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Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

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Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#21

Post by damian2000 »

ktsmith wrote: post #12
alexholehouse wrote: post #9

I'm shocked at how many people are in start ups - does that perhaps reflect the fact that if your a start up you're typically building your own tools from scratch in areas you're less familiar with, so perhaps need access to experts you don't have locally (i.e. in your company)?

The breakdown for start up/small business isn't great. We have less than 25 people but the company has been around for 17 years.

yeah agreed - the company where I work is 20+ years old, has about 15 ppl but is definitely not a start up.

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#23

Post by nbclark »

spamizbad wrote: post #6
nbclark wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not surprised by taking a 10% paycut for a better fitting role. I was surprised that having equity or options in the company was one of the least important "wants".

I took the survey and rated equity/options pretty low. My rationale (which may very well be wrong): 1) Options offerings are typically a fraction of 1%: even for the first engineer at companies with no technical co-founders. This (I think) is a carry-over from the dot-com era where IPO exits came hot and heavy. These days, if you're lucky, you're looking at a low-7 to mid-8 figure exit. And to become fully vested, yo…

Yeah I agree. I would not sacrifice (much) salary for equity, but would certainly negotiate to have as much equity as I could. Regardless of how it all shakes out, I would like to think that I am somewhat vested in the eventual outcome of the company.

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#24

Post by amcintyre »

thiele wrote: post #22

The lack of interest in "Stock Options/Profit Sharing Program" should be a sobering reality for business people looking for technical co-founders/employees.

I wonder...is it a complete lack of interest, or is it, "I'm not interested in the tiny amount of equity/sharing I typically get offered?"

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#25

Post by vosper »

darxius wrote: post #14

If an employer were to take anything away from this survey, I'd say it should be the last question. Way too often have I been interviewed by monotonous and unorganized people who misrepresent an otherwise great position. Please. When performing interviews, try and get people who both like what they're doing and are organized.

On the flipside - interviewers at my previous company were excited and interesting, but misrepresented a monotonous and unorganized [sic] position.

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#26

Post by philgo20 »

After reading about Joel Spolsky "What Programmers Want" survey, I thought it'd be interesting to know how programmers feel about their current employer.

Fill up the 3 questions survey, it really takes 3 minues https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEx6LUN...

Thank you already for taking the time, we'll publish the result on matchFWD blog at http://blog.matchfwd.com as soon as we have significant data.

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#27

Post by memset »

thiele wrote: post #22

The lack of interest in "Stock Options/Profit Sharing Program" should be a sobering reality for business people looking for technical co-founders/employees.

When I answered the question, I meant it in a sense of "I don't expect to get rich if we ever IPO or get bought, and as an employee I haven't any way to prevent dilution or otherwise try to maximize the value of these options. So how about we take another look at our base, hm?"

Re: Results of Joel Spolsky's "What Programmers Want" Survey

#30

Post by perfunctory »

nod wrote: post #28

Pie charts for comparison?! Here, I made you some bar charts instead: http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/wpw/Country Thanks to gavinballard for the CSV link. If you want to see different breakdowns, just download the workbook/software and play with it yourself.

http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/wpw/Experience

Where do developers disappear after 8 years? And then pop back up after 12.

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