4 ms·
It's amazing that career lengths in this business are split into "first few years", "1-3+ years" and "5-7+ years", given that most people will have careers of 4
by Scarblac 9y ago
It's amazing that career lengths in this business are split into "first few years", "1-3+ years" and "5-7+ years", given that most people will have careers of 40 years or more.
- JustSomeNobody 9y agoThey're taking into account the ageism that occurs in SV.
- plandis 9y agoYeah their senior role sounds like a SDE2 at Amazon or Microsoft (61-62?)
- FLUX-YOU 9y agoThis is the biggest problem I've faced. I can't put down Senior SE despite holding the title (which is verified by calling the company) because the technical skill expectations fluctuate MADLY across geographical areas and companies. If you are moving from a low-skill tech area to a high-skill tech area, there's been a lot of wasted time discussing how I moved from a more "primitive" state in the US to a more "modern" one (not my words, but said directly to my face). But I'm left holding the bag since I left that other company. And staying out of the workforce to get involved locally and learn new skills is its own risk.
- closeparen 9y agoI wish my employer had an Engineer 3 position. I'm on track to be promoted out of Engineer 2, which will make me "senior" with two years of experience on a single team. It seems farcical. It seems unlikely that I'd hold up to any other company's expectations for "senior." I'm not wild about obfuscating my title, and I'd guess that a prospective employer isn't wild about hiring someone into a lower level.
- aeling 9y agoI recently went through the Triplebyte process and can confirm. I went SDE2@MS -> SDE2@AMZN, but my Triplebyte offers (and others outside of the big 5) were for Senior roles.
- albertgoeswoof 9y agoMost people won't have a 40 year career in a high paying industry like software engineering in silicon valley. A huge amount of people in high paying positions don't stick it out for 40 years straight. People become burnt out, have kids, live off savings/their partner, or just pay off their mortgage and live an lower-stress life. Sometimes people die, get long term sick, retire early or retrain. Or they hit a glass ceiling and don't want to keep pushing against it and quit.
- lordCarbonFiber 9y agoIs that true though? Can't comment for SF tech, but developers in the manhattan financial sector (at least at the high end of things at least as well paid with similar stresses) tend to measure tenure in decades.
- htormey 9y agoI meet a number of people at Apple in this category (i.e 20-30 years + experience). At a certain point salary tends to flatten out unless you go into management or do something incredibly specialized.
- pm90 9y agoWhy do these engineers not switch jobs? Wouldn't inflation actually reduce what they are earning if their salaries do flatten out?
- albertgoeswoof 9y agoSwitch to where? There are hardly any 6 figure professions out there that don’t require a significant amount of training and sacrifice in the early years.
- meebs 9y agoIf you rode the economy the past few years and are good enough to be considered value at $BigTech for twenty years, you have enough of a nest egg to... not work. At least that is what I'd do.
- CalChris 9y agoPeople may have careers lasting 40 years but that hasn't been the case in Silicon Valley for a variety of reasons, good and bad. Indeed outside of a few professions, I doubt this is the case anywhere. A gold watch and an office retirement party is the stuff of a bad Mad Men episode.
- learc83 9y agoThey aren't talking about 1 company. They are talking about 1 career. Many, (most?) people certainly have 1 career for 40 years.
- loeg 9y agoIt seems more like they simply don't have enough data for more senior engineers.
- logfromblammo 9y agoAround here, "senior" is 20+ years in the business.