this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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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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[–] Mikina 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I was working at a larger cybersec company, and eventually left for a smaller indie gamedev studio, especially because even though I really tried to change it, even getting to a pseudo Red-Team Lead position (as in, I was still officially barely-not-a-junior pentester, but had responsibilities of a RT lead because I was the only one who showed initiative in trying to actually do a good job), it was quickly apparent that our job is not to deliver a good product and make the world more secure, but only to.make as much money for our investors as we can. And I really refuse to do that, since I'm still naive and wanted to do cybersec because it felt right, and its something the world desperately needs.

Even though I earn more than half of what I did, I'm way more happier because my job is a smaller startup made mostly of friends, including the CEOs, that also has amazing projects and a responsible business plan.

But, I have one enormous advantage - I'm young, I don't have my own familly, I share pretty cheap rent with my partner, so even with the smaller pay, I still comfortably earn around 1/3 more than I need. I don't regret it, working for people I respect and trust, where everything I make goes back to improving the company instead of some random venture vultures that don't give a fuck about anything other than profits. It's amazing.

But, a good alternative I've been considering is to get a cybersec job that pays well, no matter the morals, but work only 1/3 or less of days. (So, like a part time). I would still earn the same, but I won't be so bummed by the job since it's such a small time wasted, while also having 2/3 of time to do my own projects that actually fulfill me. I'd recommend this instead of working fulltime for a cause.