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"...you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corp
by tjansen 5y ago
"...you're going to be competing with 28 year olds who can write CRUD apps in the shiny new frameworks better than you at 2/3 the salary. Which is why many corporations don't really enjoy keeping on 40+ year old developers who expect to get 5% raises each year..."
I think you have already outlined the solution:
- don't expect 5% raises, or getting more than other developers at the same level. Your salary will plateau, but that's not a bad thing.
- keep up with technology and make sure you don't fall behind.
- hiram112 5y agoI think the difference between software devs and other "profressionals" is that there is a much more stable career path for other industries, which generally includes pretty regular pay and position bumps each year well into your 50s. I know lawyers that start really making money once they hit partner in their firms in their 40s. Or business / financial types who tend to increase salary just because the "pyramid" effects of their existing clients and number of underlings. Doctors have a very regular schedule of raises as do almost all public workers as they gain seniority - teachers, federal and state workers, etc. Even the typical corporate middle manager will generally be promoted to higher levels with more responsibility. But software engineers just don't seem to be given the same options, by default. If you're an individual contributor, there are only so many project managers they need, and companies absolutely will not push your salary up by 5% each year once you've hit a plateau in mid 30's (e.g. about $160K in my relatively high COL city).