The world is full of opportunities for young and ambitious software engineers to make big money, especially in software-related industries.
But it can be difficult for those with a degree in a field to make it big in the industry.
A recent study by the consulting firm Glassdoor found that about two-thirds of the people who graduated from a program that required a master’s degree or Ph.
D. didn’t find jobs within four years of graduating.
It also found that the average amount of money they made within four months of graduating was $22,000.
While the amount of time it takes to make a career as a programmer or data scientist is relatively small, it’s not easy to make ends meet in the job market.
The average pay of those with an associate’s degree is around $70,000 annually, and the median salary for a data scientist in 2016 was $82,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To help bridge the gap between the education required to become a data science professional and the jobs that exist, Glassdoor recently surveyed more than 400 software engineers across six different industries, asking them about their financial lives and job aspirations.
Among those who earned a bachelor’s degree, there were some similarities among the occupations they studied.
For instance, the majority of respondents were working in software development or data analytics, which typically pays about $75,000 to $120,000 a year.
However, a majority of those surveyed also held an associate degree, with the median starting salary at $65,000 and the typical median starting job at $75 to $100,000 in each field.
The survey also found the average annual salary of a data analyst was $70 to $75k, while the average starting salary for data scientists was around $80,000 per year.
Those with a master of science degree were also more likely to be earning significantly more than the average worker in their field.
In particular, those with master’s degrees in data science earned about $130,000 more per year than those with bachelor’s degrees, according the survey.
“For many of the respondents with master of and doctorate in software engineering, the gap in income between their salaries and those of those in other types of software engineering was the primary driver for making the decision to study a career in software,” the survey reads.
“Some respondents even went so far as to compare their earnings to those of a college graduate, who typically earns $65k per year and has a median salary of $75K,” the study added.
“While the gap is still large, it is no longer as large as it once was.”
The survey is just one piece of a larger study by Glassdoor and the consulting company, which also surveyed 1,300 software engineers from all 50 states.
It found that a master degree or doctorate is still the best route for those seeking entry-level jobs in the field.
“A master’s or doctoracy degree is not the most lucrative path to success, but it is certainly the most rewarding and fulfilling,” the report states.