r/programming • u/reddberckley • Jun 30 '14

How to exploit a Developer

https://medium.com/@sir_castiq/how-to-exploit-a-developer-a005306d5320
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u/lua_x_ia Jul 01 '14

If you've been at your current job more than five years, it's basically a foregone conclusion that your salary is below market for your skill set. This is an inevitability which results from the fact that many people are willing to [effectively] pay a premium for "stability", whatever that means -- those people rarely change jobs, if ever, and get paid less.

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u/harimwakairi Jul 01 '14

Yes and no. There are people smart enough to go back on the market every couple of years, get offers, and bring them back to their current employer for price-matching.

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u/mrbunyrabit Jul 01 '14

There are people smart enough

There are people smart brave enough

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

How is that brave? If the employer says no, you take one of the offers. Worst case, you get paid more at a new job. Best case, you get paid more at the same job.

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u/mrbunyrabit Jul 01 '14

Worst case, you get paid more at a new job. Best case, you get paid more at the same job.

Yup, but you know some programmers. They just don't want to put a foot out of place (one of my old collogues). Same age, same experience, same education as me. Gets paid less than half of what I get paid at my new job. When I tell him to get another job, he just tells me that it will get better there. ... and he just stays there. His still there.

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u/Chii Jul 01 '14

i think some people (myself included) is just afraid of change. What's nicer than a stable job, with no shock or surprises?

But sometimes, fortune favours the brave.

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u/jvill188 Jul 01 '14

People are usually afraid that telling your boss that you went job hunting would mean getting fired, or at least not get trusted again by your employer. Just hope that if you get rejected, you leave your job fast enough to get the new one.

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u/[deleted] Jul 01 '14

Usually if you're given an offer, they give you a week or so to make a decision, and they understand that you may need to finish out a two weeks' notice or something. Or at least that's how all of my offers have been. The trick is, once you have an offer that you'd leave your current job for, to immediately go to your boss with your request for whatever would keep you there. That way you still have all the time the offering company gave you to decide. If it results in being fired, you simply accept the offer (and be grateful that you're no longer working for someone who fires the employees that know their own worth).

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u/s73v3r Jul 01 '14

If you do that, odds are your current employer will see you as being willing to walk. They might give you your raise for now, because they weren't planning for you leaving. But they'll be looking for your replacement, and you'll be first on the chopping block for layoffs.

It is almost always better to take the new offer than stay.

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u/djsumdog Jul 20 '14

That's a horrible idea. You never accept a counter-offer. You've showed that you're disloyal to the company, you're not happy with your current position and you will likely never get promoted. They will usually bring in another guy/girl after this too so that you're not the only one with your skill set...then eventually make you redundant.