Giving chase sometimes ain’t worth it
Read an article about median tech salaries? Visited Levels FYI and compared high values of Microsoft and Amazon salaries for data engineers? Saw a blog on Medium about a $30k signing bonus? You get the idea. Tech employment is extremely lucrative, especially if you rise to the top. However, is it worth it?
Companies advertise friendly work environments, free food and generous benefits not commonly found. At first glance, this lifestyle looks like a dream, but it’s not. I’ll dive into some of the lowlights of being a tech worker at any level and company.
High Salaries and Great Benefits
Before I start, tech is extremely lucrative at any level, for most people. Unfortunately several examples exist of companies taking advantage of underpaid labor for tech work. I won’t dive any deeper on that topic other than saying, what you see about high salaries and excellent benefits is mostly true. Look at some numbers provided by various surveys below.
Average starting salary right out of college is around $50k, compared to average tech starting salary is around $70k. How many young adults are making nearly six figures straight out of college? If you’re passionate about computers, you’ve hit the lottery in terms of careers. While it’s a privilege to attain all of this, on the other hand it can be a detriment.
Let’s dive into common expectations at work and the corporate world today.
Expectations of You
Obviously expectations vary by roles/firms, but common themes are apparent across multiple organizations.
Let’s dive into a couple expectations that come with the “glory” of working tech.
- Work to completion — Tech roles can tend to be intense in terms of deadlines and what a manager might expect out of you. Several firms still operate under due dates and apply the work methods to every single team, instead of spending resources figuring out individual needs. Whether it’s realistic or not, 8 hour work days might not be enough to finish projects. Slowly new firms are realizing that burning employees out doesn’t work, but don’t be shocked to see this today.
- Pager duty — Most development roles require a pager rotation with 24 hour coverage of production services. Shift hours may vary, but this coverage requires a developer to be near a computer at any given time. Which as you’d think, limits what you can do in your free time. Forget about heading out to the mountains for the weekend.
- Participation — Doing your job isn’t enough (hence why quiet quitting is rising in popularity). However, this isn’t unique to tech, but expectations are that you do more than just develop software. You might be expected to create presentations, interview candidates or get involved in non-technical processes that require technical knowledge. I haven’t personally met an engineer with a singular focus on creating software.
- Communication — Anyone who works in the corporate world implores the importance of soft skills. However, communicating ideas is extremely important and explaining project(s) state/status. Poor communication (which I struggled heavily with early on) leads to missed deadlines and failure to be recognized for accomplishments.
Requirements above take time away from family, hobbies, exercise etc. For better or worse, that’s just the expectation of working in a tech role. There’s no escaping the work world after 5pm forever. However, it’s on you to set expectations or find a company to achieve your idea work/life balance (in some way). This isn’t quite straight forward on how to do this. Either way, to earn promotions and pay increases requires some level of involvement outside of regular work.
Sometimes I do wonder if technical employees should unionize re-reading this section.
Constantly Evaluated
Tech workers are responsible for the products released to generate profits for corporations, they’re heavily scrutinized because of this. When times are tough, layoffs/cutbacks are made to preserve profit margins (or minimize losses). If you’ve watched Office Space, imagine the scene pictured below, but a little less exaggerated.
For example, a high salaried software architect will be looked at closely for satisfactory performance. Things like a failed effort/project that may be out of their control will be viewed negatively. Sometimes companies like Better Dot Com will lay off thousands employees based on very little information. Life is just unfair at times.
Tech employees are easier targets since knowledge (possibly due to some ignorance) of what they provide is unknown. Things that don’t bring profits might not be fully recognized without adequate advocation. However, that’s dependent on managers in these roles to ensure that. Once again, life might just be unfair.
Same Corporate World Rebranded
Tech has been popping off with companies realizing the value of user data and products created. To see this, look at the top tech companies stock prices from early 2000s to today. However, companies realized the value of tech workers building software for them. Corporate ideology had to shift to entice tech employees to come work for them, due to shortage of skilled labor.
Nowadays, companies show themselves as friendly, politically correct and fun to be around. Free lunches? Great. Group activities? Even better. This is all to keep the focus around the work environment. Companies know happier employees produce better results and increase willingness to work longer hours.
Case Study
Let’s dive into a quick look at Facebook.
Why do you think Facebook gives employees dinner menu’s after 5pm? Or offering free onsite massages? They want you at the office more. If you feel relaxed at the office, why would you leave? Personally, I don’t want to be known as the late night hero. I’d rather go home and lose a game of CSGO.
On top of that, Facebook pays super high salaries and has crazy benefits. If successful, you can set yourself up financially. However, is it worth putting life on hold to work for them? Ask that question 20 times to yourself and realize what it means to put your life on hold. Facebook pays high salaries and offers these benefits to squeeze as much out of employees as possible. However, not everyone has fun in this “dream” that’s advertised by Facebook.
Facebook won’t advertise that a employee jumped off building at headquarters because a manager blocked his ability to transfer teams by giving him a poor performance review. Afterwards, discussion of the incident was frowned upon and lead to termination for some. I’m deeply saddened to hear a young man took his own life due to toxic management. What this demonstrates, is Facebook can be just as heartless as any other company back in the 80s.
What I’m pointing out, is that corporations haven’t really changed for the better. Not everything will be smooth sailing in tech, which unfortunately can ruin lives.
No amount of salary and benefits can make someone happy in life. PERIOD.
Final Thoughts
The highlights of attaining a cushy salary, great benefits and a random slide in the middle of a office with the words “we’re disrupting X industry”, are misleading. I’d look at these as Instagram highlights of someone’s life. Sure they went to cool places, met famous people or partied hard. However that is a part of their lives, not the full story. Same applies to tech, the full story isn’t shown. Work life balance could get out of hand and corporations still want control over you, while terminating your employment at any given moment. You’re not family to them.
While it’s a privilege to have a high salary, keep in mind that you should value yourself the most. Don’t let that own 100% of thoughts. Instead, think to yourself, what do you want from you? Maybe you enjoy working 80 hours a week trying to reach the top. All I can say, it’s not for everyone.
The real cost of a high tech salary, is time spent building someone else’s dream. Remember that your time is valuable.
Thanks for the read.
