.

Anything that has a true value, you know from personal experience that it's hard. There are 1.4 million job openings for computer programming every single year, however, the number of college computer science graduates is only 400,000, which means money money for you. How does it translate to that? There's a one million people per year window open just for you. Compared to all other jobs or most other jobs, the job of software technology is growing at a 17% rate every single year. So the growth, the projected outlook, all the way up to 2024 is only growing.

So let's talk about it. 2015 statistics show that the average median salary is $100,490. That is a pretty good median salary, right? Not many jobs might start off with that. Glassdoor.com that say if you look at a specific area like Chicago, the median salary might be $85,000, give or take. Now why is the range so different, it depends on where you live. If you live in the Silicon Valley, the heart of technology,
you are going to be getting paid more for the jobs, most of the times.

If you're living in other places, like Chicago, it might be a little bit less than the top, the $100,000 that you could potentially be making. Why you might actually really enjoy your job more than just the money is the amount of impact that you're making. 

Most of the programmers are able to work either from their office or remotely. This means you get to spend more time with your family, you get to spend more time with your friends. So if you're working with, let's say, a company like Microsoft, you're effecting and influencing the lives of millions of people. So your role in the society is very important and as one of my really smart friends once said, "Your rewards in life are exactly proportional, "no less and no more, than the contribution "you make in your society." Did you let that sink in? Good. Because programming allows you to make a tremendous amount of contribution to the society, simply 'cause it lets you scale instantly, so that great amazing idea that you had, yeah, now everybody is using it and it's changing their lives.