Average salary for a specific programming language is pretty much irrelevant. Why? Because you will see top performing language having $110k average, while the worst performing will have $90k salary average.

That’s a big difference, right?

NO.

Because you must include salary variance into the picture. Yes there is $20k difference in the salary average, however, there is $200k variance in the salary within the same language.

This means programmers in all languages fall between $40k and $240k. So it matters more what you do inside the language rather than focusing on choosing the “perfect” programming language.

And knowing how to double your salary is way more important than choosing the highest paying language.

Average vs. Variance

What does it matter whether you picked the highest paying language if you’re making only $40k on the low end?

And do you care that a programming language you picked is the lowest paid on average if you’re making $200k or more?

If the language averages were vastly different – for example one language had $80k average and the other one had $150k average – then things would be very different. You would noticeably have an advantage in picking a language with higher salary average.

But this is not the case now.

$20k difference in averages is irrelevant considering the $200k variance.

Better Strategy

You should probably choose the language you like the most. Or the type of work/projects you see enjoying the most. It can be JavaScript, Python, C++, C#, Java, PHP… whatever you like (or already know) the most.

If you like mobile apps the best – go with that. If you enjoy tinkering with hardware, do that instead.

Why?

Because the more you enjoy doing something, the more you will dedicate your time and energy to it. The inevitable consequence will be that you’re getting better and better at it. And the more competent you are, the higher your salary will be.

And remember, your ability to move your salary through competence and networking can be responsible for $200k increase. While your ability to move your salary through the “correct” language is limited to $20k.

Make Variance Work For You

Aside from knowing that most of your results will come through competence – you should also know that there is another key factor.

You can be competent all you want, but you will inevitably be underpaid until you know how to play the “salary game” correctly.

Even if you think you’re a senior developer and you’re paid good enough… let me just say that I know senior developers who managed to double their salary after learning some key strategies.

The best part – they didn’t have to work any harder, or learn anything new and fancy. They just took their existing knowledge and were able to increase their salary from 50% to 300% 😲

And if you want to learn how to do this yourself, check out the article on how to double your salary.