Related: At the beginning of my career I jumped around from startup to startup doing hardware, firmware, mobile, web dev, blockchain, Alexa/Google Home, and then started consulting. Then my client pool dried up during the pandemic. When I started at my current job 3 years ago, I decided I will stay put for a while and resist the urge to look for something "better". I wanted to take on more responsibility and learn what it is like to build software and maintain it for years to come. There are some valuable lessons I learned from doing that. The world runs on the backbone of people who are willing to stay put.
I haven’t had a raise in two years. In fact some of my benefits have been reduced, so I’m making less than when I got hired.
Next week I start a role with a 20% pay bump. Staying is only justified if your company actually reacts to the realities of the world and the job market.
Yeah, as a "stayer" I've learned every few years the company will give everyone a 10% pay raises just to catch back up. I hate switching jobs so I don't want to leave, but companies haven't figured that out.
It isn't hard - inflation is a known % every years, your average raise needs to exceeded that - once someone has experience they are only worth a cost of living raise, but juniors moving up to senior should be getting large raises every year to reflect their growth. Yet HR/management never looks at inflation before figuring out raises even though not matching inflation is how you fall behind and lost people with experience.
Of course companies have not yet learned to value experience. I'm not sure what will teach them that.
the fed typically aims for 2% inflation because if they aim for 0% inflation, the economy may experiencr deflation. if you get stuck in a deflationary spiral, it's very hard to get out
also since 2% is the typical target, they have a little room to lower rates and stimulate the economy, such as what happened in covid
In my 26 years of experience I can say that's the only way to advance in this industry. Programmers are just cogs in the machine no matter their skill level. A lesson I wish I learned much earlier. I grew up with a mid-western "loyalty" mindset, and it cost me many years of fair pay.
It doesn’t though. I’ve left entire knowledge bases and bulletproof tools behind and haven’t looked back. Constant maintenance is a sign of shitty design. A hallmark of craftsmanship is leaving a supportable low maintenance environment in your wake - most people’s jobs exist in a world of shitty products and the maintenance environment around them. Linus Torvalds or Ray Eames could live wherever the fuck they wanted and their impact to the “backbone” of the world would still be immeasurable.
> Constant maintenance is a sign of shitty design. A hallmark of craftsmanship is leaving a supportable low maintenance environment in your wake
This rings true to me; I am no amazing programmer but things I have built (which managers complained took a bit too long) have just chugged along; I have almost never received a call about something broke badly or had major rollbacks etc. My longest record is a program I built 19 years ago which is still in use.
I had a role developing systems of increasing complexity of hardware, software, and interfaces and my mantra / threshold for development was always “no phone calls”. I sought to make a project robust enough to support like any other by on-site and field staff and direct my attention to the next challenge.
19 years is incredible! Congratulations on a job well done for nearly a quarter century!
At the top of every source file I work on is a copyright. I maintain a program where some of those files say copyright 2014, and I created those files the first time. It's a weird feeling sitting in a single codebase that long. Satisfying but also I can't help but wonder if there are other things I could have been doing instead.
It's never too late to change tracks; I worked with a guy who spent 20 years doing Java, he shifted to consultancy building web applications. I also worked with a guy who spent 25 years of his career as a manager at a bank, but who said fuck it and went self-employed writing CSS and advocating for accessibility.
It's never too late for a change of career if you want it.
I've been a consultant for about half my career and had runs of 8 years and 4 years (where I am now, so at least 4). Sticking around is harder, because there's a adrenaline rush of getting up to speed and knocking off the low hanging fruit, not to mention the salary bump. But sticking around is more rewarding in terms of long term impact, imo.
