4 ms·

I accepted a lower salary because I went from maintaining a shitty VB6 apps to a company that uses .NET, hoping I could learn something more marketable working

I accepted a lower salary because I went from maintaining a shitty VB6 apps to a company that uses .NET, hoping I could learn something more marketable working there. It wasn't worth it, they had a bunch of incredibly stupid systems and maintaining these was even worse than the VB6 apps. On top of that they lied to me - I was supposed to work on a new project and instead I worked on sorting out the mess that other programmers made. I noticed that some other people on the team did more or less the same kind of a job, expect their pay was better since they didn't have "junior" in the title. I will never accept a pay cut again.

Clubber 9y ago
>I will never accept a pay cut again. Certainly not at the junior level for doing the same thing, but once you approach the cap in your locality, it makes a little more sense to not be miserable every day. Granted, it would make sense for you to take a lower salary if it was an investment in your future, for example, getting paid to learn the latest technology in whatever you are doing, or doing "Greenfield" projects rather than maintenance programming. Maintenance programming sucks.
mattbgates 9y ago
You are explaining a job that I used to work. Visual Basic 6.0. Support and fix bugs in a program. Add new features. Make it more user-friendly -- was my job. I had to deal with a tyrant boss who would watch over me while I would code, belittle me, do everything he thought was "making me a better coder." Only lasted a year and a half... even turned down an offer that was double my salary because if it meant dealing with him... I just couldn't do it. When I began working there... he was paying me just $10 an hour. The most I ever made there? $12 an hour. Read more about it here: http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/ http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/ I wonder how similar our experiences are.
atmosx 9y ago
Well, your career so far sounds like a Woody Allen script. At least there's that ;-)

Clubber 9y ago

>I will never accept a pay cut again. Certainly not at the junior level for doing the same thing, but once you approach the cap in your locality, it makes a little more sense to not be miserable every day. Granted, it would make sense for you to take a lower salary if it was an investment in your future, for example, getting paid to learn the latest technology in whatever you are doing, or doing "Greenfield" projects rather than maintenance programming. Maintenance programming sucks.

mattbgates 9y ago

You are explaining a job that I used to work. Visual Basic 6.0. Support and fix bugs in a program. Add new features. Make it more user-friendly -- was my job. I had to deal with a tyrant boss who would watch over me while I would code, belittle me, do everything he thought was "making me a better coder." Only lasted a year and a half... even turned down an offer that was double my salary because if it meant dealing with him... I just couldn't do it. When I began working there... he was paying me just $10 an hour. The most I ever made there? $12 an hour. Read more about it here: http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/ http://www.confessionsoftheprofessions.com/the-opportunity/ I wonder how similar our experiences are.

atmosx 9y ago

Well, your career so far sounds like a Woody Allen script. At least there's that ;-)