And I also contribute open source, a lot by my standards.
Yes my company allows open source because it is in our interest. We are contractors you see, open source bringing us visibility. I would say that open source is the reason for why I can have earnings higher than average, for one because my projects shine brighter than any resume (and I have a decent resume as well), because being able to show working code counts more than stories, but also because my work has transformed me from a full stack developer to one that is also specialized on more niche problems. Like I don't shine if you make me query MySQL, but I'm worth it if you make me handle problems of distributed systems.
But I'm not going to lie to you. It's freaking hard and it does end up eating into your family life, even though most open source I do is for helping at work and done during work hours when it's justifiable. I'm not able to sustain a constant pace. I can't do it without risking burnout. Hence I'm not one of those folks that commit every day. I can have entire months without contributions. But then when I do have contributions, shit gets serious, or in other words I finish was I start.
Out of curiosity, what is the average salary for software developers in Romania?
minimum wage $300 average wage $900 (official statistics for 2016 Q1) fresh graduate developer $1000 3-5 years of experience $2000-$3000
Can't speak for top engineers, but it would be surprising if more than a couple earns over $6000, it flats out pretty fast.
This is quite accurate: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?coun...
The overwhelming majority of coding work (at whatever level, top or bottom) is carried out 9-5 in offices.
Also "top developer" != "open source developer".
You require the same amount of in-office management.
Every time that management decided as you say, they got something else as delivery.
As a result, getting more effort out of an outsourcer may feel as annoying as getting your insurance company to approve your claim -- their entire company culture/process has evolved and/or been designed to prevent this.
By contrast, individual employees (remote or otherwise) might get lazy or burnt out or have personal problems or something, but few of them are actually Wally from Dilbert, using all their available effort to avoid having to make any effort
The outsourcee is always motivated to do the minimum work compared to an in-house team that can focus on quality and efficiency for the long term benefit.
Very true, the thing is, companies go for developers with tons of OSS code and conferences both as speakers and attendees for two reasons:
First is the fact that you become a known quantity, OSS code is code that you have produced and that any prospective employer can look at and see its "quality". It also solidifies you as more of a domain expert which in turn allows you to get better wages.
Second, having employees with OSS contributions and speaking at conferences is good for the bottom line of employers, they can "gloat" more easily on how they have the "top talent" and are thought leaders of industry. This in turn allows them to charge their clients more and lets the find prospects easier.
It's all about perception and influence.
*Ninja Edited for grammar.
Sorry to disagree but I have spent my whole 15 year career as a developer at banks and many fortune 50/100 companies and I can tell you for certain that most developers in these extremely high paying corporate jobs, including the developers do rarely do any software development or practice outside of the office.
Keep in mind that most of these jobs require a decade or more of experience so most of these folks have wives, children, 4k sq. ft. homes with swimming pools and all of the collective responsibilities that go along with those things. Consequently, their managers are in the same position so it almost never expected that anyone regularly sacrifices their family life for work related activities outside of times when it's absolutely necessary.
Successful, established and non-software companies rarely ever implement bleeding edge technology. In fact most of these companies have EA departments that forbid the use of anything outside of the approved, vetted technology stack without a specific approved exception.
What I've seen in these teams is that there is little emphasis on learning new technology like what I see as the standard requirements in HN lately. Developers instead set themselves apart by (and are interviewed/hired for) consistently demonstrating exceptional/outstanding: -problem solving -critical thinking -customer focused behavior -core enginerring skills -business domain/political accumen -leadership and mentorship
Only a couple times have I reviewed an employee performance appraisal that contained management directives related to lack of software skills and I have reviewed thousands of them to date.
I have personally interviewed and hired hundreds of elite software engineers for salaries of well over six figures and I can guaranty you that the question of emerging technologies is only discussed if the candidate brings it up or specifically has it on their resume.
The recent stories about complex technical algorithmic interviews that I hear about on HN are nothing like most big corporations interviews. The good corporations hire good people knowing that skills change and can be trained.
As a mater of fact, I know several elite level software engineers at top US companies that if presented with the startup style interview process would either fail miserably or would be so completely insulted by the process and hubris that they would decline to proceed with the interview(then go across the street to a fortune 50 and easily collect 225k with benefits).
TL;DR: The majority of elite U.S. software development jobs are nothing like the working conditions often described on HN.
The reasoning for this seems intuitive and correct. But I'm wondering if there's evidence it's wrong. What are these great companies for developers and are they software revenue companies? If not, what are the forces that maintain a good workplace for developers when software is not the main revenue?
On the contrary. On those jobs the developer will be a milk cow, plus under constant pressure and stress.
