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Comment by freilanzer | Hacker News Reader

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freilanzer

I have never known a software developer who got a bonus. Rarely even recognition.

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I get two bonuses every year - one for individual achievement and one for profit sharing.

You and every other programmer on the planet then?

Or, what is your comment meant to claim exactly, beyond the extremely obvious "there are exceptions to the rule" trope?

Well the original notion here was

> Developers aren't compensated for any extraordinary achievement

That as a blanket statement is just not true. Of course it does not apply to every single developer, I would even say it doesn’t apply to the majority.

It is true when it applies to the majority (and nobody said something is only true when it applies to 100% of a group because then absolutely nothing would ever be true when it comes to people). If you think otherwise and are convinced of it then you are very privileged -- and I actually envy you. You have no idea what contractor programmers go through out there, apparently.

This is too angry of a reply to someone adding their personal experience onto your comment about how the world is. I appreciate their anecdote refuting the claim; I think it makes a better discussion than just superlatives so I think you should get back to your point (which I mostly align with) instead of attack them on "just because you showed an example where my rule isn't true doesn't make my rule not true".

So are you saying my point was so obvious that it was unnecessary to be made?

I get recognition plenty. We all get bonuses according to how well our division does, which is developers certainly have a hand in. If you do good work, you also tend to get promotions and raises well beyond the usual 5% per year.

I came to work over a vacation to fix a critical customer issue. The company rewarded me with a $50 gift card.

Companies have internal processes and typically can’t say “here’s an extra 5k for saving our butts!” unless there’s an existing program and money set aside for such spot bonuses. It’s a huge audit risk.

If your management is good, it absolutely is remembered and impacts future performance and promotion cycles.

I worked with a guy who got a sizable bonus (rumored $200k). The reason? An old college buddy called and asked if our technology could help their social media company with a problem they had.

So, if you want a bonus as a software developer, be a sales rep by happenstance. Probably helps if you went to a prestigious university where you met people who went on to prestigious roles...

know plenty that get bonuses, yearly. individual performance + company (stock) performance + other variables = some percentage of salary, handed out as RSUs or cash or both.

never seen any one-off bounties or extra bonus for shipping one specific thing. usually it just gets rolled up in the "your yearly performance discussion".

obviously founders / owners / folks holding a lot of stock are playing by different rules

Merchant banking. I miss those bonuses

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