[rc_hackernews]

I feel seen with this comment and I'm glad I'm not the only one that has been feeling this way.

I'm about to start a new position that uses C#/.NET and seems like a technically mature/sophisticated organization. Finding this position was hard though.

If that fell through, I was thinking of ways I could try to switch tech stacks. As you stated, the types of companies that gravitate towards .NET are not the types of companies I want to work for anymore.

Not to mention, after talking to several recruiters, it seems like salary for .NET devs are much lower than counterparts in other languages. I'm probably at the top of what I can expect to make as a senior engineer in .NET. I spoke to a few recruiters who recruit for other stacks and my salary is what senior devs typically start at for those organizations.

[decafninja]

Regarding compensation - I think that is more of a function of the orgs that tend to use .NET and not .NET itself.

Most senior+ SWEs at cost center non-tech companies (frankly, the overwhelming majority of SWEs) would probably be lucky to retire as a sixtysomething seventysomething seeing $200-250k total compensation after decades upon decades of work.

Meanwhile that amount is probably around what most run of the mill twenty/thirty/fortysomething senior SWEs at profit center tech companies (not FAANG!). Needless to say even some juniors are making that much at FAANG and other upper tier tech companies.

If you can find some corner of a profit center tech company doing .NET, you'd probably be paid the same as any other engineer at that company. But these types of companies rarely seem to employ .NET.

[rc_hackernews]

Oh, I agree with you. It absolutely comes down to the organization.

And like you said the organizations that pay very well...don't tend to use .NET. Which is what I've been seeing "in the wild".

At this point, it's just becoming increasingly hard to justify sticking with it. Especially considering I could make more money and not have to deal with so much legacy or poor development practices all the time.

In defense of those organizations though, in my experience, the interview processes have been very reasonable, i.e. no LeetCode. As long as you haven't been sleep walking through your career, it should be pretty easy to get a new position.