Today, many senior coders know that their peers are already earning six figures. Yet, most coders don’t.
What are the factors that influence whether someone receives a high Python salary?
Set Your Goals The Right Way: It sounds trivial but before you can start to increase your salary as a developer, you have to set your goals properly. Figure out a number that is 10-20% higher than your current salary. Then, you must commit to achieving this goal—every single year. How do you accomplish this? Be creative and figure out how to “move up” in your current situation (e.g. within your organization) or “move sideways” (e.g. creating your own small Python business).
Put Yourself in an Environment That Reinforces Performance: This is another problem of many employed coders who feel stuck in their career. Even if they perform at the highest levels, they don’t see a clear path to higher earnings. The company just “absorbs” all the effort and increased productivity. That’s why you need to put yourself in an environment where you can thrive and where improved performance leads to higher earnings. One example of such an environment is to work as a Python freelance developer on the side or as your main source of income: the better you perform, the more money you earn.
Hone Your Communication Skills: If you are working in an environment where performance matters, you’ll quickly realize that communication is king. As a self-employed coder, you need to communicate with your clients—find out what they value and what they want to get done by hiring you. Then, you are responsive, positive, and upbeat. As an employed software developer, you need to communicate upwards (your boss), downwards (your outsourced workforce), and sideways (your team). Commit to reading good books about communication to improve your communication skills over time (e.g. the classic “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnegie).
Finally, you need to constantly work on your coding skills. The best way to accomplish this is to read more coding textbooks. The more you read, the more you learn. The more you know, the higher you’ll rise in your company.
While working as a researcher in distributed systems, Dr. Christian Mayer found his love for teaching computer science students.
To help students reach higher levels of Python success, he founded the programming education website Finxter.com that has taught exponential skills to millions of coders worldwide. He’s the author of the best-selling programming books Python One-Liners (NoStarch 2020), The Art of Clean Code (NoStarch 2022), and The Book of Dash (NoStarch 2022). Chris also coauthored the Coffee Break Python series of self-published books. He’s a computer science enthusiast, freelancer, and owner of one of the top 10 largest Python blogs worldwide.
His passions are writing, reading, and coding. But his greatest passion is to serve aspiring coders through Finxter and help them to boost their skills. You can join his free email academy here.