How do you think anyone got hired 10, 20, 30+ years ago in tech? How do you think candidates are evaluated in other fields that do not have some equivalent to FOSS?
I have a friend interviewing for a high-level marketing position. They look at your resume, ask you about your past work, give you some short tests or scenarios, and make a decision based on all the feedback the collect. It's not a perfect system but it's how the world works, basically.
Also, it helps to have friend in high places. It's often a matter of who you know.
I still think, you can learn much more from that than from trivia questions or text book examples. If a person can argue about choice of technology/algorithm/architecture/method, can tell you how they approach a given problem etc...
My feeling is that the "shortage" is a lie. Back then there were no thousand competitors for every boring job out there. Weeding out so much wasn't necessary for 5 applications :)
I wasn't active in the profession back then; I have no idea, and that's why I asked. My question was not rhetorical.
It has some trade-offs, we dont have a car or macbooks, but it works just fine.
My son was amazing, he slept 16 hours, giving me 5-6 hours during the day and 2-3 in the evenings to work. Working at the same time was great.
My daughter however sleeps very erratically alone, however she sleeps OK on a person. So you have a baby in your arms for 9 hours of the day and a toddler running around causing mayhem (and demanding attention).
So, yeah, if you're lucky then it works.
Those sleeps will stop though, with my son he was sleeping 4hrs / day up until he was 26 months. Which is about as long as I lasted having a work-at-home day :)
We both work, originally full time, but now 4 days a week.
Honestly I have no idea how anyone could expect to be able to work at the same time as looking after a two year old, I've done it once while my brother came over to entertain him, and even then it was just barely viable. Young children just don't understand the concept of someone being present in the room but not able to pay attention to them.
That will end soon :)
Developers have it pretty well with family time even in 9-5 job. My friend works on boat and is away from home 6 months every year. My other friend works is truck driver and is home on weekends, if he is lucky.
I did my math and I decided to value family time over income. Part of that was moving to cheaper area to reduce expenses and to be with grandparents. Finding remote work is quite easy if you made some tradeoffs.
I said article is disconnected from reality, because it does not handle basic math. Somehow it expects everything without any sacrifices or trade-offs. Part about not sacrificing your hobbies on top of job and family is best example.
And when that does not work, blame is on people who did not even started their own family yet.
Of course, wife & I always wanted three. I was not going to not have three kids, just so I could spend more time coding. I would never tell anyone who has < 3 kids that they have it easy, but this was a very interesting sub-topic of the OP.
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||||||My friend wrote in an email that "When we had our first, I thought a lot about what the hell we had done with all the free time we used to have on our hands. Since we had our second, I haven't had time to think." I should add that after having their third, he has barely found time to write emails to me a few times a year.
TLDR; step size between 0, 1, 2, etc. kids is subjective.
> Good old racism and man hate is doing just fine.
This is a strange generalization indeed. Esp. considering that the post author maintains an active technical blog and speaks at events (I assume these activities take about the same amount of resources as hobby open source development).
PS I don't know a lot of open source developers in person, and just identify them by name, communication and the code. However, the ones I happened to talk with on broader topics, usually happen to be older than 20. Also, I'm not sure how, and, most importantly, why I would question about their responsibilities though...
This is so incredibly false. Many Open-Source devs are top programmers with real lives. I find that the corporate world's so called experts are usually the disappointing ones. In the corporate world becoming a guru is more of a political game than anything. In the Open-Source world, it's "show me the code" or GTFO.
>Good old racism and man hate is doing just fine.
Allow me to point out that racism usually applies to people who are experiencing oppression because of not being white. This has to do with a society which has created structures and institutions that give white people privilege at the expense of everyone else.
Same goes for sexism.
Thus, white males live at the top of a pyramid of oppression, without seeing it.
Privilege is transparent for the privileged. It's like playing a game on easy and wondering why everyone else is complaining.
Well, other people are playing at different difficulty -- people of color on "hard" and "berserk" modes, women of color on "insanely hard." And they don't get to choose their level.
This is why, as a white male, I try to not get defensive and blame the ones who point out the existing institutionalized oppression in being "(reverse) racist" or "man-hating".
Most people who contribute to OS are on low income, unemployed or students. Top developers in banks and startups dont have time for that, or are forbidden by their company.
Being "top developer" is one of the most family friendly jobs that ever existed. You can work remotely at your own time. I quit cubicle and started working on opensource because I had family.
> you might develop a mental illness, like depression,
Many people in IT are a bit weird. Again its one of the most friendly jobs that exists. Developer does not even have to speak to people, all can be done via email.
> 20-year-old white guys with no responsibilities and/or with enough income to "buy" more free time
Good old racism and man hate is doing just fine.