Are you an underpaid developer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#31

Post by joshrotenberg » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 4:49 AM UTC

m_mueller wrote: post #26

yekko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

Now that's interesting, the specialization gave you a salary boost then? I always thought that after some point (team leaders / project leaders) a CS generalist would be more valuable. Edit: Wow, very insightful responses, thanks yekko, svachalek, josh

I think this is totally dependent on the position itself. If a company has a good base and needs one super duper person to fill a specific need, they may be likely to pay that one person really well. If a company has a bunch of crap that needs fixing (legacy codebase, lots of context switching between front end, back end, sysadmin, etc.) then that might be the person they want to throw the cash at. Seems to me its a good idea to focus on something and get experience, start to generalize as you gain experience, and then start to specialize again as you find a niche/see what the market demands.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#32

Post by svachalek » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 4:52 AM UTC

hcarvalhoalves wrote: post #20

I'm depressed looking at those figures now. I'm not in the US, but still... As a developer who works both on backend and frontend, let alone sysadmin work, I'm not making 1/3 of that. I should look into working with US contractors.

If you're making $100k in say, San Francisco, about half your paycheck is gone to federal, state, and local taxes, social security, retirement plan, etc. Say you're left with $4200/mo. Take a look at house prices and rents there. There goes half of that. Now half of what's left on food. Now you need transportation, clothes, a phone, insurance, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty good life. And you can definitely spend a lot less money by having roommates or living in a dangerous neighborhood or eating only noodles. On the other hand, good luck raising a family. All in all, it's not nearly as much money as people imagine when they convert it to local currency and cost of living.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#33

Post by argimenes » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 4:55 AM UTC

dabent wrote: post #5

Salaried positions do include benefits packages, and in the US, the health insurance can be expensive or impossible for certain people to get. That said, if you know of one of those $124 freelance jobs in LA...

Who needs health insurance when the government -- with a triple-A credit rating -- provides free public healthcare? Hmm, wrong country ...

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#34

Post by jrdn » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 4:58 AM UTC

bostonthrowaway wrote: post #27

Posting this on a throwaway account, but I would like some feedback. I'm currently making $60k in Boston as a front-end developer with just over a year of working experience. I've wondered for a while whether I'm underpaid, but I am getting a lot of experience, so I figure it evens out. I mostly wonder what I should ask for when I start my next job after I pass the hallowed "two years experience" mark, and whether I…

That sounds about right to me, or just barely on the low side of right.

Asking for a raise is something you can consider, but I'm not really going to say if it's a good or bad thing to do. If your job has changed and you've taken on more responsibility, that's a good way to stand up for yourself and ask for more money. On the other hand, doing it persistently might make your employers think you're unhappy and likely to jump ship. Then they'll be more interested in replacing you than developing you.

Anyway, in this industry you generally start earning more through changing jobs, not getting raises/promotions within a job. Ride your job while you learn, and see if you can get some more money out of them in the meantime. Once you've grown to the point you're ready for something new, then that's when you can really expect to try and make a play for something bigger.

At two years of experience & a new job, I'd probably try and get around $75k or so. Depends a bit on what sort of company you're working for (startups tend to pay less, for example) so at a larger company you might be able to swing something more like 80.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#35

Post by yekko » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 4:59 AM UTC

m_mueller wrote: post #26

yekko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

Now that's interesting, the specialization gave you a salary boost then? I always thought that after some point (team leaders / project leaders) a CS generalist would be more valuable. Edit: Wow, very insightful responses, thanks yekko, svachalek, josh

What I found is that if a company has a problem and you sell yourself as the solution, you can ask for the moon. This highly depends on the company. If the company is simply looking for bodies, avoid :)

Even for the exact same job, I've seen pay difference of beyond 50% (even within the same team!). I helped this guy raise his salary from 85k(?) to 130k simply by showing him a piece of paper. (Don't ask)

Oh, another tip, discuss salary with your co-workers, only good can come out of it.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#36

Post by sherm8n » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 5:00 AM UTC

bostonthrowaway wrote: post #27

Posting this on a throwaway account, but I would like some feedback. I'm currently making $60k in Boston as a front-end developer with just over a year of working experience. I've wondered for a while whether I'm underpaid, but I am getting a lot of experience, so I figure it evens out. I mostly wonder what I should ask for when I start my next job after I pass the hallowed "two years experience" mark, and whether I…

Wow, you are underpaid. Do you have a CS degree? The smartest graduating students are starting their careers off at 100K at least.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#37

Post by skylan_q » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 5:01 AM UTC

I'm in southern Ontario. My experience: A few years mostly doing development on a LAMP stack and admin stuff on Linux/Windows systems along with some iOS dev thrown in there.

Salaried at $50k from my day job and doing some part-time work.I've yet to met anyone who has made over $70k/year here doing this kind of work. (at least, they won't say how much they've earned)

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#38

Post by JeremyMorgan » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 5:02 AM UTC

Those figures seem a bit inflated. I'm in the Portland/Hillsboro Oregon area and I don't see that many breaking over 100k, unless it's as a contractor / temp and you're hourly. We have a pretty big IT ecosystem here and big players like Intel, Nike, and a ton of healthcare providers.

Then again our cost of living is quite a bit lower, so maybe it evens out pretty well in the end.

Still if you feel you're underpaid you need to do something about it. This is one of the rare industries where you can truly command more pay simply by improving your skills at home without a large monetary investment. So stop making excuses and change it!

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#39

Post by svachalek » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 5:05 AM UTC

m_mueller wrote: post #26

yekko wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 job changes, I did not plan this actually... Also, I specialized, no longer a generalist. Edit: the green card helped!

Now that's interesting, the specialization gave you a salary boost then? I always thought that after some point (team leaders / project leaders) a CS generalist would be more valuable. Edit: Wow, very insightful responses, thanks yekko, svachalek, josh

In my somewhat anecdotal exposure to salary data over the years, it seems the best thing for straight cash is to specialize in moderately out-of-date technologies. Big, stable companies with lots of money need people to fix and maintain their legacy systems and the ranks of skilled/interested/breathing tend to thin out faster than the demand declines.

At some level of leadership it seems to me that having broad experience is better, but in my experience first-level leadership roles usually go to specialists and second-level roles to go first-level leads etc.

Re: Are you an underpaid developer?

#40

Post by msellout » Wed, Apr 03, 2013, 5:06 AM UTC

tunesmith wrote: post #8

I'm a bit higher than average for freelance hourly. I'm thinking about getting more into "charging by value" (as opposed to hourly) because I get a lot of resistance to raising my rate even as I get faster - but I'm not really certain how to do this since I tend to have long-term relationships with my clients and my work generally doesn't tend to have clear start/finish boundaries. Curious to hear if anyone has figur…

Start by moving to weekly billing.