Live data from Hacker News

Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

fearlesssalarynegotiation.com

191–196 of 196 posts

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#191

If only things were so easy. Our department gets allocated $XX,XXX each year for raises. My boss has to split that among eight people. If I were to get a 5% bump like OP recommends, other people would get nothing. Sounds like typical D-grade manager motivation. "Everyone work yourself to death and I might throw you a bone after one year!" I'd rather give up that 5% to have a sane work-life balance. It's common knowle…

If threatening to quit is the only way to get the raise that you (presumably) deserve, then it's probably a good sign that it's time to, you know, actually quit and move to a better opportunity where your contribution is properly valued.

Nah. It's just a standard negotiation strategy.

If you want to stay, come back with a better offer and ask your company to match. Be prepared to leave if they don't want to.

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#192

If only things were so easy. Our department gets allocated $XX,XXX each year for raises. My boss has to split that among eight people. If I were to get a 5% bump like OP recommends, other people would get nothing. Sounds like typical D-grade manager motivation. "Everyone work yourself to death and I might throw you a bone after one year!" I'd rather give up that 5% to have a sane work-life balance. It's common knowle…

Devil's advocate: At a low-performance company, perhaps they aren't able to extract any more value out of a developer than what they are paying (plus overhead).

That's especially the case of consultancies.

They resell the human dude at a daily rate. Giving a raise is just lowering their margins.

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing not mentioned a lot in this discussion is that those triple- and double-digit increases tend to only happen early in one's career. Later in your career, it gets very difficult to find a different company that is willing to pay you even 10% more than you're making. You definitely will hit a ceiling at some point. My last job hop probably did not result in more than a 1% bump or so. So, Junior Engineer going…

> Senior Engineer going from $150K to $175K is going to be rarer. Super-Senior Engineer going from $190K to $225K seems unlikely (but probably does happen from time to time). I don't think either of those are particularly rare. If you're learning and negotiating aggressively, the salary ramp is very steep. There is absolutely a ceiling, but it's probably closer to $300k than $150k.

We're talking base salary.

The $300k are usually accounting for stock and bonus.

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#194
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are the reason there are engineers that values themselves so high, that when they reach the market again they ask as much's salary as if they were CEO's?

Are you implying that a CEO is more valuable than a good engineer?

YES

A _good_ CEO it's worth more than 1 good engineer by the fact the second one needs input from the first one, a good engineer is useless without a goal or an idea to develop. Software Foundations are probably the only places were this tough isn't valid for everything else it should.

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#195

$100/hr: 120K yr for 3-day/wk contracts, I like long weekends.. Java dev.

As someone who doesn't earn quite as much, whose day job is maintaining and modifying big, monolithic and outdated Spring/Webflow/JSF applications from hell I'd like to ask you: What exactly are you doing and how do did you get there?

Sorry for the late reply, I work in integration. I say I'm a Java dev but I don't write much Java, I've specialised for the past 3 years in an ESB called Mule.

The need for the tech seems to be rising around the world and I just happened to pick it up on my first job (have been working "professionally" for 4 years). Didn't really start fully understanding the quirks and good ways of doing things with it until this year, but I was charging $80/hr 2 years ago.

Seeing as you're already familiar with monoliths, I don't think it would be a very far jump for you if you were interested in the tech. You can get certifications for Write a blog, give talks, goto meetups and find companies that need your skills. Don't undervalue yourself, if you set your rate too low - your clients aren't going to like it in a years time when you've realised you're worth 2X and you start charging them 2X.

Re: Software Developers: how to get a raise without changing jobs

#196
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contracting for startups at 75k GBP? Is this in London? What industry is the startup targeting?

75 k is acutally low for contracting. Good contractors can hit 100k+

Equivalent of 75K GBP - I moved to Australia and rates simply aren't as good
Post reply on HN