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What's your opinion on balancing ethicality and salary for a CS job? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/cs_career_questions

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I know this is a really vague question, I'm hoping for some open discussion

For some background, I currently have 2.5 years of professional work experience, and I work for a large defense contractor doing devops.

My approach to ethicality so far was basically, I need to start somewhere before I can be picky. I got hired at a large defense contractor out of college, and now that I've hit the 2 year mark for work experience, I have some flexibility in my next job when I decide to do that.

If money wasn't a problem, I'd love to use my degree to do good for the world, or at least work for an industry I don't think is evil. And truthfully, even the lower end of CS jobs still pay better than the higher end of many other degrees.

But right now I'm looking at job offers, and it seems like if I move to a tech, medical, or financial company, I could likely see a salary increase of 30-50%, which would be huge for me as I'm young and have debts to pay off (though much less than others, I'm pretty privileged).

At the same time, if I took a tech job working for my city, I found a position that I am perfectly qualified for but it's a 10% cut from my current salary which I already believe to be a bit too low.

Just curious to see how everyone else has made these decisions. It's very tempting to follow the money and take the highest paying job, but I'd love to work somewhere I'm genuinely proud of.

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[–] MajorHavoc 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

My approach to ethicality so far was basically, I need to start somewhere before I can be picky.

Yep. Gotta eat.

But right now I'm looking at job offers, and it seems like if I move to a tech, medical, or financial company, I could likely see a salary increase of 30-50%,

These probably won't get sainthood, but generally do more good than evil in the world. Except finance obviously. (I'm kidding...sort of. I consider myself allowed to be mean to finance tech bros, as I was one. We sucked to work with. There are good financial products that make people better off but there's a lot more predatory ones.

I worked for a place that did a shitty job providing good products, mostly. Getting up for work felt ambivalent, most days.

It's hard to feel good about working in an overpriced building when some customers are struggling.)

at least work for an industry I don't think is evil

It's hard to put a price on this. It feels great to get up in the morning and know that all of my efforts are making people better off. (I'm no longer a finance tech bro.)

Keep an eye on local government and education positions. It's easy to feel good about keeping roads cleared and classrooms up and running.

They do always pay less, but they don't have to be a drop in pay, particularly for someone just starting out.

Don't be afraid to take the interview and tell them they're not paying enough. They need told a couple times, then they go do the paperwork to correct their pay range. So I consider the occasional "wasted" interview an investement in the future chance that I can work with them.