Any 22YOE in Blind still coding ?
I feel ancient.. have 22 YOE in tech.. 42yo.. settled with house and family.. have worked in almost all spaces.. OS.. DB internals.. Telecom.. and last 15 years in various Wall Street Firms.. kept myself up-to-date on technical front and evolved from C/C++, .Net/C#/F# to Java/Scala/Dark/Kafka.. microservice.. can do SDM.. TPM roles easily.. but I like to stay at the top of technical ball game because I love technology.. so did some hybrid roles in the past.. but now do full RAD kind of roles.. never did any leetcode.. and really trying to avoid.. I realize that most people of my age are VP.. Director.. Managing Director in Wall Street.. are there anyone still coding even though I come from the slashdot era of computing.. what do you suggest I should do in terms of my career. Current TC 195k have great WLB too Have offer from a buy side with 300k another Wall Street firm for 250k with great WLB
I started at Google as a SWE when I was 43. So you not too old.
that’s probably below median age at Goog these days
Tell us more. What motivated you, what were you doing prior to that, did you face ageism, did they low-ball you?
You can definitely be making a lot more. I feel like any move will result in a sacrifice in wlb since you're so senior. Maybe after you settle into a new company you can find more balance but I feel like not at first.
At your age, you decide what you want to do in life and what your priorities are. Do you value your WLB over extra cash? Do you have enough money saved up so that if you get laid off, you could survive for a while? Ultimately if the answer to both of those is yes, then no need to FAANG it up. I mean, what exactly will you do with extra TC? How will that enhance your life exactly, will any of it make you actually happier? (Consider that you’ll have a lot less free time as well.)
was pretty happy in life with Home in mountain with resort like backyard with pools and such but still close to NYC.. commute sucks but manageable.. and have been doing this for last 12 years.. so I got used to it.. although now I drive to office and don't use any public transport.. it's just that when I came to know about Blind and the FAANG salaries.. I thought I am missing out on life and I need to accelerate towards my savings.. kids education etc.. because I kind of spurlged on the house and bought a dream house. Nowhere close to FIRE situation.. I though better TC can give me FIRE by age 55 may be.
Uninstall Blind and be happy. I'm 35, 140 TC and I've also been having FOMO since installing Blind. If you are on track to retire by 65 you are fine, half on Americans don't have any retirement savings at your age. More important to enjoy your life now, while you still have health to enjoy it.
If you’re 42 the you need more money now.
Enjoy your WLB.
I'm not even 22 yet lol
Blind tends to skew the numbers due to lies and location. YOE really has little to do with the high comp. it’s really about how much experience you have at large scale, experience leading teams (at large scale), job hopping and how much time you want to put in every day. I’ve got ~20 YOE and don’t care to LC either. Instead I opted for an SRE route which often doesn’t require LC for interviews. Pay is still good (brought home $375k in SEA last year), I get to split my time between development and systems level work, and I rarely work over 40 hours a week.
Great post. Thanks for the perspective!
Why scout for TPM role options have the lowest vote?. I thought TPMS are paid more than SDEs?
it's kind of screwed up because I moved to US 12 year back.. and went through the visa/green card journey.. so it's not as rosy you might think.. and because I changed my domain from OS to applications and have pivoted my career so much.. that I haven't been able to rise up the ladder too much. The reason I have a comfortable life is because I am able to learn fast and able to apply.. but right now at peak in terms of technical ability... and confident on cracking any job in terms of skills.. except may be the LC part which I tend to avoid and instead would rather listen to Software engineering podcast on some interesting discussion or reading up discussions in hackernews.