Before I go to lunch, some numbers courtesy Gnumeric

[jasonscheirer]

I've calculated that if you've been working as a computer programmer (Programmer III or higher) it doesn't make sense to quit and go to graduate school full time. These data assume a few things:

1. You start out as a Programmer III in the simulation at $65k/yr (assume this simulation starts 5 years out of college).
2. You put aside 5% from your gross pay

Comments

Hahah

[anonymous]

I didn't even go to college and I am grossing 125K. !! Nor am I as smart or creative as you! Loo loo!

Your old pal, John W.

Re: Hahah

[jasonscheirer]

Oh John, you and I are proof that a degree in CS v. skills in software development vs. demand for software developers are, all three, profoundly out of sync.

[chouyu_31]

I believe your simulation is broken in a fundamental way.

Indeed, 5% of $65k is $3250, as line 1 says. However, 3250*1.05 + 65650*.05 = $6695, not $9945; which is exactly $3250 more than it should be. It would seem that you are, perhaps, double-dipping in the calculations in some cases (which definitely biases early on :P).

I've hacked together a google docs spreadsheet that shows the truthful numbers (I can send a link to you), and gross does catch up in year 14, but savings actually catches up in year 17 (at around $90k each).

I hope you didn't make any life decisions based on the flawed data...

[jasonscheirer]

At this point I had already made up my mind, and I was just trying to give justification to my family (beyond "I don't feel like it") as to why I was not going to spend another 2-5 years living on a university campus on fifteen grand a year. I'd already been at UCR as a student and then as an employee trying to scrape up some paid gigs across campus, and I was pretty much done with academia for the time being.