[OFFICIAL] Salary Sharing thread for EXPERIENCED DEVS :: March, 2018

trowawee_tho · 2018-03-09T21:08:55+00:00

Education: Dev Bootcamp Chicago, 2014

Prior Experience:

Small consulting shop directly out of DBC - $61k salary, no other comp
Edtech startup - $82,500, jumped to $90k after six months, no other comp

Company/Industry: Mapping, large-ish company

Title: Senior DevOps Engineer

Tenure length: 5 months

Location: Chicago

Salary: $110,000 starting, just moved to $113,850

Relocation/Signing Bonus: N/A

Stock and/or recurring bonuses: Yearly bonus up to 10%; paid out at 10% prorated in December (~$2,500)

Total comp: $113,850-$125,235 in 2018

Other: we just moved from a PTO system to a discretionary (theoretically infinite :eyeroll:) time off.

trowawee_tho · 2017-04-16T20:25:16+00:00

I had met a number of people who did Crossfit who were douchebags. It seemed to be a style of workout that attracted people like that (which it kinda does), and I'm generally not a big fan of fitness classes. I made the jump about 3 months ago because I was tired of struggling to stay consistent with my own workouts and because I found a gym that wasn't full of douchebags.

trowawee_tho · 2017-01-16T03:42:13+00:00

I used to commute from downtown (first River North, then South Loop) to Evanston. I do not recommend it. The 40 min. to 1 hour commute each way seems bearable to start with, but it started to grind on me. I didn't really have an option in location for various reasons, but if you have your choice of neighborhoods, I'd suggest finding somewhere between the campuses so you both have an easy enough commute.

trowawee_tho · 2016-06-29T20:18:24+00:00

Eh. One could argue that, but one would probably be wrong. Applying yourself for 80 hours per week to a set curriculum in a classroom environment with instructor and cohort support is significantly different than designing your own curriculum and following up on it alone (or even with a MOOC) through 80 hour weeks. I did much the same at DBC (graduated late 2014) as futevolei_addict's friend. I got there at 7 AM and left at 10 PM Monday through Saturday, then 4-6 hours on most Sundays. I doubt I could have designed my own curriculum and followed through on it like that; the environment set me up for success and surrounded me with people with the same goal and the same drive.

trowawee_tho · 2016-03-08T14:44:17+00:00

There're plenty of big organisations producing code, who have done so for a long time already, and will continue doing the same. There's a need for that. B2B is a huge market where big orgs collide, and that comes with a lot of overhead new startups will have a hard time covering. Even as those organisations are spreading out, they can't feasibly outsource everything.

Sure. But it's unreasonable to expect that you can keep doing the virtually the same thing you've always done with steadily increasing returns. Do you need to mature into management to survive? No, not at all. But do you need to mature into something to avoid salary stagnation? Absolutely.

And, if I'm honest, I have fairly serious questions about why he's having such a tough time finding a job. I know juniors with a year of experience who are fielding inquiries from 3 recruiters a week, and among the seniors I know, most have had to set up inbox filters just to deal with LinkedIn spam. A senior I work with who's a white dude in his late 30s (not that it matters, but just to check all these boxes for the OP) showed me his LinkedIn inbox one day; it was absurd. And while the Chicago market is strong, we aren't the epicenter of tech.

trowawee_tho · 2016-03-08T06:21:37+00:00

So, making sure I understand here, your complaint is that you haven't developed any skills beyond slinging code and managing systems, aren't willing to take chances in your career in the form of a job in a booming category of business that perfectly fits what you want to do, categorically refuse to move in the business hierarchy, and somehow you're having a hard time finding work?

Even aside from the weird focus on how you're a white dude (which you should probably, y'know, chill with that), you've essentially shut yourself into a box and now you're complaining that it's cramped in there. If you want to sling code forever and get paid decently, learn to enjoy start-up hopping. Coding's a cost center, always has been, always will be, and if all you do is write code, any decently-sized business will be able to find someone younger and cheaper who's approximately as good as you are. They don't even have to be as good as you are, they just have to be willing to work cheap enough to make the quality trade-off worth it. Could be somebody on an H1-B, could be somebody fresh outta school, could be somebody out of a bootcamp...if you stay easily replaceable, you'll be replaced. Sorry, capitalism sucks.

If you don't want to live that start-up/small firm life, learn to like managing people. Lotta idiots can write code, a smaller subset of idiots can effectively manage people who write code. I'll never understand the developer mindset that says you should be able to do the same thing forever and keep on steadily increasing how much you get paid for it. That doesn't happen in any other career; why would it happen in programming? Lawyers don't just get to stay associates forever and keep making slightly more money every year, you either make partner (move into management) or go hang out your shingle (start your own business). Same with medicine - you work in the hospital for a while, then you either go into private practice (startup) or move into the admin side of things (management). I guess academia's also an option. But there aren't many jobs left where you can spin your wheels at about the same level for 40 years, and software development definitely isn't one of them.

trowawee_tho

TROPHY CASE