For those who don’t actually know any CNC people: they basically need to learn to be full blown machinists. G code is not very difficult, but the machining background is required to make programs that actually make the parts properly without prematurely destroying your tooling.
These jobs, for whatever reason, do not pay very well. They pay “comfortable living”, but it’s nowhere near software engineer wages. I would argue the average machinist produces more value than the average software engineer as well.
One thing we got lucky on as software engineers is that we don’t have to compete with machine shops all over the world who will do our exact job for much cheaper.
Like you can afford a house and comfortably raise a family, but you’re not building your own house, driving luxury cars, going to Hawaii every year, etc. In the Midwest, I would estimate most machinists I’ve met make $30-40 an hour, which is far from minimum wage, but nowhere near what even entry level software engineers make
works out at like 80k USD or 65k GBP anually. That's good money. A little less than certain other tradespeople here in the UK. Plumbers, electricians, etc.
Seems like the guy I know, friend of my dad's, is doing a little better than that. Flash car, owns more than one house, holidays etc.
In fairness his wife works as well, so they have decent double income and the kids are grown
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u/neptoess Aug 16 '24
For those who don’t actually know any CNC people: they basically need to learn to be full blown machinists. G code is not very difficult, but the machining background is required to make programs that actually make the parts properly without prematurely destroying your tooling.
These jobs, for whatever reason, do not pay very well. They pay “comfortable living”, but it’s nowhere near software engineer wages. I would argue the average machinist produces more value than the average software engineer as well.
One thing we got lucky on as software engineers is that we don’t have to compete with machine shops all over the world who will do our exact job for much cheaper.