
My story and experience as a dev in Sydney, living on $5 - piyushchauhan
https://medium.com/@piyushpsycho/life-of-an-exploited-frontend-developer-349290d8046
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meric
I am working as a software engineer in Sydney too.

There have been many times people forget to pay, or they pay less than they
owe, or they low ball a salary offer. I've found by sending a friendly
reminder their payment didn't go through, or they sent a wrong amount or
insist you're worth what you're worth, and usually I get what I'm supposed to.
But on the other hand, when stuff like that happens and if I choose to not
speak up, then I'd lose out. By the way, your programming skills are a lot
more valuable to people trying to start a business involving technology but
don't have any technology skills themselves. People who know programming
already are quite cheap in terms of what they offer for work. I started at a
low rate freelancing $25 per hour, and as I improved my skills and my sales
ability, I increased the rate to $100+ over a period of 5 years. Now that I've
graduated I work in a fairly paid full time job. Make lots of money for your
customers and you'll make lots of money yourself.

