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Two steps: - Get provably good at something. - Find a company that needs that something really bad. Notice that you don't just need to be good. You need pro

Two steps: - Get provably good at something. - Find a company that needs that something really bad. Notice that you don't just need to be good. You need proof. I'd strongly recommend a fully functioning site that does something undeniably cool and that you built yourself from top to bottom. I'd strongly recommend not just building a bunch of open source stuff that's up on Github. Another form of proof that's nice to have is happy clients & bosses. You want their CTO to be talking to your old CTO over drinks and have your ex-boss mention how he once had to lay off a team of 12 developers when they ran out of money, but they needed to keep one guy around to finish the thing up, and how there was this one guy on the team who was clearly the guy to be that guy. And if you're looking to do this thing we've been talking about, which sounds hard, and you need somebody to build a team around, here's his email address. Work for lots of places, build good stuff, and make sure it's always recognized and visible. Then build more recognizable, visible stuff on the side that can only be attributed to you. Then go ask for that rate.

mildbow 10y ago
Should be more like 1. Find a company that needs something really bad 2. then get provably good at it. No point building skills without a market :) Now, if you've been with a company for 2~3+ years, you should be able to figure out what domain specific things will make you non-fungible. But, really I don't make 250k+ base so what do I know.
- bbcbasic 10y ago
  > 2. then get provably good at it. Still risky because the company will probably find someone else while you are getting provably good at it. Or they simply may not like you for some other reason. > Now, if you've been with a company for 2~3+ years, you should be able to figure out what domain specific things will make you non-fungible A good start, but also you need the company to be able to afford the new rate. Also companies work hard every day to make sure that everyone is as fungible as possible. Playing politics may help make people perceive you as less fungible. The sort of plan I'd come up with (not an expert though) is try to find a very large company (or an industry) that routinely pays people this compensation to many people and figure out how to get that role. Google and finance spring to mind.
e19293001 10y ago
This. Really. I'm on the stage of what you say. Its not that easy to decide what to build based on the knowledge you have since your working alone. Then when you've decided you'll eventually struggle to making it work. I won't worry that the project will not be recognized at least I've spent happy moments learned a lot of stuffs. Built my own tools in getting ready to move on to build yet another interesting stuff that can't be recognized. Doing this just to learn new things until you gained experience and ready to sell your self with the proofs you've made.

mildbow 10y ago

Should be more like 1. Find a company that needs something really bad 2. then get provably good at it. No point building skills without a market :) Now, if you've been with a company for 2~3+ years, you should be able to figure out what domain specific things will make you non-fungible. But, really I don't make 250k+ base so what do I know.

bbcbasic 10y ago
> 2. then get provably good at it. Still risky because the company will probably find someone else while you are getting provably good at it. Or they simply may not like you for some other reason. > Now, if you've been with a company for 2~3+ years, you should be able to figure out what domain specific things will make you non-fungible A good start, but also you need the company to be able to afford the new rate. Also companies work hard every day to make sure that everyone is as fungible as possible. Playing politics may help make people perceive you as less fungible. The sort of plan I'd come up with (not an expert though) is try to find a very large company (or an industry) that routinely pays people this compensation to many people and figure out how to get that role. Google and finance spring to mind.

e19293001 10y ago

This. Really. I'm on the stage of what you say. Its not that easy to decide what to build based on the knowledge you have since your working alone. Then when you've decided you'll eventually struggle to making it work. I won't worry that the project will not be recognized at least I've spent happy moments learned a lot of stuffs. Built my own tools in getting ready to move on to build yet another interesting stuff that can't be recognized. Doing this just to learn new things until you gained experience and ready to sell your self with the proofs you've made.