Are IT professionals a pampered lot?

Now it's a difficult and controversial question to answer.
It depends on which side of the fence you are.
As an IT professional myself ,I will try to be as honest as possible.

First of all, I must admit that the difference in salary structure between IT and other professions is quite big.The starting salary for a software engineer in a premier software company ranges between 2.5 L and 3.5 L pa. whereas the starting salary for a mechanical engineer or a chemical engineer lies between 1.0 and 2.0 L pa.

Also, the software industry offers a steep growth curve which other industries fail to offer.
A person with 3 years experience as a programmer can easily aspire for 5-6 L pa.
The same amount of experience in any other sector won't command such a high salary.

A Project Manager with an experience of 10 years can get anything between 15L and 20L pa in a big IT company .

On the other hand, if we compare MBAs and other marketing professionals to IT people, the salary levels of the former are the same or higher. Also, MBAs have a more dynamic work profile than IT professionals who are mostly confined to programming or project management.
Many software engineers go for MBA after a couple of years of work experience.

I think that being "pampered" is a personal character trait.I have seen young IT turks splurging money on booze, movies,bikes and girls as if there is no tomorrow.But I have also seen people with 7 figures income living very frugally and modestly.

To do justice with IT professionals, I must add that we work under tremendous pressure having to cope with unrealistic deadlines.This leads to various health problems at a very early stage in life.Sitting whole day and night infront of computers with no physical exercise brings lifestyle diseases like hypertension,diabetes and even heart attacks at a very young age.

So guys, IT profession is not all glamour as it seems from the outside.
As the old adage goes: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence", the same applies to the IT sector.

Therefore my advice is: Whatever you are doing,whichever field you are working in, be proud of it and always believe that your industry is the best to work for.