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Comment by mgkimsal | Hacker News Reader

You're not saying how much "most of your life" is - are you 20? 60? How much experience do you have with the technologies you're working with (and other related tech)? How much outside tech stuff do you do?

I don't know Houston specifically, but that doesn't sound too out of place for a server side java dev with 4 years of experience in the midwest.

A couple things bother me - 2 raises in 4 years. Also, dual Java and .Net work. As much as I'm a 'play in all camps' advocate, you may never get truly deep skills to justify higher pay (in future jobs) if you're doing jumping between tech.

Overall, it's not the worst pay I've ever heard of for someone with multiple years of experience in Java and .Net.

Indeed shows:

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=.net&l1=houston&tm=1 = $85k http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=java&l1=houston&tm=1 = $91k

Obviously just a rough ballpark, but you're near average it seems.

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Sorry I missed it. I've been working as programmer since 2003 in my 20s. About jumping tech I'm not really jumping around either. I really like both Java and .NET development. I've led numerous java server side projects. I could safely assume I'm above average in my java skillset.

'jumping around' wasn't me being derogatory - just how some employers would rather have someone with, say, 6 years of deep JEE experience rather than 6 years of mixed Java/.Net/etc experienced mixed together. For some positions, that makes sense, and for others, that requirement may not make sense.

So for someone has 10 years in C/C++ and 5 in Java, 3 in .NET you can't really tell them that they don't have deep experience in Java or .NET. They could just have 15 years in C/C++ plus 5 in Java and 3 in .NET for the total of 15 years of their development career. They have exposed to a wide range of technologies required to do their jobs. What I mean is while doing Java for most my development career I am also doing .NET for production project! It's not like I do Java for 4 years then stop and develop .NET solely for 3 years.

Coupla points:

A) you only presented a select bit of info and asked if it was a decent salary

B) my experiences over the past 15-20 years have been that recruiters and HR people often overlook someone who doesn't have deep experience with one particular tech.

C) I would question someone who's counting 15 years of C experience while also counting the same time as doing .net. If you were doing the majority of those 3 years in .net, then say 3 years of .net, 5 of java and 7 of C. It's still a 15 year career, showing advancement, etc.

If you've got 15 years of progressive advancement with a variety of tech at that level, and you're concerned about money/pay, go freelance/consulting.

I'm not saying it's right or good, just what my impressions have been working with hiring managers, HR peeps and recruiters. In some cases diversity of experience is something they look for, and in others it's not.

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