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You might suck, but it seems more likely that you're getting ripped off by an employer who hopes you don't know what your skills are worth. Are you on LinkedIn

You might suck, but it seems more likely that you're getting ripped off by an employer who hopes you don't know what your skills are worth. Are you on LinkedIn? Do you ever speak with recruiters about other opportunities? That's a great way to get a feel for the 'market rate' for your skillset in your area. When's the last time you changed jobs?

treis 5y ago
They're stuck because they work with proprietary tools on obscure tech. Nobody else wants them because their experience doesn't translate. I recently made the transition but it was extremely difficult. I ended up with 1 offer after ~10 or so interviews and ~50 or so applications.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Yeah, this is my situation. I am AWS certified and started working on a team that uses it, sort of. So maybe I can transition off of there in a year or two because the subject matter sucks.
  - bravura 5y ago
    Get. Out.
  - geitir 5y ago
    Programming is programming no matter the language, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They are all just tools. If you have a masters degree you should be able to pick up anything proficiently in a matter of a few months, just grok the existing codebase as much as you can.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      The programming part is easy to pick up. The tools and ops parts are more difficult, mostly because there are so many. And we are a 'microservices' shop (read distributed monolith). I don't get to read/work a single system or language. One sprint/day I might be in ECS Java, the next might be Python Lambda, then no code stuff like Splunk and Tableau. There are a bunch of minor and bureaucratic tasks too. The real problem is I deal with this sort of stuff. I started doing analysis about modifying a system to provide a new field to another system for the purpose of reporting. After spending a day looking at it, they pulled the story because they didn't actually need that field. And this isn't a one time thing - pulling back work. Then they give me BS stuff. They wanted me to increase the code coverage on an app that we were going to transfer to another team. The target percentage - 100%. It was already at 97% line 98% branch. Why am I wasting my time on this miserable task?
  - tacticalDonut 5y ago
    Dude run from your current employer. I actually transitioned into software dev after working as a Mech Eng after 2 years and I started at $120k. With you experience I feel like you could do way better.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area.
  - lostcolony 5y ago
    So while some employers require X years of (specific tech), many, MANY don't. They expect X years of development. Broadly. Can program and are AWS certified? Start looking. And if there's nothing in your area, look remote. You can hit that salary and solid benefits (no pension) in most metro areas (I hit it with 5 years dev experience, and only a bachelor's, back in 2015 in Atlanta, for a non-tech company). You are almost assuredly more desirable in this market than you think. Consider making finding a new job your new hobby.
    - giantg2 5y ago
      Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area. One major downside to switching is that it involves more time to come up to speed, like putting in extra hours. I can't really commit to that because I have to watch my kid as soon as i log off of work (after 8 hours).
      - lostcolony 5y ago
        Glassdoor's tool is not very useful I've found. It only even somewhat works for salary, since it doesn't require bonus or equity incentives (which is sufficient in some markets, not others), leading to deflation of total comp. It also doesn't track things like overall years of experience, or how long a person has been in a position. All of those matter, as internal raises have tended not to match the market's increase; the lower end of the market is filled with people who have been in their position a long time, the upper end of the market is people who have job hopped recently, style of thing. The past couple of jobs I've had I came in at the upper end of Glassdoor's reported salary, for the specific company even, even when I had relatively few years in the role, and without negotiation on my part. And Glassdoor didn't at all represent bonus and equity properly. Levels.fyi did a much better job of it (but has fewer data points for non-tech companies). I have never worked extra hours to come up to speed (and in general haven't put in extra hours, though I've sometimes had to work weird schedules due to working with people across timezones), and have pretty consistently been a high performer. I'd still recommend just doing some searching. Worst case, you validate that your current comp is the best you can get. Mediocre case, you find you could get paid better, but not doing anything you feel comfortable taking. Best case, you find something that is interesting and exciting and will pay you better.

treis 5y ago

They're stuck because they work with proprietary tools on obscure tech. Nobody else wants them because their experience doesn't translate. I recently made the transition but it was extremely difficult. I ended up with 1 offer after ~10 or so interviews and ~50 or so applications.

giantg2 5y ago
Yeah, this is my situation. I am AWS certified and started working on a team that uses it, sort of. So maybe I can transition off of there in a year or two because the subject matter sucks.
- bravura 5y ago
  Get. Out.
- geitir 5y ago
  Programming is programming no matter the language, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. They are all just tools. If you have a masters degree you should be able to pick up anything proficiently in a matter of a few months, just grok the existing codebase as much as you can.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    The programming part is easy to pick up. The tools and ops parts are more difficult, mostly because there are so many. And we are a 'microservices' shop (read distributed monolith). I don't get to read/work a single system or language. One sprint/day I might be in ECS Java, the next might be Python Lambda, then no code stuff like Splunk and Tableau. There are a bunch of minor and bureaucratic tasks too. The real problem is I deal with this sort of stuff. I started doing analysis about modifying a system to provide a new field to another system for the purpose of reporting. After spending a day looking at it, they pulled the story because they didn't actually need that field. And this isn't a one time thing - pulling back work. Then they give me BS stuff. They wanted me to increase the code coverage on an app that we were going to transfer to another team. The target percentage - 100%. It was already at 97% line 98% branch. Why am I wasting my time on this miserable task?
- tacticalDonut 5y ago
  Dude run from your current employer. I actually transitioned into software dev after working as a Mech Eng after 2 years and I started at $120k. With you experience I feel like you could do way better.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area.
- lostcolony 5y ago
  So while some employers require X years of (specific tech), many, MANY don't. They expect X years of development. Broadly. Can program and are AWS certified? Start looking. And if there's nothing in your area, look remote. You can hit that salary and solid benefits (no pension) in most metro areas (I hit it with 5 years dev experience, and only a bachelor's, back in 2015 in Atlanta, for a non-tech company). You are almost assuredly more desirable in this market than you think. Consider making finding a new job your new hobby.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Glassdoor's market rate/comp tool says I'm actually making market rate for the area. One major downside to switching is that it involves more time to come up to speed, like putting in extra hours. I can't really commit to that because I have to watch my kid as soon as i log off of work (after 8 hours).
    - lostcolony 5y ago
      Glassdoor's tool is not very useful I've found. It only even somewhat works for salary, since it doesn't require bonus or equity incentives (which is sufficient in some markets, not others), leading to deflation of total comp. It also doesn't track things like overall years of experience, or how long a person has been in a position. All of those matter, as internal raises have tended not to match the market's increase; the lower end of the market is filled with people who have been in their position a long time, the upper end of the market is people who have job hopped recently, style of thing. The past couple of jobs I've had I came in at the upper end of Glassdoor's reported salary, for the specific company even, even when I had relatively few years in the role, and without negotiation on my part. And Glassdoor didn't at all represent bonus and equity properly. Levels.fyi did a much better job of it (but has fewer data points for non-tech companies). I have never worked extra hours to come up to speed (and in general haven't put in extra hours, though I've sometimes had to work weird schedules due to working with people across timezones), and have pretty consistently been a high performer. I'd still recommend just doing some searching. Worst case, you validate that your current comp is the best you can get. Mediocre case, you find you could get paid better, but not doing anything you feel comfortable taking. Best case, you find something that is interesting and exciting and will pay you better.