I’ve ran the technical side of a modestly successful tech company for the last 25 years. My salary has floated around 90k for that entire time in a relatively low cost area of the USA. I have either been the sole programmer or have had 2-3 programmers working for me on the technical side as well as a half dozen non-technical employees working for my business partner who runs the business side. My tech skills run the entire spectrum from programming to system administration to management. Skills include linux, perl, C++, javascript, css, SEO, ansible, mysql, electronics, and dozens of other things. I have spent most of my career learning just enough of something whether it is postfix, apache, embedded programming, machine learning, or integrating with some random api or service to complete the needed task then forgetting most of it and moving on to the next project. What type of jobs are out there for a generalist? Would I be better off pursuing a SWE position or a manager position? I have always wanted to do AI and/or robotics but unfortunately don’t really have much professional experience in those fields. Do I need to pick one skill and try to specialize in it or are there jobs out there that hire for breadth instead of depth?
Yoe?
25+ YOE as founder and CTO
Most places in big tech don’t require domain experience with very specific technologies. You’re probably best focused targeting infrastructure/distributed systems roles. I would read designing data intensive applications, it can help a lot in clearing system design interviews. You’ll need to do well in those if you want to get hired at L5 or higher.
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How did this happen? (Meta Stock)
Why not sell the company and retire?
If I could find a buyer that would pay me enough to retire then I probably would. We’ve had a few nibbles over the years but no offers have ever solidified. I have no idea what our company is worth but on the low end, it’s doubtful that I could retire on my share of a buyout. There is not much demand for buying a company that pays its CEO 90k/year.
Do some research to get a feel on valuations and then list it on micro acquire!