Salary vs Job title

Believe it or not, salary and job position doesn’t go hand to hand.

Your salary depends on the value you give to your company and your negotiation skills.

The primary goal of any company is to produce profit for their shareholders or owners. The shareholders to make sure the CEO do properly his job and don’t steal from them, they give him a share of the profits (around 20%). Because of these a CEO will enforce always to cut costs in everything. But they are no fools, it is a very common story that a lot of times when you are going to quit to a new job then counteroffer you with a better deal. The big question is: If you worth that, why they didn’t pay you that much on the first place?

Companies identify which workers really provide value and which ones don’t. If you don’t provide that much value to the company when you quit they just let you go, but if yo do they will really will make an effort to keep you. Some times will be offering you more money, some time a better position, they actually don’t care as long as you don’t go, they fill your pockets or your ego.

Being a Senior developer is not something you just get by being promoted. Is more about your ability to solve problems, produce better code, deliver your project on time and all that things that make you a professional. Because the companies just use the tittles as a worker retention strategy now we have what is call beginners experts ( please read this How Developers Stop Learning: Rise of the Expert Beginner).

So earn your title by working and improving your self a lot, became a truly professional, this will give to any company you work for a lot of value and with value they will pay you a lot above average. That is how real life works.

Alfredo Pinto Molina

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Software developer and project manager since 1999