Secrets Behind Making Lots of Money as a Software Engineer

Software engineers are highly paid. 

In fact, their average salary is more than other industries in general.

Even fresh graduates with a software engineering degree receive a starting salary that is among the highest compared to other industries. 

Additionally, according to Payscale, the Malaysian market for software engineers can potentially offer a salary range between RM 100,000 and RM 365,000!

However, not all software engineers earn the same amount of income. There are different positions, levels, and even specialisations in the field that influence how much they get paid to work in the software engineering industry.

Image source: luis gomes, Pexels

According to springboard.com, the types of software engineers with high salaries are:

• AR/VR Engineers
• NLP and Machine Learning Engineers
• Big Data Engineers
• Cybersecurity Engineers
• Gaming Engineers
• Embedded and Application Engineers
• Mobile Engineers
• Site Reliability Engineers
• Front-End Engineers

Image source: springboard.com

So, exactly why and how do they make so much money with a software engineering degree?

1. Rising demand due to technological advancement

The beauty of the software engineering industry is that it is vastly needed in almost any industry that adopts digital technology to produce websites and mobile applications. 

These industries include, but are not limited to: media, banking, marketing, entertainment, fashion, healthcare, tourism, hospitality, and more.

However, technology is advancing faster than we thought in recent years. More start-ups and big technology companies are looking for ways to make their products and services better and more innovative, but there is a limited supply of software engineers. 

This makes software engineers even more valuable to companies, as some even resort to hiring them from overseas!

2. Software engineering is not for the weak

Image source: ThisIsEngineering, Pexels

A company’s revenue can plummet within an hour of server downtime. They can potentially lose millions of dollars!

Hence, software engineers are the ones in charge of creating software and making sure everything runs smoothly within the website or app. 

This also naturally means additional workload and responsibilities as they must maintain reliable and effective systems for businesses to function well. As a software engineer, you must be ready at all times to support the business or company you are working for. 

Your skills and expertise can affect your level of pay too, which leads to the next point.

3. Software engineers are fluent in rare programming languages

The more languages you know, the better.

But this is not just any language - programming language, a type of computer language that converts graphical programme elements into coded output - is a valuable skill that helps determine the level of salary software engineers receive.

What makes it even more valuable is that not everyone knows how to use them. As a software engineer, you are possibly the only person in the company who ‘speaks’ programming languages, making you a vital team player.

You can learn them through software engineering courses offered in universities. SQL, JAVA, JAVASCRIPT, C#, PHP, IOS, and Python are some of the common ones.

4. Working long hours is part of the job

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Every second counts when a server is down, so software engineers normally work outside of their set working hours. This extends to midnights and weekends at times!

Since software engineers are an important part of a tech company, they have to be on standby for any sudden changes. There are shifts and odd working hours too, especially if the company is an international company that operates in a different time zone.

As a compensation, software engineers earn a higher salary for their commitment to longer working hours.

The software engineering industry in Malaysia is picking up its pace. With so many multinational companies and tech start-ups rising in the country, demand for experts in the field is also expected to increase rapidly.

This is your opportunity to shine! To kickstart your journey towards becoming a software engineer, you must first enrol in a university.

Check out these universities in Malaysia that offer affordable and high-quality programmes in software engineering.