A distorted market for programmers and a lack of humility

I've grown used to my profession and the whole industry paying unusually well, and it's been pleasant getting used to it. When I started my first job in the autumn of 2001, my gross salary was twelve thousand Czech crowns. That was very decent money for the small town where I lived and, of course, for the time. I barely knew enough to qualify as a trainee programmer, and my only asset was enthusiasm that never let up. Over time my salary grew, eventually severalfold, and I felt it reflected the time I'd put in and what I'd learned. After a while I realized that above a certain threshold I stopped noticing whether the payslip was a few thousand higher or lower. It might sound funny, but if I'd received half my pay back then, I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

I joined GoodData in 2010 and earned less than in my previous job. I did get stock options (in very simple terms, a future share in the proceeds from selling the company), but until the company is sold or goes public, they aren't worth the paper they're printed on. I saw it as a good opportunity to learn something new. In terms of salary the move made no sense in the short term. It could theoretically be more interesting in the long term, because I could hope to learn something specific that would make me more valuable on the job market. After four years at GoodData I still don't earn what I did in my previous job, but I know I've learned a great deal and gained insight into areas I'd known nothing about or only understood superficially: the cloud, scalability, NoSQL, distributed systems, agile and more. I see that as a clear competitive advantage on the job market.

At some point I started taking part in interviews with candidates for jobs at our company. I was almost always surprised by the gap between what someone expected to see on a payslip and how much they actually knew. To explain the obvious mismatch, all I had to do was turn on job offers from LinkedIn. If someone will pay me €4,500 a month for work that would meet my expectations of a beginner, something is wrong. There are several ways to explain it. Maybe I expect too much from developers, or maybe some companies are actually overpaying and creating these distortions.

We can call it the law of the market, supply meeting demand, but we may not have to wait long to see what happens. If less-skilled work pays the same as work that takes more knowledge, skill and experience, sooner or later somebody will work out that they can pay a fraction as much for the same work somewhere east of Košice. Far be it from me to say that hordes of Indian developers sitting somewhere in Bangalore are itching to take our jobs, but I certainly wouldn't take it lightly. I'd rather hire a trainee who's willing to learn and pay them well. I'd know they hadn't been spoiled by a five-hour working day and a clock-punching attitude. It's also worth noting that salary doesn't work as the main motivator in the long run. Intrinsic motives matter more for performance and satisfaction: I enjoy my work, I'm learning new things, my work makes sense to me and I see results.

A fool gives, but a bigger fool doesn't take. If someone offers you good money and that motivates you, it's perfectly fine to say yes. It's your own business and your right. In any case, a little humility would do all of us good…