The following article is from TechFlow
Author Liang Tang
Hello, everyone, today I will talk to you about the salary issue that you like.
Recently, a small partner asked that he was facing a huge problem, and I didn’t know how to choose between 6K programmers and 8K selling agents . For me, this problem is of course very clear. Although 6K programmers are not paid high, they are technical positions after all, and the future increase can be expected. For me, my salary was not much higher than his when I graduated, but my salary tripled in the first three years of graduation. It would be difficult to achieve this rate if it is a real estate agent.
So today I will talk to you about the issue of programmers' early development and salary, hoping to give some help to professionals in the workplace.
Selection of key nodes
For me, there are two nodes where my salary has increased drastically. One is joining Ali with the title of a senior engineer, and the other is from Ali and coming to Singapore. Both times have almost increased by more than 50%, which is the main reason why I can triple in three years. Of course, this example is not just a simple job-hopping and salary increase. There are actually some details behind this. These are the key points I want to talk about.
Job-hopping and salary increases are the consensus of many people. After all, compared with the 10% annual general adjustment, job-hopping increases by at least 30% or more are obviously more attractive. But what I have to say is that it is difficult to achieve good development if only money-oriented job-hopping , which is the problem of falling into a local optimal solution we often say. More important than job-hopping is the choice of key nodes.
The so-called key nodes are nodes that have a huge improvement in career development. For some professional elderly people, there are many such choices, such as joining a thriving startup company, taking a lot of stocks, and realizing wealth freedom when the company goes public. Life dreams. Or if you join a small and medium-sized company in a high position, you can also earn a lot of money. But for newcomers, these opportunities are not yet available, but there are also many factors that can be considered.
For me, my priority is future development . More money and less money also need to be good for the future. After all, a career is a long-distance race, and you can't just look at it. So what is good for the long-term and good for the future? This question is simple, in fact, it is the content that can be added points to the resume . For example, joining a well-known large company, such as the company's core technology department, mastering the core technology, or taking a management position and leading the team. These contents are all extra points and are beneficial to long-term development.
For example, I chose to go to Ali, after all, Ali is the leading company in China. When you quit Alibaba in the future, you will have a wider range of options, and salary increases will not be a problem. I later chose to come to Singapore instead of joining pdd and headlines, and I had similar ideas. Because after you come to Singapore, you will have a wider range of options, and you may get better development opportunities.
In fact, I am not unaware that the two companies, pdd and Toutiao, have given generously, and both have given a large increase. But this is not without cost. One problem is that such an opportunity may only be used once , because we certainly cannot jump in and out repeatedly. So since such a buff can only be added once, of course it should be added where the benefits are greatest, such as the mid-career. This will bring the greatest benefits, rather than being used in the early stages.
Salary ceiling
If we regard our career as a game, the entire development process is probably the stages of engineer, senior, tech leader, and director. Generally, those who are directors are considered to be in high positions. The more you go up, the more difficult it becomes. I don't know how the director should be divided, so everyone will look at it first.
For newcomers, the threshold from ordinary engineer to senior is relatively low, and it is relatively easy to pass. Even if there is no opportunity for promotion in the company, it is enough to quit. Generally speaking, one year may be faster, and two years slower is sufficient. Medium and large enterprises have strict promotion windows, usually once a year. So many newcomers will choose to quit after staying for more than a year when they see no hope of promotion. This is also a routine operation, including what I did back then. I still feel that way, the process from an ordinary engineer to a senior does not need to be promoted, and job-hopping is also a good choice.
But it is more difficult to go from senior to Tech leader, and it is difficult to achieve through job-hopping. Because you want to lead the team, you need to get enough trust from the boss, and make enough performance to convince everyone, which is obviously not achievable by hopping. And the Tech leader is no longer responsible for personal performance, but the output of the entire team. The responsibilities and output it brings are much larger than those of senior engineers, so it is obvious that the income of Tech leaders is far more than that of senior engineers.
The gap here is often not reflected in wages, but in stocks . Generally speaking, it is normal for the Tech leader of a better company to pay millions of stock dividends a year. Such income is far from being able to make up for the gap of a few K or a dozen K of salary. This is the ceiling problem that people often talk about. Many senior engineers jumped around and their salaries have risen a lot, but there has been no breakthrough in the stock market. I think this is a pity.
Once you have reached a senior level, if you can't go one step further and become technical management, you will only bring about a salary gap on paper, which is not worth mentioning for the huge stock income gap. Therefore, for those who have become senior students after two or three years of graduation, the most important consideration at this time is to find a suitable environment to take root and settle down, improve their abilities in all aspects, and prepare for the future.
career planning
When I was a newcomer, I felt that my career plan was very imaginary, illusory, invisible, and completely meaningless. But when I got some improvement after working for a few years, I felt that my previous views were too shallow. Career planning is very important, but it is not very obvious in the early stage. At its core, there is only one question, which is what kind of position we want to achieve and what kind of role we will become .
People who want to become CTOs and those who want to be free through work and wealth may both become programmers at the beginning, but their subsequent development paths are definitely completely different. Grand goals are often not used to achieve but to guide the way .
What does that mean? Simply put, in the early part of our career, we are often salary and job content oriented. What I want is to find a field that I am more interested in, and then get a salary increase. Making decisions under this direction is relatively simple, you only need to consider two points comprehensively. But after further development, especially after the choice is widened, there will be a lot of choices oncoming, large, medium and small companies, foreign companies, startups, and various opportunities to choose from. How should decisions be made in this situation?
Have you been mixing in your current company, or have you jumped to join a startup company? Or is it to cut wages to enter foreign companies for pension? Or is it the last one to enter a company like pdd and Toutiao? What abilities do you need to improve next? Where is your way up again?
When you think about your goals when you are confused, you will be much clearer. For example, if you want to become the CTO of a well-known company, you should continue to solidify your ability, not only technical ability, but also business vision and thinking. For example, if you want freedom of wealth, you should find a better-developed startup company on the market, and strive to join with a better offer. If you want to retire and accompany your family, then joining some foreign companies that work less overtime may be a good choice.
In short, only when you have a goal will you know where to go , otherwise you will inevitably make a mistake afterwards.
Finally, I wish everyone a good career development, and I will work hard with you.
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