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Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

blog.hirelite.com

11–20 of 43 posts

Re: Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

#16
post #8

Five years of experience as a programmer is like becoming a "made man" in a crime family. Before, you're nothing. After, you're trusted and respected. I was in the same job from years 2-5 and didn't see much of a raise. Then when I got a new job it was more than double the salary. And it does seem like you have to leave to go somewhere else, or else you're a prophet without honor. It's also clear from the graph that…

Was there anything you did as far as negotiating the salary at the new job or did they offer you that much straight up?

Re: Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

#17
post #12

How do I get a job at 0 years working remote from Houston?

when you figure that out, let me know. I have only been able to get partial work from home here in Houston, and that is usually given grudgingly and to your detriment to follow rigorously.

Re: Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

#18
post #16
post #8

Five years of experience as a programmer is like becoming a "made man" in a crime family. Before, you're nothing. After, you're trusted and respected. I was in the same job from years 2-5 and didn't see much of a raise. Then when I got a new job it was more than double the salary. And it does seem like you have to leave to go somewhere else, or else you're a prophet without honor. It's also clear from the graph that…

Was there anything you did as far as negotiating the salary at the new job or did they offer you that much straight up?

This was years ago but I mention it since the demand for developers was similar.

I was going from a really low-paid games job to doing application programming for a large startup. Game programming tends to have even more depressed starting salaries than usual, although this was back when everyone was still salaried.

My former boss actually predicted that I "could make twice as much somewhere else" when I left, and the new employer in fact offered that straight up.

Re: Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

#19
post #12

How do I get a job at 0 years working remote from Houston?

Companies are having a tough time getting comfortable with remote developers.

Perhaps you could email a few Austin startups, tell them specifically what you'd like to help them with, ask to work remotely, and offer to visit their office once per month or quarter.

Austin has a growing startup/tech scene, and they're having a bit of trouble finding developers to fill the demand, so they may be willing to be more flexible.

Re: Developer salary growth is an inverted hockey stick

#20
post #12

How do I get a job at 0 years working remote from Houston?

I've been working remotely for 5 years doing all sorts of web development. The two things that have helped the the most are:

1) Open source contributions.

2) Personal projects.

I still haven't made any money from any of those but putting them in the emails I send to offers found on the different job boards have always put me ahead in the line of people applying.

If you're desperate for money you can always go to sites like oDesk and applying for stuff there. You'll have to accept $15-$30 per hour (or even lower when starting) but once you get a good reputation you can make a decent salary out of that.

Finally, write me to federico@toptal.com if you have a semi-decent Github profile and I'm sure we can reach an arrangement!

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