I get a MS degree in biology, which is STEM. I happen to know programming. I do not even seek job in biology, because i know the field is oversupplied.

instead, get a decent software engineer job instead, without degree, without any real world experience.

If the market is the same in biology and programming related jobs. I would get job related to my degree.

It is obvious there is a shortage in people who have programming skills.

I manage to get above average productivity compared to my coworkers. I realized that even more shortage for productive software engineer.

sure, any adjective is relative.

I have a friend who graduated with a PhD in Chemistry a few years ago. He went down the research path, but eventually didn't like the pay. He had a good amount of programming experience and was primarily building simulation frameworks for chemical-environment interactions.

I told him he could triple his salary if he applied for non-research positions. He's now a research developer at a pharma company making three times as much.

Many hard science STEM graduates don't realize that their programming skills (even if they're not totally honed) will make them more valuable on the market. If you can find a position that uses both your degree skills and programming, then you'll be a unicorn to that company.

That is where I feel bad about people who are in basic science in term of salary. Their problem are hard, require more work and skills but pay less.

This has not been true for me, or anyone else I know. Even friends from colleges I've never heard of with degrees in non-CS STEM majors found jobs paying 100k+ within months of graduation.

I know it exists. I did not get 100K+ in the first year either, but I pass it in the second year.

Interestingly, most of my coworkers do not have computer science degree or even related. They are very nice people and doing very well.