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Most people after getting their first IT job think that it's done.
"I can sip my Mojito and work from the beach" mindset.
Well, you can if you are fine with $1500 - $5000/month salary.
If you want to get to $7k, $8k or even $10k+ salary you need to do more than just drinking Mojitos.
Is it only about the money?
It's not only about the money, but your salary represents 2 things:
- How good a developer are you
- How good a negotiator are you
If you are an awesome developer, but can't stand for your own interests, you will stack with one salary for your whole life.
But if you are a bad developer, you won't be able to provide value to the company, and nobody will pay you good money.
So let's cover how to become a good developer and good negotiator and how to increase your market value.
🧑💻👩💻 How to become a good developer?
It's actually quite straight forward step by step process, so let me break it down for you:
- Choose the right learning path.
Learning from YouTube and Tutorials in 90% of cases won't teach you important concepts and good practices. So I recommend choosing a coding academy, or at least finding a mentor who will guide you through what to learn and where. - Find the right company
Getting your first job is hard, and you are not in the position of 'choosing'. But it will insanely help your career if your first company is a fast-paced company, and you will have someone experienced to review your code. If it's not the case, consider changing a job in 6-12 months. - Keep learning
Always keep learning and improving your skills. Read the documentation, do research, ask for feedback from Seniors, and take extra courses in your free time. - Work hard
If you want to stand out among other devs, you need to do 30-50% more work than the average dev in your company. Trust me, it will be noticed sooner or later and it will be a great argument to negotiate a promotion. The best thing is that if you follow the previous step, you will be able to do more WITHOUT working extra hours, as if you keep improving your skills, you will get so much ahead of the average dev.
That's simple. There are no secrets about being good.
It's the same thing as in the sport.
Think of Messi or Ronaldo ⚽️.
They definitely have a talent, but most of their success can be attributed to their hard work. They are constantly improving their skills and training.
You don't have to work that hard if you don't want to, but try to improve your skills on a monthly basis and in a year you will get so much better!
🗣️ How to become a good negotiator?
Instead of listing thousands of tips that you will forget tomorrow.
I will give you one simple exercise, that helped me to double my salary multiple times.
Most people are not getting promotions, just because they don't ask for it.
Or when their request gets rejected, they are too scared to change the job.
And when you are scared to ask for a promotion or change a job, just answer on one question (let's assume that you are asking for a $1000 promotion):
What will I be able to afford for that extra $1000 per month or $12,000 extra per year?
And then think. Are all those things (cool trip to Asia, better apartments, better car, more savings), worth 3 minutes of embarrassment that you feel when you ask for a promotion?
If you are ready for that risk now, I have an article where I break the whole process of requesting a promotion on your job into simple steps, so you can use them to start making more.
📈 How to increase your market value?
Why a CEO makes 100 times more than a clerk?
Both of them work 8 hours a day.
Both of them work hard (let's assume that we have a hard-working clerk).
But the CEO has way more responsibilities. CEO is responsible for all people in the company, for company results and so many other things.
CEO might be making just one decision per month, but this one decision can be worth millions.
Same in the programming.
If you want to increase your value, you need to be ready to take on more responsibilities.
It might look scary, but trust me, it's not that hard, and it's worth it.
It will make you are better person and take your career to the next level.
Here are some of the extra responsibilities that you can start taking even today:
- Take more projects (Ex. if you are just a Frontend Developer, consider learning Backend and becoming a Fullstack)
- Conduct technical interviews
- Start mentoring others
- Start leading projects
- Suggest new features, functionalities and solutions
- Do code reviews of others' code
- Suggest improvements to company workflows and developers' structure
- Start managing other developers
- Organise a presentation or an event
Think if you can do some of those things in your company, and if yes START DOING THEM.
Having one of those things in your CV insanely increases your value and earning capacity.
Conclusion
Building a successful career takes time.
But it's not that hard.
Just keep improving your skills, work hard, take on new responsibilities and BE STRONG when it comes to your salary.
And your career will be growing 📈.
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