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The other side of that token is that I know guys making upwards of 120k with little work, mainly through office politics and delegating work.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The kicker is, an external observer (ie your boss or hr) has no way to judge who the "good people" are. Are you the one fixing the bugs that stumped the team for weeks, or are you the one poorly implementing features that then require rework later on (and all that entails; prioritization, scheduling, talking, tracking)? What we do is totally opaque to everyone, but us. So yes, I agree, there is a shortage of develope…
>I've addressed this for myself by hopping jobs 3 times in 2 years, now my salary is 10% above the local market rate. How did you manage this? Did you end up switching technologies or fields? Was it just for a salary increase, or were you un-challenged?
The way it came about was partly accidental. When I started this, the company I was at was failing, I knew it was time to leave. Then I took a contract position at a Big Dumb corp, when that was ending, instead of converting to full time, I had 3 other offers on the table. One local company was desparate, that's where the > 10% came from.
Always be interviewing. from constantly interviewing, I knew what the local market was like for my expertise (java enterprise). And I knew a great offer when I saw it.
Talk the talk and walk the walk. Train for the technical interview, be able to talk about how you've rocked past positions, and how you're going to rock this new position.
Put in the time, don't hide from the hard stuff. Every job I'd had I was sticking my nose into everything; frontend, backend, deployments, appserver and cluster adminning, production support, everything. That's how you get to be expert level at everything. It gives confidence, there's no part of the process I haven't experienced and have firm opinions on how to do right.
Sorry that turned in to general "dev career advice".
I agree with the other comment, we are probably in a buble so far as dev salaries, on the other hand, this may be the new normal. I base this opinion on the way central banks are continuing to print money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I've addressed this for myself by hopping jobs 3 times in 2 years, now my salary is 10% above the local market rate. How did you manage this? Did you end up switching technologies or fields? Was it just for a salary increase, or were you un-challenged?
I did not switch fields, so far as technical skills, I rarely feel challenged nowadays. A few things: The way it came about was partly accidental. When I started this, the company I was at was failing, I knew it was time to leave. Then I took a contract position at a Big Dumb corp, when that was ending, instead of converting to full time, I had 3 other offers on the table. One local company was desparate, that's wher…
Having not interviewed much I'm always weary of looking at job postings, interview questions, and such (for no good reason really).
I've learned a lot in my current position, but I'm starting to feel un-challenged and slightly bored with the main initiatives we are working on.
Soon enough I'll be the only developer left at this place aside from contractors, so that will be strange too...
I think it's most likely a bubble. Enjoy it while it lasts and build a sturdy parachute for when(and likely if) it doesn't. Maybe one day there will be too many of us and our price will be driven downwards.
I feel the same way. I make 83k completing vaguely connected tasks, while mostly reading things on the internet. Even out of college making 60k felt like I was overpaid. The other side of that token is that I know guys making upwards of 120k with little work, mainly through office politics and delegating work.