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The thing is that you are almost never compensated on your ability to ship good code, you're compensated on your ability to create business value. More business

The thing is that you are almost never compensated on your ability to ship good code, you're compensated on your ability to create business value. More business value usually means owning and leading more scope, not better/more code.

p1necone 3y ago
Sure but I can accomplish that by being a technical lead - planning architecture, reviewing code, mentoring junior devs, building libraries etc.
- ZephyrBlu 3y ago
  All of which means shipping less code and managing people in some capacity.
- mox1 3y ago
  Ohh you mean going from a senior IC into entry level management? Because that's exactly what tech lead is at most companies.
pavel_lishin 3y ago
I'm not the person you responded to, but I realize this, and I realize that my career ambitions put a definite ceiling on my salary. Which is fine! I'd rather have my current salary and not have to manage people. I wouldn't want a manager's job for twice my salary. It would make me unhappy, and a spare salary wouldn't make it up to me.
matwood 3y ago
> owning and leading more scope And software is one of those things where an IC or small team lead can end up owning and being responsible for a huge amount of scope/impact.
ryandrake 3y ago
> The thing is that you are almost never compensated on your ability to ship good code, you're compensated on your ability to create business value. If I can be allowed to split hairs a little, ackshually you're compensated based on your level/title which sometimes, but not always (maybe not even often) is proportional to your ability to create business value. Companies like to say that they pay based on business value because it sounds good. But they don't have really great ways to measure that, especially if you're not in sales.
- randomdata 3y ago
  You are compensated based on how much the alternative costs. The level/title is merely a tool that attempts to frame someone relative to the alternatives to make that determination easier.
deleted 3y ago
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p1necone 3y ago

Sure but I can accomplish that by being a technical lead - planning architecture, reviewing code, mentoring junior devs, building libraries etc.

ZephyrBlu 3y ago
All of which means shipping less code and managing people in some capacity.
mox1 3y ago
Ohh you mean going from a senior IC into entry level management? Because that's exactly what tech lead is at most companies.

pavel_lishin 3y ago

I'm not the person you responded to, but I realize this, and I realize that my career ambitions put a definite ceiling on my salary. Which is fine! I'd rather have my current salary and not have to manage people. I wouldn't want a manager's job for twice my salary. It would make me unhappy, and a spare salary wouldn't make it up to me.

matwood 3y ago

> owning and leading more scope And software is one of those things where an IC or small team lead can end up owning and being responsible for a huge amount of scope/impact.

ryandrake 3y ago

> The thing is that you are almost never compensated on your ability to ship good code, you're compensated on your ability to create business value. If I can be allowed to split hairs a little, ackshually you're compensated based on your level/title which sometimes, but not always (maybe not even often) is proportional to your ability to create business value. Companies like to say that they pay based on business value because it sounds good. But they don't have really great ways to measure that, especially if you're not in sales.

randomdata 3y ago
You are compensated based on how much the alternative costs. The level/title is merely a tool that attempts to frame someone relative to the alternatives to make that determination easier.

deleted 3y ago

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