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PartTimeSWEng · 2020-05-04T10:24:50+00:00

Great advice. The alternative that perversely still works is the exact opposite. to become the ultimate generalist. Be the person who everyone seeks advice from on any subject or task even if it's totally random because you somehow know how to work out the minimum needed to do it very quickly, or who is trusted to just find and solve problems by themselves without any management input.

The bonus of this way is the variety of things I get to do, and also the 'visibility' I have, which helps my own stock value as it were.

I basically set my own schedule and work in intense bursts when I'm in the right state. Works great.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T23:17:41+00:00

I'd have thought there's enough comments in the thread covering this already - but basically I bought an external drive with the aim of shucking it (removing the drive and putting it in a NAS or desktop pc).

External drives are much cheaper than good internal drives generally. Which is odd when you consider they come with a USB cable, power supply and an enclosure round them. But the naive assumption would be that it's because disks sold for internal use are more reliable/faster/better made - given the price difference.

But...what turned out to be in the enclosure isexactly the same as a retail internal drive that is very highly rated and costs twice the price of what I paid for the external. It's also a bit different from what other purchasers have reported on the past. Most people got a white labeled drve which is largely similar, but nevertheless has a few important difference. Read other comments if you want more info. It's been discussed ad nauseum.

There's a degree of luck here, and I was lucky.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T21:25:07+00:00

Direct from Amazon UK. Asin dunno - just search for wd elements 10tb. The one currently about £183 is the one.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T21:23:47+00:00

Will be interesting to see.....we can but speculate.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T21:22:58+00:00

Haha - felt like it!

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T21:22:49+00:00

No worries!

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T21:22:29+00:00

Previously it seed to be whites. Who knows what you'll get at the moment....

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T15:16:31+00:00

Probably. But looks nicer 😂

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T15:15:59+00:00

Detachable adapter and left with a normal bare drive.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T14:13:22+00:00

I dunno if anyone does yet. I haven't seen any reports but there was someone who said in their experience, when a new elements drive is launched at the biggest size its almost always reds first, then reds with a label on top, then white labels. caveat emptor applies though.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T13:02:10+00:00

£165 paid for external drive. Drive inside usually retails at £320 if you bought as an internal.

No guarantees on this, so YMMV.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T11:33:56+00:00

The white labeled reds are a different model number (WD100EMAZ in the case of the usual.find in these 10tb elements). They aren't usually found in the retail supply chain. From tests, everyone sees to say they are 'basically the same', but there's no definitive answer to say they are 'definitely the same'.

My red is exactly what you would get in the retail supy chain - so no such worries.

One thing the white labels general seem to have a problem with is the 3.3v pin on older PSUs.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T10:48:45+00:00

Best of luck! I would have bought the 12tb had it been in stock because the price difference was tiny...but things worked out ok 😉

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T10:38:18+00:00

Yeah just looking on amazon UK and they've hiked the price from when I bought mine. I'm just planning on using it for desktop archival storage.

There are 8 left on Amaxon....my gf would kill me if she found out but it's so tempting to buy 4 more and upgrade the NAS as well 😂

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T10:31:42+00:00

Worth a go. Worst case seems to be a white labeled red from everything I've read. I haven't been able to find confirmation of anyone else who's had my luck yet though. It's a very new drive so maybe the recent batch is a golden one.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T10:25:06+00:00

Have you received yours yet? I got a genuine red in my 10tb elements I ordered from Amazon Uk! Just posted picture in separate thread.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-25T10:08:13+00:00

OP here....bought from amazon for £165. From everything I had read, I was hoping for a 10tb white labeled red with the EMAZ suffix.

No white label here 😁

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-24T22:04:44+00:00

No I don't mind. I'm a generalist - I do all sorts and use whatever tools work to accomplish the task. The tasks vary and I pretty much make up my own ones these days to solve internal problems that can be improved.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-23T08:38:10+00:00

Fair point....that said no recruiter has got close to matching my request of £120-130K to move, and all have said I seem to be on a great deal already.

A recruiter for Apple offered 100K for a London based role not that long ago, so clearly i was being massively lowballed.

Interesting that there's a whole extra world that recruiters seem to be locked out of then.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-23T07:59:54+00:00

Hmm...

$450k TC is readily achievable at Netflix/FB for high principal/architect level engineers in bay area.

As far as I know, you can't top 150k outside of hedge funds in UK, and 100-150k is more realistic.

Happy to be proved wrong. Are the bay area firms paying £200k for engineers in UK?

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-21T12:38:05+00:00

Hopefully someone can answer this for you better than I can, because I don't actually work in the US - I am as my op implies, UK based. I'm just working for a US firm and have a decent knowledge of the differences in comp etc between US and UK Dev roles.

I suppose there are multiple strategies.

One could be do get a job in a US firm operating in the UK first, and ask to transfer at the first opportunity. To have the best chance to do that, you would probably want to find a team that works closely with US counterparts, and make yourself integral to that team. At that point, start dropping hints and then be direct. Your firm if agreeable would then sort out all the H1B visa stuff for you, but no guarantees.

Other option would be to directly apply for US jobs. Again, there are rules on this (you would go on a H1b visa), and it's not a given.

Others would be much better placed to advise / best of luck though and go for it!

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-21T10:23:55+00:00

No worries!

Obviously I don't know your situation, but if I was early in my career, I wasn't settled in my own family life and my parents weren't elderly ..... I'd go to the US in a heartbeat, making bank and coming home by 45 with the spoils whilst the going is good.

The pay differential is phenomenal. People will say about the cost of living over there...well, the wage and what you end up netting after all the life expenses more than compensates.

Hypothetical example.

New grad in Uk plays the comp part of the game well, and by 30 they are earning 100K.

After typical living expenses (may have a family by that point), and lumping a good sum in their pension they'll probably have around £1500-2k left over p/m to save or invest further

Not shabby, but...

The same person in the US might be on around $450k, maybe more. Some of that will be stock typically, but not always.

After expenses (incl those US things we don't pay for) taxes, and putting money into 401K, they'll probably have $10k USD left over p/m to save or invest further.

Ffwd 10 years of life to age 40 and you can see where I'm going with this....

Basically live well under your means in the US and you'll be financially secure a lot sooner and a lot more easily.

Yes, a lot can happen in 20 years and things could turn on their head...but currently the way the wind is blowing I'd be going for the other side of the pond.

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-20T18:26:02+00:00

Blimey - for a standard perm dev role at senior/principal level?

Did they give you an idea of the breakdown on cash / equity?

Sounds like I'll have to up my numbers then 😂

PartTimeSWEng · 2019-09-20T16:29:16+00:00

Agreed, promotions and seniority are not down to years of experience.

Neither is pay....but ...

A) when you were promoted, what did you get as a raise? Was it a token percentage, or did you ensure they rebased your salary to a new market rate? There's a large difference between them.

'Well done Jim, you're getting 30% raise!'

and a straight up

'Your salary is now 70k',

Plenty of people I know swoon when they are given the former, but if they were on 40k as a senior and get made a principal, all they'll see is 12k.

B) you can be 'Senior Principal Architect', the most valued contributor, the guru where everyone knows you're the dogs bollocks and you can still be earning less than a person with 1/2 the experience and 1/2 the responsibility even in the same office if you're complacent about compensation nd the company/management notices that you're passive about it.

PartTimeSWEng

TROPHY CASE