HN user
All my past jobs underpaid, so even $65K or $70K (the average for a entry level job in my city) is higher than I've made.
Being simultaneously under-qualified on paper and over-qualified in practice is a thing with me. People must think I expect high salaries but I actually don't. I've always been paid roughly in the lowest 25 percentile.
Yes, I apply to a higher proportion of full-time jobs and get some interviews (say about 10% from applications) from them.
I don't get offers from full-time jobs. I only get a few from short contracts. And if I apply to full-time jobs exclusively I would get no offers at all.
RIP.
Why wait for referrals? I found all of my contracting jobs by reaching out on Linkedin or various job sites.
Do you have a system in place for choosing people on LinkedIn to reach out to? I don't know what's a good starting point- seeking in local companies first or with companies that are just related to my developer niche. In job boards I tend to email blast a lot of applications.
And yeah, I haven't really felt part of a team since 2010. Contract jobs can wreck your visibility if you're not skilled in tailoring your connections.
Like I have been told I do great work but they never want to re-engage for more work. Not in six months, not in two or four years.
Missing out on promotions is a concern for me. I don't think promotions exist in the context of contract workers, do they?
And I'm also concerned about the 1 year 10 times experience. The longest I have maintained a single project has been 2 years but again that was from working remotely for a startup. I'm supposed to be able to make a big impact at tiny startups but I didn't get that feeling there.
Worst part is, I can probably just keep doing it for another 20 years and retire, it's almost too easy to just go that route.
As long as you can keep your current job, that is.
I've seen this (or variations of) this article before, but what is lacking is how to resolve this problem. How to bring programmers out of the "expert beginner" stage once they realize it. Is it just a heavy dose of mentoring? Where do they find companies most fit to put programmers on the right path?