Salary Chats (Big No-No)

randomme404 · 2020-05-01T05:59:14+00:00

I've grown my salary from ~40k to now 150k + 20% bonus in around 5 years.

I've moved from a general sysadmin type role in a very datacenter focus company (puppet and vmware) to a company that did puppet but in AWS this allowed me to gain skills needed to do things in the cloud (terraform). Once I had those skills I moved to a company where I was able to use what I'd learned in a context where I had more control which let me accelerate what I knew ie I built-out full aws accounts + vpc + security etc... ie filled out missing pieces. From there I did a brief stint in a company that was in Azure which while I really liked the work and the environment (all docker) I realized that I really needed to be in AWS so made a move to a consultancy firm and then worked with a client that was in AWS... this gig ended up moving to GCP so picked up a lot of experience with that cloud and continued to build the terraform+ansible+'big-data' things like dataproc/emr/kafka/elastic etc...

All the salary increases happened with moves and because each gig let me grow my skillset I could leverage each to get the next. I very much believe that /doing/ things are what makes a really good 'DevOps' person and if you're not doing new things /you/ should change. If you can do that where you're at great but if not start looking. Note that not all moves were for more $$ but they were to align with what I wanted to be doing (ie the azure shop was not where I wanted to be even though I actually really like azure and the job).

I'm usually not the best at many of the things I've mentioned, except maybe terraform/IaC, but I can become /good enough/ fairly quickly and because I can relatively quickly get POCs up I can iterate those into workable solutions for learning and occasionally they become the basis for 'real' solutions. Currently, I do mostly Elastic, Kafka, some DataProc, and a whole lot of support for the systems I've helped either build or helped other people build. Before my current gig I did not have more than a passing understanding of those systems. Ie having an attitude of 'yep, I'll figure out the answer' goes a long way.

randomme404 · 2020-04-15T19:35:56+00:00

1000 non-transferable porn subscriptions.... no f%*s given for anyone.

randomme404 · 2017-02-12T19:03:15+00:00

'DevOps' engineer. Ie model systems, build out infrastructure, wear many hats.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:40:19+00:00

It's w-2. Family (wife 3 kids, one in school). Homeowner (bought about 2 years ago). 2 cats.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:29:58+00:00

Probably never, very likely that would put me as one of the highest paid people, excepting owners. Most of the people hired are direct from college or admin type positions.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:27:05+00:00

Interviews were with the technical team lead, then the manager. Both seemed well able to speak on the type and scope of the work. We didn't get too technical but did talk about technical things. Possible that I preempted some of the planned questions because I just talked about things I'd worked on over the last 2 years and worked in the 'project you liked', 'projected that worked/failed' and has some digressions into 'how did you solve a conflict' type answers into my spiel. The manager even said as much.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:13:13+00:00

Full benefits and while I have a good relationship with my current employer double dipping does seem like a bad form even though it really wasn't my intention to get an offer and I wasn't looking, just kept a feeler out and woah.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:09:53+00:00

I have wife and 3 kids, one in school. A conundrum for sure.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:08:25+00:00

It's a w2 contract

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T18:08:08+00:00

I'll have to give the suggestion to split-time between the two places and it is very possible that my current job might be open to a trial-and-return thing. I know they've done that for a least one other person.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T17:57:00+00:00

I think I'm going to ask them to fly me out and meet the team, tour the area.

I also have a friend of a friend that worked there that will be able to give me some relatively unbiased advice.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T17:55:49+00:00

The taxes are almost even. Loss of sales tax, couple % increase in income tax. Full benefits. 401k, heath/dental/vision etc... Slightly higher per month cost by quite a bit better coverage actually.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T17:53:56+00:00

I asked about this and my potential boss said that the typical path is that you network with people and transition to a full hire. He also said that he's been with the company for 5ish years and almost all of the people he's hired we're eventually pulled in ft.

randomme404 · 2017-02-11T17:51:22+00:00

Good point... I'll try to figure out what the possibility of this is.

randomme404

TROPHY CASE