Ryan Murphy’s Post

While I generally agree with your point, I feel like there's more to it. Many have needs that dictate their desire for better pay and benefits. I don't like this or believe it should be the case, but it is the current state of things (*** see below). Ideally, yes, they should choose healthier environments and career growth over pathological organizations that destroy the individual. It's not always that simple though. Many don't even know they're in the wrong place until they feel the effects. They are fed the mythologies of the current workplace. How other firms are not as great. How it's "scary out there". Because of their inexperience, they don't know any better than what they are told. Another perspective: some might want to retire younger. For them, putting away gobs of money early will get them to their goal. My own perspective and goals are vastly different. Like most things, there isn't one right answer. ***The sad reality is that the less experienced are victims of deeply entrenched and broken systems that prey upon their lack of experience and ability to identify what a healthy work environment looks like. If we were able to address these systemic issues the (working) world might be a better place.

May I also suggest the often underrated importance of reaching out and making contact with senior engineers? Draw their attention in any way possible, even if it's a random email to an interesting developer you found on Google, as I've done (and had success thanks to it) and then impress them with how hardworking and passionate you are in the field they're working in. This right there will get you very far. Obviously find someone who's in a field you do in fact find fascinating.

This man spittin' facts. No cap. (I think that's how kids say it now)

so true. I would even say people > skill/tech > pay

That's one perspective, but the reality of the matter is there's not often a choice. In this market, there's not a lot of juniors that have the luxury of being picky and choosy over their compensation! (Also, I know what you mean, but the idea of "offing good people" as a viable means to making money is funny.)

Perfect advice, Ryan. It's a long term investment plan. 😉

Hope your having a good weekend mate! 🙏🏻

While I agree that if you want to make money with coding, being good at coding can definitely go a long way, I think this advice risks being misleading. It's a little bit on the lazy side, and it's often what you would hear at the university, from professors, because, well, while they might be great at teaching you some computer science class, they might not know much about how to make money in the tech world. I've had plenty of colleagues over my uni and industry experience who followed this mantra, and ended up not making a lot of money, while I've also seen people looked at the situation from a broader perspective and ended up making a lot of money. The developer I know who made the most money, at a relatively young age (I'm talking someone who's a millionaire now, under 30), strongly focused on the money part of the equation. It just makes sense... It's about what variable you're trying to optimise. If you try to optimise making money in tech, that's the goal you need to chase. Of course that will require you to know your tech stuff, at least to some extent, but if you don't know the other stuff (the make money part), you won't get it.

This worked for my career. For a while I was at a place I was learning a ton and had a great mentor, but severely underpaid. I eventually left and joined a new company and 2x’d my salary. The one thing I would say is that no one should work longterm in this sort of position. You have to make a specific choice because you are learning a lot that will set you up for a better future down the road. But don’t continue in an underpaid position for too long. There are companies that pay well and support learning and growth. Try to find the best of both worlds if you can.

Agree with a lot of sentiments in the other comments that seem skeptical of such seemingly obvious and clearly sage advice. Important to consider why such advice is wrong, and quite clearly normalizes not just a broken system, but as others have identified, a system that is built and designed to prey on others, for nothing other than garden variety greed. What a choice for a young kid out of college, how to help pick the perfect environment in which you shall be preyed upon. Young kids, or juniors as we might call them, have (and should have) the expectation that they will be treated well regardless of where they end up. Instead of normalizing not just a broken system, but a system that is designed by the likes of Bill Gates to prey on others, we should fix that system. Or, at the very least, more Linkedin posts that address how to fix that system, instead of normalizing it or teaching us how to "avoid" it.