Oh boy, I have a lot of comments here, most of them in agreement with the article but not all.

According to all the anecdotal knowledge I have, my conclusion has been that currently software engineering and chemical engineering are tied for the locally optimal career choice for those with a four year degree or less. While some college graduates (or dropouts) will go become billionaires, as a general rule, it is quite hard to do better in a career without further education than you can with these two types of engineering.

Software and chemical engineering also both have their own "meccas": SV for software, Houston for chemical. Google/Facebook/etc. for software, Exxon/Chevron/etc. for chemical.

That said, anyone who thinks software developers are on the verge of being overpaid should consider how low developers (and most workers) are on the overall wage ladder. Maybe $150k sounds high to the typical person born and raised in the middle class, but that's pennies compared to the typical salaries in the true upper class. Moreover, the majority of developers making salaries around that number live in the most expensive cities in the country, not the cheaper ones.

As a general rule, software developers are in the middle class or upper middle class, but not the upper class. Of course, it depends on your definition of the various social classes. If you define it as the one percent, you'd need to make about $350k. If you define it as those whose primary income derives from investments rather than salaries, then even that is not nearly enough.

What's an example of something close to an "upper class career"? Some but certainly not all doctors would make it. Family physicians wouldn't be close (they're about the same as engineers in the end), but specialized academic surgeons will make $500k-$1M/year. At many universities with medical schools, the top surgical faculty will make about double the president of the university.

A successful trader of financial assets can make seven figures. This is almost common on Wall Street, but it happens elsewhere. The youngest billionaire in Houston right now made his fortune from Enron: he was a trader of energy derivatives and after making the company some $75 million one year he was awarded about an $8M bonus. He then started his own energy trading firm and went on to make a few billion.

A partner at McKinsey, the management consulting firm, will make seven figures in total compensation. A partner at any major law firm will make the same.

These aren't extraordinarily difficult careers to get into. Becoming a surgeon is mostly about planning ahead and dedication. Becoming a partner at a firm is just about putting in the hours for years. Literally anybody on Wall Street will make $100k minimum unless they're like a receptionist, and from there you can work your way onto the trading floor.

And let's not even talk about top business executives, who put all those salaries to shame. And contrary to popular belief there is a reasonably effective method towards becoming such an executive: Harvard/Wharton MBA, consultant at McKinsey, eventually hired by a company you consulted for. That's how Skilling got on as CEO of Enron. That's how my friend's dad, a CEO making $4M/year, got his job. Etc. There are tons of examples of it.

It happens all the time. Most people just don't know about it. Many people often think it's all luck getting into the upper ranks of the executives, but that's because they think it's done by choosing a company at a young age and working there for 20+ years. That's not how it's done in general. It happens occasionally, but you have to network your ass off for decades to make that work. But if you're a consultant, then you'll be hired by the top executives to help them solve problems. You just skipped all the lower ranks thanks to just a few years of business school. (This doesn't work with an MBA from anywhere but the most prestigious schools.)

In short, there are a number of careers where at your peak you'll make not a six figure salary but a seven figure salary. If you think back to how long the phrase "six figure salary" has been in use, you'll realize that, with inflation, a seven figure salary is quite accurately the new six figure salary in expensive cities like SF and NYC. People in these cities who aren't making such a salary are often willfully ignorant of this fact. They want the prestige of a "six figure salary," even though their buying power is an order of magnitude less than what that phrase originally referred to.