Devs Should Demand More of Employers
How to disrupt yourself into a FinTech job that brings you joy
No matter how qualified you are, finding the right career path can be a frustrating endeavor, even in technology where the demand is clearly in the employees’ favor.
There are always risks and unknowns for job-seekers, and they can be significantly mitigated by approaching your job search the same way you would a QA, or even a dating app.
And in fields as fluid and ever-evolving as FinTech, skills are as important as values and compatibility. There are investments to consider, both in terms of time and sweat equity. We all want to feel fulfilled by what we do, and that begins with understanding the criteria of what makes a successful developer-manager relationship.
Finding The Right Match Takes Time
Engineers must not only be well-versed in programming languages, they must also be nimble and willing to learn as best practices evolve.
As a dev now leading recruitment, one thing I’ve noticed is how age can sometimes only be a number. A senior dev may have done more in their career than a junior but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are more compatible to more employers. Working on ten frameworks for ten years makes it more challenging to develop a defined skillset.
Savvy employers want someone who understands the macro implications of what they’re doing; someone who has put the time into learning a specific language or set of skills. If you are passionate about what you do and constantly growing your core skills at any age will always communicate value.
On Common Ground
If you join a legitimate disruptor like ClearEstate, you’re also disrupting yourself — in a positive way. Creating meaningful disruption with purpose requires compatibility on a multitude of levels, not the least of which is value-based.
More often than a Jill or Jack of All Trades, we want to find the best person for the job and culture. Everyone of course has their own unique personalities but ideally an employer and employee should align (or at the very least somewhat overlap) on key values.
Speaking of values, I place tremendous value on adaptability and a person’s willingness to not only learn but relearn something they may have taken for granted. Now, if someone walks through my door and they have a high price tag, then they should consider that the expectations of performance will be raised, and the expectations of investment will be more modest. When starting fresh, it’s important to set clear salary goals with your manager as they relate to hard KPIs you’ll be expected to hit.
The Dev’s Sunk Cost Fallacy
If time is equity, then both employers and employees have a lot at stake when considering their respective investments. If an engineer has invested X years into a company, there is an expectation of reward, a payoff if you will. If no career path has been clearly outlined and the promises don’t materialize, those sunk costs become obvious very quickly.
In reality, developers don’t need to remain in an environment that makes them unhappy, even with equity, because masters of a certain skill set are virtually immune from the sunk cost phenomenon. In an era where these skills are about as valuable as any, it’s worth considering how much you are worth if you were to throw yourself at the open market.
Conversely, I would not be so quick to invest my time in someone who didn’t feel like they had at least some emotional stake in what we’re doing. If employees want their sunk costs to yield dividends, then employers need to hit that sweet spot where they’ve invested enough to avoid a brain drain. This goes double for anyone jumping ship after many years: you need to communicate security and the promise of something new.
After two years at ClearEstate, which uses SaaS to efficiently solve estate settlement and planning, I can safely say that devs who’ve joined us don’t have concerns about whether or not they are coding good things every day.
Look Before You Jump
Leaving one job for another can be stressful in that it puts you in a vulnerable position. What if it doesn’t work out? What if this startup tanks on my first day? These are legitimate concerns, so do your due diligence.
If you’re thinking of making the leap, ClearEstate is as safe a bet as it gets for a startup. We provide a leading service that simplifies one of life’s most difficult tasks, and the company is backed by five leading VCs including a bank. The sophistication of the investors, and not necessarily their stardom, is an important indicator for tech talent with a plethora of short-term opportunities at their disposal.
I’ve worked in Silicon Valley and I’ve seen over-hyped platforms come and go, but I am very serious about how our growth is not a matter of “maybe.” It’s demonstrable and gaining momentum, and you can take that to the bank!
Peace of Mind and Professional Growth
The right job can be an adventure — when a candidate and company connect, the chemistry is explosive. We want you to feel fulfilled and excited to be part of something that’s more than just a paycheck.
For engineers, the crucial infrastructure builders at ClearEstate, fulfillment is a question of tangibility, seeing your work as a final product, helping people relieve suffering; creating tiny moments of comfort at extremely painful times. We are purpose-driven to the point that your work will, within hours, make someone’s day better.
Is this industry depressing? No! On the contrary, helping people in distress is what sets us apart from other tech gigs. Our commitment to safe, reliable and friendly institutional code, built from the ground up, is reassuring to an engineer — you know that you’re not building a castle on top of a swamp.
As a team, we consciously elevate one another to do better for families in mourning. It takes strength of character and it’s not for everyone. But if you are the type to take on brand new challenges and yet-to-be-solved puzzles, ask yourself if it’s time to be more demanding of the disruptors courting you.