3 ms·
I recently attended the University of Minnesota's Code Freeze conference (http://www.umsec.umn.edu/events/Code-Freeze-2012-Continuous-Delivery http://www.umsec.
by 100k 15y ago
I recently attended the University of Minnesota's Code Freeze conference (http://www.umsec.umn.edu/events/Code-Freeze-2012-Continuous-Delivery http://www.umsec.umn.edu/events/Code-Freeze-2012-Continuous-...).
While the conference is usually dedicated to "progressive" software engineering topics (this year was Dev Ops; it's about 6 months behind the hype) the area is not a tech hot spot. There are some startups and dev shops doing cool stuff, but most of the attendees at a conference like this work at big boring Enterprise companies (banks or Fortune 500s).
Inevitably, the question comes up (usually several times): "My completely broken company won't let me use innovative technology X/methodology Y". There's some equivocation from the speakers about how you have to change from the bottom, keep pushing, blah blah blah.
I, on the other hand, get very annoyed. You want to work at a company that is more innovative? It's far easier to _quit your job_ and _go work at a better one_ that change the ossified organization you work for right now. I don't understand why people put up with it, with the job market like it is right now.
https://twitter.com/#!/lof/status/157614221872463872 https://twitter.com/#!/lof/status/157614221872463872
- rdouble 15y agoThe startups I've seen in the area are not really much more interesting than the Fortune 500 jobs. Working at US Health might be lame but is it worth the pay cut to work at a website for high school volleyball games, just to use Ruby on Rails? (or whatever)
- minimax 15y agoThis is a false dichotomy. There is much more opportunity out there than working for MegaCorp or overhyped low-paying RoR startups, especially if you have the chops.
- rdouble 15y agoIt's not a false dichotomy in Minnesota.
- potatolicious 15y agoWe do some cool ass shit and have an office in Minneapolis. And we're hiring. Email in my profile :)
- 100k 15y agoI don't think that's true. I'm fairly sure Rails developers can make more money than commoditized Java programmers. I'm a consultant so maybe it's not apples-to-apples, but my rate is higher than "software engineer (Java)" at one of those Fortune 500s. The key to a decent job is not working at a place where IT is a cost center. I will be the first to complain that there aren't many startups in the Twin Cities, but there are quite a few software companies and development shops. You can find cool jobs doing Java (or whatever you want to do) that pay roughly the same (or more) than the big companies that don't value software development. Anyway, my point is: if your job sucks, try a new one! You'll probably get a raise for switching, and if you assess the new company well in the interview, I doubt it will be _worse_ than your old job.
- rdouble 15y agoWhen I looked around last summer, typical contract rates were between $50 and $65 and salaries seemed to hover between $65-$80K even for experienced people. This was for anything, Fortune 500, the Nerdery, random 10 guy consulting shop, TST Media, etc.
- 100k 15y agoIt's definitely possible to do better than that. Hit me up sometime if you want to discuss it.