Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#91

Post by throwaway4726 » Fri, Dec 21, 2012, 10:48 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #90

throwaway4726 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am at a non-US profitable startup where the founders know exactly what people actually want and would pay for, but I wouldn't say the technical side of the start up is good enough to even call mediocre. The "technical" co-founder is more like a sales guy who takes a brief look at the technical side of things one day a week. They've been hiring fresh graduates without any experience. The code is getting difficult to…

The fact that they're good at figuring out what people want is not to be understated. That's not common, and most startups fail because they don't produce something people want and will pay for. All the technical muscle in the world can't overcome that. I've worked in two startups (one failed, one was too sleazy to even discuss) and did excellent technical work at both, but that didn't matter in the end because of ex…

They only call themselves Directors (who are supposed to answer to VP's), so what title should I ask for? They suggested "product manager", but that is BS because product managers are responsible for the features of a product, while I'll be involved in its development. I've also been told they don't plan to hire another technical person after me for two years. They made hiring decisions before by having votes between the founders. So even if they give me a vote I won't be able to hire/fire anyone I want. I suppose I can convince them later on...

Thanks for the advice, I have a clearer idea of what I want to do now. :)

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#92

Post by 46Bit » Sat, Dec 22, 2012, 4:14 AM UTC

jwoah12 wrote: post #38

46Bit wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It works in speech, but makes no sense in writing. 'nother is more confusing and awkward to write that another.

I cringe when I hear people say this. It works in speech to the extent that "irregardless" or "I could care less" are acceptable.

> I cringe when I hear people say this. It works in speech to the extent that "irregardless" or "I could care less" are acceptable.

I'm not sure where you're from, but in Yorkshire you'd end up saying such things yourself before long. What matters is comprehension, and whilst writing to an audience means you need to ensure clarity, the same concerns are less applicable to chatting to a lifelong friend.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#93

Post by sjg007 » Sun, Dec 23, 2012, 1:08 AM UTC

27182818284 wrote: post #81

sjg007 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is also not as if the job is rote work.

I absolutely agree with you, but I can't think of rote work that should be salaried to begin with? If it is done by rote, wouldn't the person just punch in, work, then punch out?

There is an argument for a raise is when the replacement value is high. The key is to be indispensable by adding value.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#94

Post by aioprisan » Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 2:08 AM UTC

late2part wrote: post #87

aioprisan wrote: post #15

From what I've seen with software engineering positions, you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase. I also can't stress enough how much negotiating a higher starting salary can have an impact over your long term prospects. It's very important to know what you're worth on the market so that you can make sure that you're compensated fairly for the amount of experience AND potential that you have. R…

Average of your 10-25% is 17.5%. 17.5% raise per year over 20 years is a salary of 25X in 20 years. I know someone who started at $10k in 1975 and was at $80k in 1996. Do you expect an entry level sw engineer at $70k to be making as salary of $1.8M in 2032? I suspect Math doesn't mean what you think it means.

That's as ridiculous a statement as expecting someone to make $5+ million after 30 years. I didn't say it will go up forever. This growth won't keep going for more that 5-10 years, after which it will go down to the 5% range. I have software engineer friends who started 8 years ago at 60k and now make around 180-200k as principal engineers, roughly a 15% increase YoY, after which salary stays stagnant unless if you get an MBA and move into management roles.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#95

Post by aioprisan » Mon, Dec 24, 2012, 2:09 AM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #53

aioprisan wrote: post #15

From what I've seen with software engineering positions, you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase. I also can't stress enough how much negotiating a higher starting salary can have an impact over your long term prospects. It's very important to know what you're worth on the market so that you can make sure that you're compensated fairly for the amount of experience AND potential that you have. R…

"you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase" Which country or states specifically ?

US northeast and San Francisco areas

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#96

Post by JohnHaugeland » Wed, Dec 26, 2012, 9:38 PM UTC

heymishy wrote: post #21

beaumartinez wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are doing the same job as last year, except with a whole nother year's worth of experience .

very off topic, but i've always wondered whether 'nother' was an acceptable word to use.

It is not strictly correct, but it is firmly planted in the trenches of programmer linguistic games (qv the jargon file.)

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#97

Post by jimwalsh » Sat, Dec 29, 2012, 10:45 PM UTC

brixon wrote: post #71

jimwalsh wrote: post #42

When I was a Sys Admin in USA, your salary never increased unless you left the company and took a job elsewhere. Those were your raises, and it's why SA turnover is so high and how even companies just treat them as a dime a dozen now a days.

That is more the aftermath of the dot com days when there was a severe shortage of SA people. Big companies would train people and get them certified and those people would turn around a leave for double the salary. So companies quit training and did not expect anyone to stay over a year.

They continue to not be training, or doing a bare minimum of it. My current company thinks sending me to a 3-5k class a year is apparently more valuable than increasing my salary 3-5k a year. It's not.