I'm an SDET working in an individual contributor role and I have 17 years of experience. I used to have a burning desire to earn a promotion to a Principal or Architect role, but for varying reasons, I never got one, some of them my own fault. I didn't and don't want a role that involves having direct reports because I don't want the baggage of managing people and having to write their performance reports every year. I have gotten really comfortable where I am and I'm pretty happy with my TC. Depending on the level of cash bonus and RSUs I get, my TC is about 175-192 thousand annually. I'm really satisfied with this amount of money and don't have a driving need to keep fighting for more and more. There are just easier ways to get more income and if I wanted it, I'd just take savings and start buying apartment buildings to be managed by others, so the cash would come in without much extra effort from me to earn it. I also have the very nice allowance of 2 days WFH/week I have school aged children and a spouse with mental health issues. Right now, we are working through some of those issues, but the current thing we're working on is going to take months to resolve. He doesn't work, but manages our household as best he can given the circumstances. Obviously, this situation complicates my ability to take on greater demands at my job. If I were to take on a higher level role, I think it is very likely that I wouldn't be able to continue with 2 days WFH/week. Even without direct reports of my own, I'd still have leadership responsibilities to meet. I am torn. Part of me feels like there is something wrong with me for not having gotten promoted. And the reason for that, I'll have to admit, is that I've seen people with pretty subpar technical skills and project management skills get promoted over and over again. But... that's life, right? A lot of people get those roles because they make up for what they lack on core job skills with greater drive, ambition and political talent. I know I shouldn't be comparing myself to these people. Still, I feel like it makes me look inferior to them even though I'm not inferior. I'm just less socially adept, I guess. Logically, I know that getting a promotion might complicate my life by upsetting the balance I have struck. And being in a leadership role makes it a lot less acceptable to just withdraw into myself when my personal life gets challenging. Which is always going an issue given my spouse's mental health condition. I am fearful of being seen as a loser and eventually being ditched for younger employees who are cheaper and eager to advance to higher roles. Who wants someone with 17 years of experience and gray hair who isn't aching to be a senior manager? I can't afford to be out of a job with two young kids and a spouse who is unlikely to ever be able to hold down a job of his own.
Everyone is going to be replaced by younger folks eventually. But you can delay that by not demanding too much and keeping a good relationship with your employer.
I don’t know, man. This is not cool. Your salary-YoE ratio is terrible. Here is the goal for you. Join Google. You’ll have great WLB and much higher TC. Start grinding leetcode now.
Grinding is the keyword here.
Google tried to recruit me about three years ago. Thing is... they don't have the vacation policy I have and I was told they're not all that flexible about WFH. I really can't over-emphasize just how important those things are to me and my family. I'd have to work years to get to their max vacation time and it still would be two weeks less than I get now. If they had 30 days PTO and were willing to allow 2 days WFH/week right off the bat, I'd have jumped at the chance to interview with them.
There is nothing wrong with you. Feel proud that you’re a bread winner of the family. Your husband is lucky to have you.
The sad truth is that tech isn’t family-friendly. You won’t necessarily be replaced because the other person is younger; you’ll be replaced because they have the flashy new skills that you don’t have. In order to survive as a tech IC you have to keep picking up new skills, or work in a tech niche that will never be obsolete, and I can’t think of too many of those. I just saw F5 networks lay off a 20+ year employee who specialized as a data architect using one of those weird-ass XML-based DSLs that you use to define data schemas. She was being all positive and glass-half-full about it, but the reality is nobody hires those folks anymore. Don’t be like her.
Shit... i was about to apply for a new F5 Networks position today
I don't have issues with having an outdated skillset. I keep up to date with those and pick up new tools, languages and technologies easily. I spent a lot of time learning new things and I work on problems at Leetcode and study mathematics off and on for fun. Decent core QA skills like test planning, debugging, etc just don't go out of style.
I envy people who can be satisfied. Career is just a part of life and not the most important one. You have decent TC. Work through you issues first, and maybe after you'll want to climb higher.
I know someone with 20 years experience who also doesn't want to kill himself to grow just for the sake of it. He is happy with his life , never went after leetcode grind, just for the sake of money. Recently he got offered 350k TC without being asked algorithm coding and for his experience in backend. His previous TC is 200k$
Also I feel , feeling happy and satisfied with one's life has become the most difficult thing nowadays which otherwise makes everyone miserable , unhappy, depressed irrespective of their TC and wasting valuable time in life in overthinking and endless pursuits for no good reason and always moving the goal post without being satisfied. This rat race seriously needs to stop, It has become beyond repair. As Bhagavad Gita says, one needs to be happy within himself and not rely on external things for happiness. If you can't be in peace and happy with yourself, even with a 1 million $ TC, one will be quite miserable. The current tech generation is doing exactly the opposite
^This^
You’re fine. Do keep your skills up to date. Don’t end up like that f5 employee above. Always be learning new technologies- whether ML, something else, whatever you think is marketable. Do try to be the top half of your peers in terms of performance, that’ll generally protect you from smaller layoffs.
I don't know about Akamai, but some companies that are very employee friendly are: Salesforce, Workday, Rackspace, Atlassian. Try joining one such company if Akamai isn't helping you stay happy.
I truly envy you for building a comfortable place for yourself. Sorry about the spouse's situation, but you seem to be handling that bravely. I wouldn't worry about promotion trading my happiness and life balance.