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Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

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Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#21

Post by servlate »

pinewurst wrote: post #2

It's the role, not the languages that provides that kind of career path. If it was purely that, becoming a mainframe systems programmer would probably provide you a good sinecure these days. Instead it's using your Python to become, for example, a cloud orchestration expert or something in sufficiently hot demand. I'm not convinced that becoming another Java zombie would be any more lucrative that what you could do w…

I have thought about this some but I suppose I'm just lost. I don't know where to even begin with a niche. I have not specialized in the web development domain, but I suppose most comments here are addressed within that scope. And perhaps there in lies my answer.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#22

Post by servlate »

tmaly wrote: post #12

Working at the same job in Financial Services for 10 years. You have to continue to self-learn and improve yourself.

I do, and I do understand the point your trying to make, but the growth potential also depends on the company, not just the employee.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#23

Post by insamniac »

I joined the army and got trained to be an Arabic linguist. That was getting old and frustrating, so I taught myself javascript/ksh/Tcl and made some dumb applications at work, which was enough to get noticed by some neighboring IT shops (I was out of the army, working as a contractor by this time).

I ended up doing Groovy, then Java, and now I'm in the government version of "Enterprisy Java" and I feel stuck myself. 150k isn't that much if it leaves you empty inside.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#24

Post by servlate »

insamniac wrote: post #23

I joined the army and got trained to be an Arabic linguist. That was getting old and frustrating, so I taught myself javascript/ksh/Tcl and made some dumb applications at work, which was enough to get noticed by some neighboring IT shops (I was out of the army, working as a contractor by this time). I ended up doing Groovy, then Java, and now I'm in the government version of "Enterprisy Java" and I feel stuck myself.…

True, but do you think it would be different if you had chosen a different stack? Honest question.

Doesn't that 150k lets you afford other fun stuff?

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#26

Post by infinii »

ascotan wrote: post #7

Salary is a function of perceived importance it has nothing to do with the language. There just appear to be a lot of high paying Java jobs, because there are a lot of companies still using Java as their lingua franca. Most programers will tell you that the pay scale in software is like a hockey stick curve. Up really fast then flat line. Therefore, you move to the top of the S curve and then stick around long enough…

Strange that you use a hockey stick for your analogy when most would visualize it the opposite; flat and then a steep incline. As that's how it's held.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#27

Post by emilburzo »

servlate wrote: post #10

Thank you all for your responses. Sorry for not mentioning what areas I had in mind. I was talking about friends in Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Raleigh among others. We are talking 5-8 years of experience. I have seen and tried to follow the advice in this thread and it has not worked out. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or I'm just not good enough yet. I get a lot of interview calls, but the salaries offered are…

I understand your frustration perfectly.

I'm a Java guy, but I can only work remotely (as I'm from Romania/EU), and it seems all the job posts are either Python or Ruby.

Too bad we can't trade jobs.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#29

Post by scalesolved »

pinewurst wrote: post #2

It's the role, not the languages that provides that kind of career path. If it was purely that, becoming a mainframe systems programmer would probably provide you a good sinecure these days. Instead it's using your Python to become, for example, a cloud orchestration expert or something in sufficiently hot demand. I'm not convinced that becoming another Java zombie would be any more lucrative that what you could do w…

Let's not throw around the term Java zombie, there are lots of high paying and interesting roles within the Java world, every language has boring jobs.

To the OP the hot and well paid areas of Java development at the moment seem to be around:

Spring Boot/Hystrix/Feign Play Framework Java 8 Hadoop Spark ML

From what I've seen of the hiring market Android looks to be one of the hottest areas, there is a real dearth of good quality talent in this field.

Re: Ask HN: People making $150k+ / yr, what was your career path?

#30

Post by throwawayXOXO »

servlate wrote: post #10

Thank you all for your responses. Sorry for not mentioning what areas I had in mind. I was talking about friends in Dallas, Atlanta, New York and Raleigh among others. We are talking 5-8 years of experience. I have seen and tried to follow the advice in this thread and it has not worked out. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or I'm just not good enough yet. I get a lot of interview calls, but the salaries offered are…

Hey, it sounds to me like you would benefit a lot from learning more about negotiation. Read everything patio11 writes on the Kalzumeus blog and if you have some cash sitting around, Ramit Sethi's dream job course is a worthwhile investment in your career.
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