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2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

by yekko 14y ago

victorhn 14y ago
In what did you specialize on?
m_mueller 14y ago
Now that's interesting, the specialization gave you a salary boost then? I always thought that after some point (team leaders / project leaders) a CS generalist would be more valuable. Edit: Wow, very insightful responses, thanks yekko, svachalek, josh
- joshrotenberg 14y ago
  I think this is totally dependent on the position itself. If a company has a good base and needs one super duper person to fill a specific need, they may be likely to pay that one person really well. If a company has a bunch of crap that needs fixing (legacy codebase, lots of context switching between front end, back end, sysadmin, etc.) then that might be the person they want to throw the cash at. Seems to me its a good idea to focus on something and get experience, start to generalize as you gain experience, and then start to specialize again as you find a niche/see what the market demands.
- yekko 14y ago
  What I found is that if a company has a problem and you sell yourself as the solution, you can ask for the moon. This highly depends on the company. If the company is simply looking for bodies, avoid :) Even for the exact same job, I've seen pay difference of beyond 50% (even within the same team!). I helped this guy raise his salary from 85k(?) to 130k simply by showing him a piece of paper. (Don't ask) Oh, another tip, discuss salary with your co-workers, only good can come out of it.
  - positr0n 14y ago
    Oh, another tip, discuss salary with your co-workers, only good can come out of it. I feel this doesn't apply if you make more than them for the same position because you negotiated better.
    - inovator 14y ago
      that is what you would like to think.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- svachalek 14y ago
  In my somewhat anecdotal exposure to salary data over the years, it seems the best thing for straight cash is to specialize in moderately out-of-date technologies. Big, stable companies with lots of money need people to fix and maintain their legacy systems and the ranks of skilled/interested/breathing tend to thin out faster than the demand declines. At some level of leadership it seems to me that having broad experience is better, but in my experience first-level leadership roles usually go to specialists and second-level roles to go first-level leads etc.

2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

by yekko 14y ago

2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

victorhn 14y ago

In what did you specialize on?

m_mueller 14y ago

Now that's interesting, the specialization gave you a salary boost then? I always thought that after some point (team leaders / project leaders) a CS generalist would be more valuable. Edit: Wow, very insightful responses, thanks yekko, svachalek, josh

joshrotenberg 14y ago
I think this is totally dependent on the position itself. If a company has a good base and needs one super duper person to fill a specific need, they may be likely to pay that one person really well. If a company has a bunch of crap that needs fixing (legacy codebase, lots of context switching between front end, back end, sysadmin, etc.) then that might be the person they want to throw the cash at. Seems to me its a good idea to focus on something and get experience, start to generalize as you gain experience, and then start to specialize again as you find a niche/see what the market demands.
yekko 14y ago
What I found is that if a company has a problem and you sell yourself as the solution, you can ask for the moon. This highly depends on the company. If the company is simply looking for bodies, avoid :) Even for the exact same job, I've seen pay difference of beyond 50% (even within the same team!). I helped this guy raise his salary from 85k(?) to 130k simply by showing him a piece of paper. (Don't ask) Oh, another tip, discuss salary with your co-workers, only good can come out of it.
- positr0n 14y ago
  Oh, another tip, discuss salary with your co-workers, only good can come out of it. I feel this doesn't apply if you make more than them for the same position because you negotiated better.
  - inovator 14y ago
    that is what you would like to think.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
svachalek 14y ago
In my somewhat anecdotal exposure to salary data over the years, it seems the best thing for straight cash is to specialize in moderately out-of-date technologies. Big, stable companies with lots of money need people to fix and maintain their legacy systems and the ranks of skilled/interested/breathing tend to thin out faster than the demand declines. At some level of leadership it seems to me that having broad experience is better, but in my experience first-level leadership roles usually go to specialists and second-level roles to go first-level leads etc.