Best Way To Make Income From Tech in 2025

You stay up late watching coding tutorials, building side projects and grinding through LeetCode, yet it feels like you’re just spinning your wheels.

Here’s the truth no one’s telling you: the way to earn a good salary in tech has changed. The strategies that worked five years ago don’t work anymore — at least not on a large scale.

If you want to build a high-income, future-proof tech career, you need to understand how the landscape has changed.

The Tech Landscape Has Quietly Shifted

Before you pick your path, you need to understand what’s changed in the tech industry.

1. AI Is Replacing Entry-Level Coders

Basic programming tasks are being automated. Tools such as ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot and SaaS platforms can now produce boilerplate code more quickly than humans can.

So if you're just starting out and can only build a login form or a to-do app, you're not competing with junior developers anymore — you're competing with AI.

Companies actually need people who can solve business-impacting problems, not just write code.

2. Job Boards Are Broken

Most people think that submitting their CV online is the best way to get hired. That’s an outdated way of thinking.

I am responsible for hiring at my own companies, and I can tell you from experience that most roles are filled through referrals before they ever appear on job boards.

Even when they are posted, you’re competing with hundreds or even thousands of other applicants.

Rather than chasing job listings, you should focus on building your network and showcasing your work experience.

3. Specialization Beats Generalization

Generalist developers are everywhere. However, when you specialise — when you delve deeply into one problem, tool or system — you become extremely valuable.

I’ve seen developers with just one year of niche experience earn more than generalists with five years' experience. Specialisation enables you to stand out, charge more and create leverage.

One of my developers transformed reusable components from a mental health platform into the basis for three other products, earning a revenue share deal in the process.

The 3 Real Paths to Making Six Figures in Tech

Let’s cut through the noise. If you want to earn serious money in tech in 2025, these are the three proven paths that actually work:

Path 1: The Specialized Developer

The term 'full-stack' is used far too loosely. These days, it doesn't mean much unless you're solving specific, high-value problems.

Companies aren’t hiring developers to build generic apps anymore — they want someone who can take ownership of a problem area and offer in-depth expertise.

Choose a niche that aligns with business needs, such as payment systems, AI integrations, security infrastructure or performance optimisation.

These are areas where businesses lose time and money, and they’re willing to pay a premium for someone who can resolve these issues.

For example, a friend of mine named Gabe worked in insurance. He became obsessed with payment systems and started delving into Stripe, compliance and transaction flows in depth.

In just 90 days, he secured a position at Amex — not because he was the most experienced candidate, but because he had mastered that one component better than anyone else.

If you want to follow this path, start by mastering tools such as Stripe (for payments), Clerk or Auth0 (for authentication), and create your own reusable wrappers. Contribute to open source projects. Get your name associated with solving one problem particularly well.

Path 2: The Technical Founder

You don't need to create the next Facebook. All you need to do is solve a specific, painful problem for a small niche and turn that solution into a product.

That’s what I did with Sigma School. I realised that the tech hiring process was flawed. Bootcamps weren’t preparing developers for real jobs. So I developed a tool to train developers who are ready for the job market. That tool evolved into a tech education startup generating six figures monthly — without investors.

One of our students was a florist whose shop closed during the pandemic. She developed a basic inventory management system for small flower businesses. Now, she sells that software to other florists. She had no coding background. No VC. She just solved a problem she understood deeply.

This path is perfect if you enjoy building things but don't want to deal with corporate red tape. You can ship quickly, communicate directly with customers and transform your skills into a business.

Path 3: The Tech-Adjacent Professional

Not everyone needs to write code full time to succeed in the tech industry. There are plenty of well-paid roles related to software development, such as product manager, solution architect, AI prompt engineer and technical sales professional.

What these roles have in common is effective communication. These people act as translators between business needs and engineering execution.

They have a good grasp of technology, but their real skill lies in solving clarity problems — helping businesses understand what’s possible and guiding developers to build it correctly.

Many of the highest-paid people I know in tech are former educators, marketers or operations managers. They didn’t master code; they mastered how to communicate with coders.

My Story: From Zero to $80K/Month Bootstrapped

Let me show you what this looks like in practice.

I started with nothing. I was living frugally in Malaysia with no plan, no degree in computer science, and no connections. But I had one belief: If I could solve a real problem for someone and get paid for it, I could build a business.

So I started small. I freelanced. Then I started consulting. Eventually, I started teaching. I noticed that all of my clients had the same issue: hiring good developers was difficult.

So I developed a training programme for job-ready developers. I took my skills, turned them into services, refined those services into repeatable systems and developed those systems into a scalable business.

It all started with one insight: solve a real problem repeatedly and build leverage.

A 6-Month Roadmap to Start Making Money in Tech

If you’re starting from scratch, here’s a simple roadmap you can follow over the next six months to get to income:

Month 1: Strategy & Focus

First, decide which path you want to take: would you prefer to be a Specialist Developer, a Technical Founder or a Tech-Adjacent professional?

Next, identify a specific, high-value problem that you are passionate about. Then, learn only the tools necessary to solve that one problem. Don't waste time on general knowledge.

Months 2–3: Build the Foundation

Rather than attempting to develop complete applications, concentrate on creating small, reusable components.

Document your process. Share your work publicly on GitHub, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Join online communities in your niche, such as Discord servers, Slack groups and subreddits, and start talking to people.

Months 4–5: Build and Test

Now that you have the foundation, create a comprehensive solution to the problem you selected.

Show it to real users. Get feedback. Improve the UX, performance and documentation. This is where your product will start to feel real!

Month 6: Position and Monetize

Create a basic landing page to explain what your solution does. Post your project on GitHub.

Then, get in touch with people who are affected by the problem you’re solving. Present it as a product or service, or as proof of your skillset.

One of our students followed this approach and developed a dashboard tool for e-commerce brands. He showed it to ten store owners. Three of them paid him within two weeks.

How to Future-Proof Your Tech Career

Tech moves fast. If you want to stay relevant, you need to build habits — not just skills.

1. Build Systems, Not Just Apps

When you build something, ask yourself: can I reuse this? Don’t start from scratch every time. Create templates, boilerplates, and automation scripts. These will save you time and increase your value.

2. Document Your Process

Your code alone is not enough. Great developers explain their thought processes. Treat your documentation, such as READMEs, tutorials and blog posts, as a second CV. Tools such as Notion, GitBook and Twitter threads are ideal for this purpose.

3. Build a Community

Don't work in isolation. Share your progress publicly. Talk to users. Get feedback. Communities will help you to stay accountable, improve faster and get discovered. Find your people on Discord, Reddit or niche forums, and contribute to the conversation.

Final Thoughts: Solve Problems, Not Just Code

This isn’t about becoming a 10x developer. It's about becoming the kind of problem-solver that businesses want to work with.

Pick a problem. Get really good at solving it. Turn your solution into something scalable, be that a tool, a product or a service.

That’s how you can generate a substantial income — and achieve genuine freedom — in the tech industry in 2025.