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I used to be a full time developer at a company where we only shipped new features. At some point, I wanted to go remote and part time. I've asked them if they'
by d--b 8y ago
I used to be a full time developer at a company where we only shipped new features. At some point, I wanted to go remote and part time. I've asked them if they'd be down if I worked in the shadows refactoring shitty code and replacing crappy modules. Which is what I'm doing right now.
For them, they pay me a fraction of a developer's price and get a constant improvement of the codebase.
For me, I work at my own pace, remote and part time. I live in a place where I don't need much money.
It's awesome.
- sixstringtheory 8y agoCongrats, you have my dream job. Hold onto it as long as you can!
- itamarst 8y agoHey, could I interview you about the negotiation process? about to release a book about it (https://codewithoutrules.com/3dayweekend/ https://codewithoutrules.com/3dayweekend/) and could always use more case studies. Ping me at itamar@codewithoutrules.com
- pmiller2 8y agoThat’s really interesting. Compared to what you could get on the open market, what’s “a fraction” mean? 1/2? 2/3? It’s kind of hard for me to imagine moving out of the Bay Area, but I’m sure there are major cities outside California that one could easily live on 1/2 a software developer’s income.
- d--b 8y agoI took 1/4th, but I was working for a very successful finance company in New York. If you don't count the yearly bonus, I took about 2/3rd. But the calculation should not be about the fraction, it should be about what you need. If you make $100/hr and work 5hr/day, that's $110k with 5wk vacation. I make more than this and I moved to France, so I make a very decent living compared to the local standards.
- thijsvandien 8y agoI've done similar work, but what really gets me is new smelly code being produced faster than I can clean up. Have you experienced the same, and if so, how do you deal with that?
- d--b 8y agoI can't say I have experimented this directly. I still give a lot of guidance to people whenever I see things that don't look right. But generally speaking the engineering team has gotten a lot better, and I'm mostly dealing with old legacy code noone's really looking at. I think the right mind set if crappy code piles on is to think: 1. It's more work for me, so my employment is pretty safe 2. If I wasn't doing what I was doing, then the code would be even crappier. So all in all, this is my little contribution to a little cleaner world...