Kubernetes. It's early enough, so you'll be among first adopters. It's mature enough to not go anywhere in the next 30 years. It's important enough to be adopted by anyone in the next 10 years.
Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
11–20 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#12Very good question / topic. I don't have a good answer to contribute, but I am as curious as you are on the topic.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#13The pay discrepancy between FAANG and almost everywhere else is quite large. Even all the FAANG companies aren’t on the same level. If you think you can do it, study up, get a job at Netflix that pays 2x-3x the industry average, prioritize savings, don’t scale your lifestyle up to match income, swim around in your piles of money like Scrooge McDuck.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#14For sure, what area you get into has a big impact. Language, industry, etc. but there is also the "career strategy" aspect. If your aim is to maximise income and progression, I'd say you should target high growth companies and teams, for internal promotion opportunities, and send your CV out every 2 years, for external promotion and salary increase opportunities.
By 'growth' I mean increasing headcount (perhaps not the best period right now...). If you're in a company or team that has no plan to increase headcount then opportunities for meaningful promotions (expanded responsibilities and scope) and salary increases will be almost nil.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#15Maximum wealth would come from creating (or being and early member of) a startup that succeeds. This also has high risk, but the worst-case outcome for a paid early employee is still pretty good relative to the average (non-tech) salary.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#16None of that matters. If you can get into FAANG your best option is to cram leetcode and get into FAANG (or FAANG-lite...basically any reasonably well known public tech co with Silicon Valley roots). You can learn whatever you need while you're there. And after a few years jump to another one, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#17There isn't really a clear answer to this as if there was everyone would do it and because of supply and demand it wouldn't be a valuable anymore.
That said, there are a few "meta strategies" you could consider
1) get really good at learning and hop from hot thing to hot thing
2) do the jobs that no one wants to do that also pay well (mainframe maintenance, documentation, sales?)
3) get really good at soft skills and put yourself in positions like management where a lot of your staying power (and income) comes from the relationships you build and maintain
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#18I know this question is situated around the tech, but the real answer is to leave every couple of years. There is always more money to be made, and the more experience you have the easier it is to get it. I'm not saying this is what somebody should do, but if you're only indexing for income, then it's the only answer IMO.
Strongly seconding this answer. I did the opposite in my career. I did not change jobs often enough. One job I had for a very long time. The growth staying in place was not very much. I knew changing jobs would get me more money, but I didn't think I could find a job as good in all the other aspects. I was wrong. I've changed jobs a few times more, and every aspect got better, including money.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#19Drop the junior title immediately from your resume.
Complain to your tech friends about tech while making new tech friends - one day they might work somewhere you want to, too.
Re: Ask HN: How can a junior dev maximize their income?
#20Find a new job with a significant pay rise every couple of years. Think hard about the next jump each time you make a jump. All the best pay rises I've ever had involved finding someone willing to pay me a lot more for basically the same thing as I was already doing for someone else. Barring winning the "pick the exact stupidly-overpaid technology of the future", banking on any particular technology would have done m…
You can price yourself out of the market with this strategy.
Because every overpaying technology normalizes over time. Someone who is willing to pay more at this point in time, will always find someone cheaper in time next few years.