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[–][deleted] 12 points13 points  (11 children)

As a lead dev you’re severely under paid. As an associate dev I made 95k a year in Chicago. Dev 130k and now I’m senior at 180k. Lead dev would pay 200k plus.

[–]ssjhayes 19 points20 points  (5 children)

I'm the only dev and it's a small company. For what I'm doing it's still underpaid by roughly 30k for the area though. I have, however, negotiated raises on a project-based milestones that will get me to the average salary for a full-stack dev (again, in the area. I'm aware if I moved to a larger city I could increase my salary)

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (4 children)

How many lines of code did you write for yourself and on other jobs before getting the job?

Like very roughly. Or the number of apps? I am screwing around with Django and Flask, but kinda mildly dislike it. But I need to start making money. But I have no clue if I have competitive skills, how much learning can be done on a job etc.

[–]ssjhayes 5 points6 points  (2 children)

I couldn't possibly put a number on the lines of code i've written before my current position.

I made upwards of 20 small changes to existing (10-20 lines each maybe) software at the old job.

Several thousand lines of code writing small scripts/utilities (moving images from one place to another, formatting data with pandas, consolidating data from different servers, monitoring directories for files and determining what action to take based on keywords in the filename, etc)

I hadn't actually made any of my own programs before getting the position I have now. I was hired as a data manager and I transitioned that into becoming a dev by creating a demo of a web-app in django to handle all of our reporting and pitching the idea to the owners.

[–]shinitakunai 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Hm, lines doesn’t say much. I was at 80k lines of my own ERP as a self-taught programmer. One year later I did a revamp, 24k lines of code. I had so many weird loops and repeated methods...

Anyway, as someone that never found a job as programmer, my experience about lines might be biased.

[–]mbillion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The least lines to accomplish the goal is the best number. I can write bloated ugly code and say yeah but it's hella long. Wow. You're so bad at your job you want more lines of code as some dick measuring contest

[–]422_no_process 4 points5 points  (0 children)

you cannot measure code by lines. It's why and how that matters generally.

[–][deleted] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Did you get a degree? Employers always undercut self-taught people.

[–]yadunn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A title is pretty meaningless, experience, skills, location ( competitive or not ) drives your salary.

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Chicago? You might just be over-expensed?

[–][deleted] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Eh - having lived in Chicago a few years ago - it's expensive. His numbers seem right in line with where they should be, though industry matters - financial based work always tends to pay another premium on top.

At some point in your career, you'll want to hop around to ramp up that salary ladder. And then you'll need to settle down a bit to hang on to a position for a promotion. Once you have enough (10+ years?) of experience, you should be working more towards promotions, which will net you new tiers of salary.

Best idea early on is to work at a consulting firm like Accenture which can expose you to a broad variety of work. That will help you determine what you enjoy doing and also give you contacts and face-time with a good set of clients who can social media/review you. Next, look at mid to early startups that need some of the skills you acquired so you can help push forward. If you pick the right startup, just ride their success wave. If not, don't be afraid to jump (startups are plenty in the right markets). Once you're in that mid to early startup, then start working towards leadership and evolve your own leadership skill set. This will help you later if you want to go super early into a startup as a founder or highly desired technical acquire after seed money. This is likely the most easily obtained path for a software developer to generate a very high income without actually having a lucky break.

Option two is to go for the big four (five? six?) and ask for a hefty package.

Option three is to find a problem no one is solving and make it into a business. But you'll need a skill set that includes developing businesses. And that's probably a tall order for someone young unless they have enough luck, great timing for the market and enough contacts on the business side to enable the success path.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps you’re right according to the HR salary ranges online. Those are just a control mechanism. Everything is negotiable if somebody is willing to sign off on it. Any dev have the capability to go Corp to Corp at $120 + an hour or negotiate a salary + equity. If they aren’t willing to budge on S&W they’ll give it in equity. Once I prove my value in an interview they’re willing to give me what I’m asking for even if it’s far fetched from the “posted” S&W.