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How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

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Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#81

Post by l33t7332273 »

onion2k wrote: post #16
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

>How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work

I find it deeply troubling that so many people conflate “being smart” with “min-maxing labor and earning”. It reflects the strange belief that the best people are the best capitalists.

I take issue with the thesis that money is crystallized virtue where more of one is more of the other.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#82

Post by sebmellen »

jfim wrote: post #15
Xeoncross wrote: post #2

As a higher income earner I've always found it important to spend the money to ask a Lawyer, CPA, second Doctor, Mentor, Coache, Inspector, and other people focused on a certain niche in life what they think for the $100/hr (or whatever) fee they charge. Always been worth it. If you're focused on tech, make sure you've hired the right people to review your NDA's, startup contract, new home purchase, or workout routin…

How do you work with/find a lawyer? Do you have them on a retainer agreement?

https://upcounsel.com is great for this. You basically post a “job” and get proposals from multiple lawyers with upfront pricing, deal structure, etc. and everything is negotiated through the platform.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#83

Post by timacles »

onion2k wrote: post #16
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #3

How to get rich in tech as a mediocre programmer: 1. Transfer to a TPM/QA Manager role at somewhere like Amazon or Microsoft. Bar is much lower to get into this role. 2. Get hired into a higher level than you could in a SWE role. 3. Transfer within the company to being an SDM 4. Now you are one level higher, in a management role, that would have taken you 5+ years of grinding and some luck to get into. 5. Spend a few…

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

Life is more complicated than that.

There are smart people burdened with a moral compass, which forces them to "do the right thing" which might be pursuing their passion or contributing to society.

Then there are smart people who are happen to exploit social structures to get ahead. Those becomes the sociopath CEOs and such.

There are also plenty of not particularly smart people who figure out how to get ahead exploiting social structures.

Theres also plenty of smart people, whos intelligence is restricted to their area of expertise. Technical knowledge doesnt transfer to strong political skills

Doesn't make the smart people who actually have a consciousness to answer to less smart than the rest

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#84

Post by compiler-guy »

Berone wrote: post #37
satvikpendem wrote: post #9

One of the top comments on the YouTube video attached to the article talks about how someone wasted their 20s working as the founding engineer (employee #6 of a 6-person startup) and when the company exited for $100 MM, they only got 100k and are still working at 40 years of age while the other 5, presumably having cofounder-level equity, are retired. This is the true risk of startups, and, if you're looking to maxim…

The path to getting into these founder / c-suite roles is those founding engineer roles in which you can learn how to scale and operate these ventures. The founding engineer role at 0.5% is not meant to be a role to retire on, but a stepping stone to those bigger roles.

A "Founding Engineer" at 0.5% is an inflated title for "someone who can actually produce a project but is going to get clobbered at exit time."

The title itself is mostly a lie.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#85

Post by nocsi »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #36
onion2k wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

> How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Being smart and how much you make aren't related. There are researchers working at universities in Europe being paid miserable salaries and yet making incredible discoveries (like medical ones) and these are incredibly smart people. Meanwhile there are people with only a few neuro…

> Being smart and how much you make aren't related. There are researchers working at universities in Europe being paid miserable salaries and yet making incredible discoveries (like medical ones) and these are incredibly smart people.

Think about it, who's funding these researchers you're celebrating?

I'd argue being smart is linked to money. You don't need to spend all your time exploiting the markets if you're smart, but just enough to build a resource pool that can enable your endeavors. People work with what they got - in your latter example, they're selling their body. If academics were functionally smart, then it's a simple task for them to be able to exploit and win against a capitalist market.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#86

Post by BayesianDice »

Apocryphon wrote: post #47
lakomen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain acronyms please?

To dissent from the other answers- thought TPM was Technical Program Manager.

I believe that is (or at least was) true at Google - although from what I knew of the role, it sounded like it also covered what I would consider project management. (I think I would often consider program mangement to be coordinating/managing across multiple projects as part of a broader program of work, but I don't think that was what Google meant by that title.)

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#87

Post by pb7 »

ravenstine wrote: post #33
onion2k wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while bossing around engineers much smarter than you How much smarter than you are they if you've taken an effective shortcut to getting paid significantly more while doing a lot less work? Working harder, taking all the stress, and earning less doesn't sound that smart.

Not all smart people have a desire to be parasites that are paid several times more than they're worth by a dysfunctional system.

Who decides what they’re worth?

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#88

Post by Berone »

ClarityJones wrote: post #77
Berone wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path to getting into these founder / c-suite roles is those founding engineer roles in which you can learn how to scale and operate these ventures. The founding engineer role at 0.5% is not meant to be a role to retire on, but a stepping stone to those bigger roles.

> meant by whom?

The folks designing the compensation plan and explaining the plan to the potential employee. I can't speak to unethical cases in which things are misrepresented.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#89

Post by RandallBrown »

Apocryphon wrote: post #47
lakomen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Explain acronyms please?

To dissent from the other answers- thought TPM was Technical Program Manager.

The distinction between a program, project, and product managers seems to be mostly dependent on the company you work at.

All the various "PMs" at companies I've worked for have done largely the same jobs that are some mix of managing the project and figuring out new features for the product.

Re: How to Not Get Screwed over as a Software Engineer [video]

#90

Post by Berone »

Ancalagon wrote: post #60
Berone wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The path to getting into these founder / c-suite roles is those founding engineer roles in which you can learn how to scale and operate these ventures. The founding engineer role at 0.5% is not meant to be a role to retire on, but a stepping stone to those bigger roles.

Except I personally know a number of CTO/co-founders that never served their time that way and went straight from Google/FB/big-tech to CTO..

Sure, I didn't mean to imply it's the only path to those seats.
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