I should like to be indifferent about this now, but instead I shall go on and on and on about it. It has come to my attention that apparently I am “full of it” for openly sharing (in my excitement) what I earn in this fantastic new role. I possibly shouldn’t have mentioned anything, but the cats out of the bag and there’s nothing I can do about that, other than to post here.

Now, I accept that these people do their current roles better than I ever could. They did my OLD role better than I could, even. This new role, though? All that information I stored away about what different email clients do to the style sheets hidden in headers, understanding how to optimise code for search engines, and rocking out clever W3C compatible hacks for old browsers – all of that qualifies me for the new role. Those with the opinion that I’m full of it, unfortunately, not so much.

And by their unqualified opinion, I couldn’t possibly be earning what I am, certainly not as a starting salary, and certainly not as a web developer. Apparently their opinions are confirmed by an unqualified boy working in retail (not, you know, in the industry) who knows a guy who knows alot of programming languages. Okay, that’s cool. They are all welcome to their opinions.

But just as a quick fuck you to all that think I am full of it, let’s have a look at the starting rates of my qualified peers, shall we?

Let’s say you have a BSC, zero experience, and you start in software development role. Starting rate is 40k. BSC (1st Class with Honours), two years experience in a business analyst role – 55k. Masters, 2 years of experience, software development for web applications – 60k. BSC, years and YEARS of experience in a 3d animation role – 80k.

All real life examples, taken from real life people. Knowing that my new role is awesome and that I’m not full of it? Priceless.