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A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

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Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#11

Post by bdangubic »

denismenace wrote: post #5
bdangubic wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Make yourself as replaceable as possible. On the list of top-100 things SWEs need focus on to have the most prosperous career this one is 1 through 95

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

My career in a nutshell:

- I picked a company that was less than 100 people and in business for at least 2 decades, and profitable these were my core parameters

- I worked like a dog first few years, specifically focusing on picking up everything no one else wanted. And in every shop there will be plenty of this

- I f'ed with the code that says DO NOT TOUCH THIS, NO ONE KNOWS, EVERYTHING WILL BREAK

- I intertwined myself with every part of the product (multi-million lines of code product)

Then:

- At 5th year anniversary I asked for 60% bump and yearly 15% raise moving forward, the owner did not think for more than a minute and agreed

- At 10th year I quit, started my own LLC and offered my services to the company at the same rate they were charging their customers for senior engineer rates (which was roughly 2x what my salary was - no problems)

I made more money that I can spend in 4 lifetimes just following these simple principles. I became virtually irreplaceable and henceforth could demand just about anything I wanted (within reason of course but that 'reason' is very high...)

I always find myself thinking why are so many people trying to get jobs at FAANG/Big Tech where there is a much simpler (and attainable) path that being one of the thousands and practically just a number.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#12

Post by torginus »

bdangubic wrote: post #11
denismenace wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

My career in a nutshell: - I picked a company that was less than 100 people and in business for at least 2 decades, and profitable these were my core parameters - I worked like a dog first few years, specifically focusing on picking up everything no one else wanted. And in every shop there will be plenty of this - I f'ed with the code that says DO NOT TOUCH THIS, NO ONE KNOWS, EVERYTHING WILL BREAK - I intertwined my…

But GP wrote about being replaceable being good for your career - which doesn't make sense - and the opposite what you did, which does make sense.

About your career path - kudos to you, but my experience has been that willing to do the work nobody wanted/could resulted in receiving more of said work, but when it came to taking credit, people always came out of the woordwork, on the other hand I have had many negative interactions, like the guy who knew I was an expert at some sort of thing asked me to take on a bit of extra for his sake, and when I told him I already was doing the workload of 2 people. He then told me if that meant that I couldn't do it today, it would be fine as long as I did it tomorrow.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#13

Post by torginus »

austin-cheney wrote: post #8
denismenace wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

A couple of things: * Employers do not heavily invest in training. They over invest in hiring/firing. If you want to shine at candidate selection time you need to look like that perfect guy who they can fire with minimal risk and replace you with a 22 year old. * Employees that over prioritize in retaining their current employment, such becoming that irreplaceable center of attention that keeps all the lights on, are…

Personally I'm not even sure if training works from the employers perspective. There are people who are willing to go the extra mile for whatever reason, and there are who are content just getting by, with some people not even that.

Not to complain, its just an observation. There are people you can point at a problem, and they come back with a great solution a couple days later. I've had a story of a coworker who during her internship was mistaken for someone else working on a totally different speciality and they tasked her with doing something, and after the initial bafflement and fuming, she did it and it was so well done, that the boss came to congratulate her, but was puzzled about why she was on the different side of the org chart.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#14

Post by anukin »

I see masters in technological related fields as a way to get a job in USA for many non us candidates. It’s a good thing that this gamification of the system is meeting its demise. I for one have not found many masters students talented than the undergrads at software tasks. PhDs are another matter though.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#15

Post by austin-cheney »

torginus wrote: post #12
bdangubic wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My career in a nutshell: - I picked a company that was less than 100 people and in business for at least 2 decades, and profitable these were my core parameters - I worked like a dog first few years, specifically focusing on picking up everything no one else wanted. And in every shop there will be plenty of this - I f'ed with the code that says DO NOT TOUCH THIS, NO ONE KNOWS, EVERYTHING WILL BREAK - I intertwined my…

But GP wrote about being replaceable being good for your career - which doesn't make sense - and the opposite what you did, which does make sense. About your career path - kudos to you, but my experience has been that willing to do the work nobody wanted/could resulted in receiving more of said work, but when it came to taking credit, people always came out of the woordwork, on the other hand I have had many negative…

It makes sense. The subject here is not about career progression. Its about employment attainment.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#16

Post by foxyv »

denismenace wrote: post #5
bdangubic wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Make yourself as replaceable as possible. On the list of top-100 things SWEs need focus on to have the most prosperous career this one is 1 through 95

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

If you cannot be replaced, you are un-promotable. Your entire career becomes tied to a single point of failure. Then, when they replace that piece of software with a new product you have no experience elsewhere.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#17

Post by mistrial9 »

bdangubic wrote: post #11
denismenace wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

My career in a nutshell: - I picked a company that was less than 100 people and in business for at least 2 decades, and profitable these were my core parameters - I worked like a dog first few years, specifically focusing on picking up everything no one else wanted. And in every shop there will be plenty of this - I f'ed with the code that says DO NOT TOUCH THIS, NO ONE KNOWS, EVERYTHING WILL BREAK - I intertwined my…

SiliconValley Founders drank a lot of alcohol and talked about this exact thing, except that they wanted to kill every Oak Tree seedling in sight, whereas you grew your Oak Tree over a decade. Zero chance of this approach working near SiliconValley for the last 27 years IMHO

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#18

Post by francisofascii »

foxyv wrote: post #16
denismenace wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand on that? Seems very counterintuitive

If you cannot be replaced, you are un-promotable. Your entire career becomes tied to a single point of failure. Then, when they replace that piece of software with a new product you have no experience elsewhere.

So maybe "interchangeable" is a better goal. They can replace you, but keep you, just somewhere else.

Re: A Master's Degree Isn't the Job Guarantee It Used to Be

#19

Post by deflator »

anukin wrote: post #14

I see masters in technological related fields as a way to get a job in USA for many non us candidates. It’s a good thing that this gamification of the system is meeting its demise. I for one have not found many masters students talented than the undergrads at software tasks. PhDs are another matter though.

This has been my experience as well
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