Topics created by RandyBlevins

@RandyBlevins said in How should you handle a potential promotion?:

@Obsolesce said in How should you handle a potential promotion?:

@RandyBlevins said in How should you handle a potential promotion?:

Should I consider taking the new position of my pay grade stays the same?

I think this is one of the big questions.

Is the new role something you would enjoy more irrespective of a pay bump?

I'm not sure. It will be no more writing code and doing troubleshooting like I'm used to doing now. I will miss getting to do the technical work, but at the same time I won't miss working through the corporate labyrinth for millions of different things. Every time I need a firewall rule opened, kms key created, dns entry, ssl cert created , etc I have to open a ticket to another team. Every team is different and it's an annoying process. Much more annoying than doing those things myself, because if I don't give exact details on how to create what I need it isn't done right.

Oh and Monday access to manage compute instances dissappeared as our IAM team is constantly stripping permissions in search for true zero trust. It's great to try to achieve it, but man stuff breaks randomly and then I have to open a ticket, they close it a day later because it wasnt the right type of ticket, then I reopen again and they fix the issue finally after 3 days.

Or would the only enjoyment or benefit of the new role come from the pay bump and not the role?

Would the new role be worth more should you take the role for a year or two with no pay bump, but result in like a 20% base pay increase at a new company later? Maybe that would be worth it. Maybe the new role would give a slight pay bump at your current company, and lead to more bonus/equity/etc, and/or more pay raises there too.

Maybe. I'm paid very well for my current position. I spent alot of time targeting a specific salary that is higher than most for my role. It's very hard for me to leave and match just my pay let alone all the other factors that are nice to have in a recession like FTE, yearly bonus, paid training, conferences up to $10k a year, etc. Also, some very intelligent people at my company so I feel I can still learn.

What do other companies pay for that new role now? What might they pay in two years? Maybe in 2 years of having this new role, you could at a different company get hired at a higher level like Principal or similar, resulting in a few hundred $K more total comp per year.

I do job searches sometimes, and get alot of messages daily about jobs (many of them revealing salary). I've got to be on top 5% for pay I think for my role. FAANG and maybe some big time banks could do a little better, but overall I'm very happy compared to what I've seen being offered

You could answer these best, but may help to point them out.

Maybe a bump in pay isn't what you want then, just a job you find more fulfilling and maybe some more clout or latitude.

@Hugh-Jass said in Will Tech Giants actually adopt WFH?:

@scottalanmiller said in Will Tech Giants actually adopt WFH?:

Typically we see engineers cap out around $225K. But admins head closer to $500K.
Also, CIOs were more likely to be pulled from the admin ranks, not the engineer ranks. Because engineering was nearly all technical while admins had to be able to do everything an engineer could do, but apply it to the business in real time, deal with active security, and fix what the engineers broke all with the pressure on.
Also, in the SMB space, engineering is the low cost afterthought that admins do. It's maybe 5% of the job, and the easiest 5%. Consider how little knowledge or effort goes into installing a new server, and how much goes into supporting it after it is installed. We often have the most junior staff do the engineering parts because typically it requires the least experience or knowledge, and it can be double checked so doesn't matter even if they get something wrong - there is a chance to fix it before it goes live.

bro I think you lost your mind no one is making this much money in those roles

Don't confuse "I don't" with "other people don't."

The top end of IT is generally limited to a few physical locations (NY, London, Zurich) and to a few industries. So you aren't going to find it in some SMB shop, nor in some small village (other than in CT.)

@Carnival-Boy said in Job postings with no salary listed:

I wasn't, but don't focus on the actual amounts - they were just arbitrary figures. Although salaries in Europe are a lot lower than the US.

But my point was that a lot of employers are flexible and will make exceptions for good candidates, regardless of experience. Specifying a salary can cast the net too narrowly. Finding a good developer is hard over here, there aren't many available.

if you can't find a good dev - then you simply aren't offering enough money to get them to walk away from their current gig.

@flaxking said in Difficult co-worker:

@Kelly said in Difficult co-worker:

Without more experience or information it is difficult to draw an exact conclusion, but have you considered that he is on the autism spectrum? Some of the things that you're listing could be indicators of that. There are significant differences to how you will work with someone on the spectrum vs someone who just has control issues.

This sounds a lot like my co-worker, who I am pretty sure is on the spectrum. He is amazing technically, reading comprehension of technical documentation that is out of this world. But he can't think in terms of business needs and what is practical. He will also assume he knows what you're saying without listen so you really have to watch for cues that the didn't actually understand what you said. Also can be a lot of work to convince him he is wrong, you need to have definitive proof ready.

Yes this sounds quite similar to what I have seen. Although, I will add that he always 100% believes he is doing the right thing. Its not because he wants to cut corners or anything. Sometimes we cannot get him to cut corners where they need to be cut.

