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When you are valuable and ask for a raise but they cannot give the amount expected because it's already Q4 so they give you the senior title instead. It can ha

When you are valuable and ask for a raise but they cannot give the amount expected because it's already Q4 so they give you the senior title instead. It can happen even with two years of experience.

_pmf_ 10y ago
> When you are valuable and ask for a raise but they cannot give the amount expected because it's already Q4 so they give you the senior title instead. A misapplied case of carrot and stick; using the carrot to beat you down is not how it works!
EGreg 10y ago
Wait a sec, whats the significance of Q4? How do you think the timing works?
- ghuntley 10y ago
  The budget has been consumed; business focused on making financial statements look good before being released to the public market for dissemination. At large corp scale, you'll experience shenanigans such as cancelling all flights/travel (unless it has C-level approval) even if it means a loss of potential future sales revenue / blocking entire teams who end up getting paid to sit there and do nothing until the quarter ends.
  - douche 10y ago
    The other side of this is that departments with leftover budget will cast around wildly for anything plausible to spend it on, lest they have their budget slashed next year, "use it or lose it" style. The company I work for has made more than a couple big sales in December from this phenomenon. Sometimes they never even deploy the software.
    - ErrantX 10y ago
      Trouble with salary raises are; you do effectively lose it because you can't take that raise back next year ;)
      - justinlardinois 10y ago
        I think he's referring more to one time expenditures.
- JustSomeNobody 10y ago
  Q4 was just a convenient excuse to not pay someone more.
wvh 10y ago
That's also my experience. "Senior" is little more than a random title in most companies I worked for. It can be someone in their early twenties who just happened to have worked for 2 years on one product, even if it's their first job. It's frustrating at first to join a new company as someone who is older and has many more years of experience, then you remind yourself it's just a random title and try not to get hung up over it. Like many symbols of status, it's a pretty empty shell. If someone like Donald Knuth would be forced due to economic circumstances to join a trendy web start-up, he'd be a junior working under a twenty-something senior with little more than some Javascript and MongoDB knowledge. The whole thing's silly, really.
- Shanea93 10y ago
  Anecdotally, I feel like this is how my older peers see me. I've been working (professionally) in this industry since I was 16 years old, I got my first job as a junior after tinkering with computers since I was 8 years old. At the age of 23, I've found it very difficult to earn the respect of the people around me because of my age. I have the title of senior developer because I've had experience working on scalability issues and complex service based infrastructures, but many of my peers who are my age and recently graduated university and are still in their first junior roles often act like I haven't earned it - despite me graduating with a part-time degree in software engineering (okay, it's not computer science, but I'm still glad I did it.) My point is that while age is generally a good indicator of knowledge and ability, it's not the be-all-and-end-all.
  - kaendfinger 10y ago
    I've been afraid of this. I've been working at a company for over 2 years. I'm 17, started here right after I turned 15. I've worked on many high profile projects. I've experienced a lot of respect, even with my age, but I don't want that to fade away in years to come.
    - Shanea93 10y ago
      You're probably going to encounter a lot of imposter syndrome imposed on you by the people around you - ignore it, you're just following a different track to the rest of your peer.
FLUX-YOU 10y ago
This is why I leave Senior out of my resume for a previous position. Otherwise, someone might think I know what the hell I'm doing.

When you are valuable and ask for a raise but they cannot give the amount expected because it's already Q4 so they give you the senior title instead. It can happen even with two years of experience.

_pmf_ 10y ago

> When you are valuable and ask for a raise but they cannot give the amount expected because it's already Q4 so they give you the senior title instead. A misapplied case of carrot and stick; using the carrot to beat you down is not how it works!

EGreg 10y ago

Wait a sec, whats the significance of Q4? How do you think the timing works?

ghuntley 10y ago
The budget has been consumed; business focused on making financial statements look good before being released to the public market for dissemination. At large corp scale, you'll experience shenanigans such as cancelling all flights/travel (unless it has C-level approval) even if it means a loss of potential future sales revenue / blocking entire teams who end up getting paid to sit there and do nothing until the quarter ends.
- douche 10y ago
  The other side of this is that departments with leftover budget will cast around wildly for anything plausible to spend it on, lest they have their budget slashed next year, "use it or lose it" style. The company I work for has made more than a couple big sales in December from this phenomenon. Sometimes they never even deploy the software.
  - ErrantX 10y ago
    Trouble with salary raises are; you do effectively lose it because you can't take that raise back next year ;)
    - justinlardinois 10y ago
      I think he's referring more to one time expenditures.
JustSomeNobody 10y ago
Q4 was just a convenient excuse to not pay someone more.

wvh 10y ago

That's also my experience. "Senior" is little more than a random title in most companies I worked for. It can be someone in their early twenties who just happened to have worked for 2 years on one product, even if it's their first job. It's frustrating at first to join a new company as someone who is older and has many more years of experience, then you remind yourself it's just a random title and try not to get hung up over it. Like many symbols of status, it's a pretty empty shell. If someone like Donald Knuth would be forced due to economic circumstances to join a trendy web start-up, he'd be a junior working under a twenty-something senior with little more than some Javascript and MongoDB knowledge. The whole thing's silly, really.

Shanea93 10y ago
Anecdotally, I feel like this is how my older peers see me. I've been working (professionally) in this industry since I was 16 years old, I got my first job as a junior after tinkering with computers since I was 8 years old. At the age of 23, I've found it very difficult to earn the respect of the people around me because of my age. I have the title of senior developer because I've had experience working on scalability issues and complex service based infrastructures, but many of my peers who are my age and recently graduated university and are still in their first junior roles often act like I haven't earned it - despite me graduating with a part-time degree in software engineering (okay, it's not computer science, but I'm still glad I did it.) My point is that while age is generally a good indicator of knowledge and ability, it's not the be-all-and-end-all.
- kaendfinger 10y ago
  I've been afraid of this. I've been working at a company for over 2 years. I'm 17, started here right after I turned 15. I've worked on many high profile projects. I've experienced a lot of respect, even with my age, but I don't want that to fade away in years to come.
  - Shanea93 10y ago
    You're probably going to encounter a lot of imposter syndrome imposed on you by the people around you - ignore it, you're just following a different track to the rest of your peer.

FLUX-YOU 10y ago

This is why I leave Senior out of my resume for a previous position. Otherwise, someone might think I know what the hell I'm doing.