this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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What was your experience climbing the career ladder in tech? (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I've seen people call themselves "senior" after 3 years on the job, other become CTOs in the same time, and others still have a senior title after 20(!) years in the industry yet have a fuckton of technical experience.

I've heard that they are all just titles and opinions from "if you don't have the technical skill you can't call yourself a senior", to "senior and staff are just a feeling, principal is the actual senior" and "staff? above senior? we call that manager".

What's your story? Is there a ladder? Do you feel like you belong on it? Where are you on it? Does it make sense? Did you see major bumps in salary? Did titles count at all?

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[–] MajorHavoc 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What's your story?

I've been coding a pretty long time. I've been the boss a decently long time. My combination of pay and benefits is good. My team is exceptional.

Is there a ladder?

It's chaos.

Do you feel like you belong on it?

I always end up being "the boss", because otherwise someone unqualified will do it and that annoys me.

Where are you on it?

I'm "the boss". I do political bullshit so my team doesn't have to. I get some extra money for my trouble. I still code because I'm stubborn and no one can really tell me what to do.

Does it make sense?

No.

Did you see major bumps in salary?

Several times, often 20% without changing jobs and usually at least 40% when I bother changing jobs. I'm still underpaid, though.

Did titles count at all?

I'm usually offered "pick your title" within three years of joining an organization. Before that it's usually just "senior developer", or "manager of development".

Titles are mostly meaningless for a programmer after they've had senior for more than 3 years.

Titles are what they give out instead of money. For new programmers that has value. For the rest of us, a lot of us just say "I'll take cash. Thanks."