Big Fish in a Small Pond or Small Fish in a Big Pond?

A Developer Career Strategy

Like Finding Nemo — but for software developers 🤔

I’m going to break down the strategy that took me from an underpaid, mediocre developer to an engineering leader through a series of strategic job hops.

I love to code and help people reach their goals. I also like making money, gaining influence and status. You probably do too.

BTW — if you want to learn to code to start your journey then join me at Parsity.io

Developers are generally obsessed with salary, getting to senior levels and owning their own companies.

I think this is good overall.

In fact, this desire for more is what drives us to innovate, take on increasingly difficult tasks and automate ruthlessly. We are rewarded for doing these things well.

Unfortunately, many of you think the only way to get the money, power and respect you desire is to study LeetCode for 8 hours a day and go FAANG or bust. Or worse, you think putting in longer hours or getting infinitely better at writing code is the ticket. Wrong.

Here’s how I 4-xed my salary and climbed the engineering ladder by chasing uncomfortable-ness.

Every big fish was a small fish at one point.