Re:Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Ne...
by ghaff on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @02:47PM
(#24124209)
Of course it's probably also possible for it to be that you're uniquely valuable to Google in the context of their other people, infrastructure, and strategy. Especially as people acquire specialized skills and experience, they can be worth a lot more to some companies than others.
This is true of everyone of course. Even a more or less commodity junior Javascript developer isn't worth much more than their generalized ability to do random tasks to a company that doesn't do any software development.
But some people have a skillset and track record that is very valuable to some companies but that would make it hard to be hired at most.
Re:Developer won’t get hit by a bus, they’ll get hired by Ne...
by whatshisface on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @03:12PM
(#24124586)
This economic theory depends on the idea that Google is the only well-capitalized software company... In reality there are several.
Then the Goog enters the picture and is willing to add another $200k premium to that, in order to prevent you from working for that employer. This isn't sustainable; you're still you and your direct value to Goog is only $100k. The additional amount represents how much damaging a competitor is worth to Goog. As soon as the competitor goes out of business or Goog stops having piles of cash laying around to fight with other companies, that additional value evaporates.
If you decide to leave Goog, you should probably not expect to get $300k or more. In fact you may get less than $100k, if Goog has eliminated the competitors to whom you are valuable.
"Market rate" is extremely unstable.