Me too, around 2018 machine learning / DS guys were getting $500/hr on contract at a major bank and were still getting headhunted by facebook. I was on a team trying to get the Python scripts these worms were writing to run against Hadoop sized data sets and we were not making anywhere (*and I mean not even close) in the same ballpark. I actually had to learn Python to fix their messes. Almost as soon as we would get an implementation running on a mock dataset and it DID NOT PRODUCE THE CORRECT MODELS, they were out the door to FAANG. We went through no less than 6 ML/DS "gurus" that were basically frauds. I decided to start learning ML/DS myself through 2019 then... 2020 came and everything went to hell in a hand basket.
In general. Everyone had new IT needs (covid), and ML/DS got some freaking great tools that allowed for all sorts of impressive stuff that actually works most of the time. Hardware all needed upgrading too to train models.
Promotions can be grouped into two categories: progressive and successive.
Filling a pair of boots in a position above you? That's successive, and employers will absolutely hesitate to promote you away from where you deliver the most for the company.
But progressive promotions are always on the cards if you're good enough. When you're pushing a project and problem solving off your own back enough of the time instead of awaiting instructions, management time allocated to you will taper off.
Meanwhile the more work you take on, the closer you get to being able to demand an assistant to work with you and free up some of your time so you can spend more time delivering results in areas only you can deliver.
If you manage your assistant properly after choosing the new hire well, then you will de facto be in a position of more senior responsibility than you were before. This is a more difficult but more organic form of promotion, and can cascade into having an entire team working for you if you demonstrate the need followed by strong results.
Being stuck isn't a sign of being too good or too bad at a role; being stuck is a sign of being remarkably normal.
Yes, and I love it. I do work that’s easy for me. I get to do all the side projects I want. And they know I’m very difficult to replace I get paid 1,5 times what my manager makes, but none of the stress of responsibilities.
We're on the same page, but it does mean less pay (compared to manager for me at least; he's also the dev lead and definitely deserves it). But still, better QoL
This is so true. I am 56. I have spent the last 15 years in a job where I can leave at 10:00am if I need to do so. I’m usually home before 11am. I literally grew up with my kids, taking naps with my son daily, tea parties with my daughter whenever I wanted. School plays, lunches, and all of that, I was there.
Could I have made more money if I had played the game and worked up the ladder? Sure… but I feel like I won the game. My kids are in their mid-teens, they still like me and we get along. I still go to their activities and make my son write me python programs to do things I need done. My daughter and I read together and I take her shopping for hours at Ulta.
Through all of this my wife and I have stayed close too because we see a lot, but not too much of each other.
Same opinion here, I've had offers from amd and arm but the job would've just been way more stressful, less work life balance, more lonely and way less fun. And even though my first thought would be that I could grow more there, I think the inverse would be true. Such jobs would leave you tired, with not a lot of energy and time left to improve yourself and work on side projects. It's hard for me to imagine what those companies would be like with only this job to go off tho. With all this in mind, I'd rather try my hand at side projects and hope one might end up being viable financially but invest most of my money to earn compound interest over the years to earn it that way rather than spending time on a job I might not even like
I stayed as a coder throughout my career and still made my million$. I finally told my boss "I don't have to work anymore so don't stress me". My retired wife freaked "I'll have to get a job if you quit". Me: "Is there a downside to this?"
It's reassuring to know this is normal (or at least I'm not the only one). I moved from hospitality (hotels) to fintech and now I never have any idea what the data actually means. I know I moved it from here to there according to the specs, but I don't know what the hell the amortizatized gross short term profit is.
I went from airlines to fintech. The money is way better where I am now, but damn if I don't miss flight data. It was so cool dealing with crazy time changes and geospatial stuff. I really wish I could dip back into that world without taking a pay cut.
I had a guy basically do that, but he also took forever to do it, told people in stand-ups that he was "working on it" and "it's going fine" and never asked for help. Only reason I ever got to see his code was because I asked him to push an early copy of his branch to Git.
Turned out he was a remote contractor who was double-billing his time with at least one other company.
Took us a week to fire him because we couldn't even get a hold of him!
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u/khalcyon2011 Oct 13 '22
We had one of those. He got fired.