@IRJ said in Interviewing with Amazon:

@stacksofplates said in Interviewing with Amazon:

@scottalanmiller said in Interviewing with Amazon:

@stacksofplates said in Interviewing with Amazon:

@scottalanmiller said in Interviewing with Amazon:

@RandyBlevins said in Interviewing with Amazon:

I've heard these type of tech companies can have NDA and brutal interviews.

I interviewed with Amazon and there is no NDA. No self respecting company will use an NDA, because no one worth their salt with even entertain doing an interview with you under NDA. Amazon interview was fair, not harsh. Reasonable. Certainly no walk in the park, and long.

Well I definitely signed an NDA when interviewing with them.

Really? That's odd. Was that for an interview stage or was it past that point and like after you were offered a position?

I had around 6 interviews total.

What were your impressions and how did it go?

Mine was decent. Only two interviews. One phone, then they flew me out for a few days. They did one full day of interviews then paid for me to stay in Seattle to get to know the city and make moving decisions. The whole process was pretty smooth and well done. Nothing to knock your socks off, but better than Facebook, not as good as most Wall St. firms. But way better than an average Fortune 100 firm. Very professional. Took me out to lunch. Interview process was reasonable, not some silly "did you happen to memorize the right answers" kind of BS.

@scottalanmiller said in What should I bring to an out of state interview?:

@RandyBlevins said in What should I bring to an out of state interview?:

I have two letters of recommendation in hand from. Coworkers, all my certs printed out, multiple copies of my resume, laptop, etc.

Printed resume is handy. But they should have that in hand before they agree to an interview. Nothing else should be asked of you.

I believe he has updated it with a new cert. I recommended not sending it early and using that information in the salary negotiations

@RandyBlevins said in Preparing to land that dream job:

I'm getting very close to 15 years in IT. I've steadily worked my way up and have job hopped every 3-4 years. I am in the IT security side which has really ramped up in the past 3-4 years.

Opportunities for major increases have presented themselves a couple times without me looking and have promised considerable increases like 35-45%. In two cases, location has kept me from pursuing these positions. I was able to decline one position after going through all the hoops, and the other position never got the go ahead from HR. The second company has asked me to wait till March as they intend to open it.

Neither of these jobs have the location I want, and a third opportunity has presented itself again not in the location I want. I do feel like I am gaining valuable insights by doing these interviews.

I guess I just want some discussion here, but my question is something like this... How do you prep for that dream job? How many interviews do you do for practice, how hard do you look? Do you let it come to you?

The right thing coming to you is strictly luck. There are factors that can increase the chances of course, but if you want something, you need to go out and get it, and you need to work for it with persistence.

Interviewing often can help you get better at interviews and the interview process. I believe there's a lot of good value there, so long as the interviews are relevant to what you are looking for.

Know your resume well, and make sure you really know what you put on your resume. It should hold up to any potential (and likely) scrutiny.

Also, be prepared for questions that seek your character regarding your profession.

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@jaredbusch said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

Epicorp makes a product called Profit 21. It has a good size market deployment both on site and hosted by Epicorp.

But it is a legacy design LoB app. It is clunky to use and expensive to license simply because it requires all Microsoft licensing. Server, RDS CALs, User CALs, SQL Server, SQL CALs.

And makes even them, at a decent size, a huge risk if that was their only product. Because a competitor could come along, recreate something for their market using modern tools and methods, charge more and still be chaper by not making half of the cost go to a third party!

Yeah, that is my concern is that the company is a one trick pony. It seems like it's probably not a good idea to jump ship for something like this?

I guess these companies come and go pretty often. I'm not sure on exact company size. I'm looking at their LinkedIn and basing it off that.

I guess I should probably still interview for practice and see what the company looks like.

It can be, you just have to be really careful and make sure that it fits your life goals. SMBs come and go every day. They have no longevity.

What questions would you ask in the interview about the company?

That's tough because companies lie continuously in these things. They'll say anything to make themselves sound good. But ask about the processes used, technologies used, ask them to explain some of their decision processes, ask about what makes them competitive both in tech and in operations, really grill them on their business model, funding, history, ownership, future goals, etc.

So generally speaking 20% increase in salary actually isn't much considering the risk? A company that size would likely have to offer 50% higher than industry standard to get good people based on risk of the company size?

Exactly. We don't know much about them so can't speak to this one. But Cali startups, for example, often pay $300K for skills you could get for $200K in NYC if you were a bank. Stability, long term viability, low stress, big teams, big benefits... they are worth a lot.

So approximately 50% in this case.

Yes, but some percentage of that is extra for making people live in San Fran which is total crap.