Ask HN: Should I switch jobs? Can I switch jobs? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Should I switch jobs? Can I switch jobs?

3 pointsclaudiawerner3 comments

Hi HN,

I'm based in the UK. I'm university-educated with a good, relevant degree. I make 24k/year before tax. After tax that's about 17.4k/year. I don't live in London or any major technology center.

I was hired fresh out of university at that salary and it's stayed that way for one year. After the first six months, I had a perfomance review that indicated I need to improve my productivity, though my work was good.

Other than the technologies we use in-house, I have no experience with skills that are glamorous elsewhere. I don't do web development, so I don't know any React/Vue, but I have a little (Github) experience with Postgres, HTML, CSS, and vanilla JS.

I'm aware that my salary is low - whether for when I started, or after one year of employment. The advancement opportunities are somewhat secret; all I know is that there's a performance review at some point once or maybe twice a year.

To that end, it's been hard to find jobs. Nobody wants someone who doesn't have "commercial experience" with what they're looking for, and most jobs seem to want two years minimum "commercial experience" to even apply. I've received nothing but rejections so far.

Ideally I'd like to transition to back-end web or fullstack, provided I'll either be trained or I can do that in my free time with public projects before applying (i.e. "commercial experience" isn't a hard requirement, only "some experience" is).

I feel stuck, because this job doesn't seem to give me skills to further that kind of job, nor does it really give me skills (other than language skills - and that's about three languages at maximum, not framework/methodology/technology skills which are sought after).

My main objective is a salary increase of anywhere above 20% (above inflation). Still, work here is laid back and I'm doing well.

To any software engineers in the UK (or anywhere), what would be the best course of action with only one year of experience and few marketable skills other than dabbling Github repos from four years ago?

(Speaking from US perspective) You want to minimize quick job jumps on your resume. It’s not terrible to jump after one year but two or more one-year stints in a row raises a red flag for me. I’d say if you do jump, prepare to stay at the next place for three-plus years.

Also it’s tough to make a case for someone with your experience getting 20% more when they could hire a fresh graduate for cheaper.

In this economy I would say it's always good to be actively looking. You don't have to leave your current position to interview somewhere else. In terms of salary, the best way to get a raise of 20% has historically been to change companies, it's rare to get that level of a raise at the same company and would need to be part of a major promotion.

it sounds like you're doing fine. that's good.

if you think you have an idea that you want to do more, then...ask to do more. but be careful what you wish for.

for instance, if you're not as productive as they think you should be, then get some specifics on what counts are 'more productive', and find out how to get more productive -- literally ask your manager, 'I want to become more productive. How do I become more productive?'

They might say, "Well you need to work more hours."

To which you can say yes, no, maybe, etc.

It's prob worth a search here and google to find out how to become a better/'more productive' developer (or whatever it is you're producing).

Tell bossman you want a raise, and you're willing to work hard for it, you want to be a great dev, you think you can get there, you just need to be pointed in the right direction.

I'm 100% certain it's possible to get better at programming and all related tasks. But I don't think it's easy to get there yourself -- you ideally need someone who _actually_ know wtf they're talking about, which is virtually non-existent. Like, a great 'highly productive' dev may/not be able to relate to you what you need to do to be great - b/c they might be geniuses, or might be autistic/savant, or just be shit communicators.

You can also do side projects, get certifications, etc. Pick some _very_ small slice of functionality, build a _very_ simple web app, put it up on your Digital Ocean (DO) server, add it to your linkedin and resume and portfolio home page, rinse and repeat with whatever new tech you want to learn.

You will prob burn out soon enough if you're not careful, so I'd advise that working smart is more important than working endless hours, which you don't seem inclined to do -- I think that's prob a good thing on balance.

That's my advice -- don't run for the hills -- yet. Be assertive -- very important skill to have. Read a book if you need to, watch some youtubes, etc. Get a sit-down meeting with your manager, tell them the spiel, get a plan, execute on the plan, make your manager very happy at your next review, get the raise, get the raise + inflation + bonus, get your confidence, get your career path and plan for continuous improvement, make sure your manager knows you want to live in the horrific js/react/ng/vue world, progress, don't get covid, live a full life, don't jump jobs just because you didn't know how to be assertive.

best.

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