Calgary: Career track of a Software Developer

[buffonomics]

In Calgary AB, what should a software developer be making after 6 years of experience? I currently make under 80k (I know, it's low, hence my concern ).

It's beginning to dawn on me that Calgary isn't worth living in unless you're an oil/gas/chem engineer or something along those lines. I have a B.Sc in computer Engineering from DeVry University (not comp.sci because I wanted to have some exposure to hardware as well for personal reasons, though I want nothing to do with it professionally).

I am currently 26. I am the kind of guy who writes software for fun. I've been doing so since my teens (including making 3D games, though I would rather not do that as a career). I have participated in and also Authored some open source applications.

I guess I've become more aware of my career and long term planning. I have done some consulting in the past for 2 years (along side my day job, when the opportunity arises) and the consulting alone brought in over 6 digits per year. This is nice, but I would really like to be hitting this from a day job so I can have more time for life balance.

What do I do to break into 6 digits full time? What should I focus on or perhaps specialize on to get there? I really need some candid advise. Can anyone who has been through this phase and who has gotten that high share some of the steps they took?

PS: I have also been contemplating the business side of things too (entrepreneural or managerial within the company) as I don't think I would want to be a code monkey all my life. Just need to rub minds with folks.

Thanks.

[buffonomics]

A little about my tech background:

In terms of enterprise, I am more attuned towards the Java side of things simply because I despise the OS and hosting limitations that result from .NET (which seems to be Calgary's defacto software framework :rolleyes: ). But that doesn't stop me from knowing what to do with & working with .NET, it's just a preference. I've worked with both.

In my spare time I actually picked up grails and I am working on building something with it.
Essentially, software is second nature to me. I tend to keep current with what's hot.

[hampstor]

Not sure if this helps - but consider looking at other streams that software developers support. Roles such as architects (solution/infrastructure/information), analysts (business, functional and technical) are higher paying, and more difficult to outsource overseas.

This is an analogy I often use with software development...

I'm building a box. I need someone to come in and run the entire project because I don't know the first thing about building boxes. I need someone to and help me determine my requirements. Then, I need someone to turn those requirements into a design. Then I need someone to take that design and do the grunt work to build the box.

Out of all those roles - the ones that's easiest to outsource overseas is the grunt work. Because of that, it's the lowest paying since now you have to compete with the guys overseas.

For pay I only know rates from the consultant side - not too sure about what an on-staff resource makes. Most intermediate and senior architects and functional/technical consultants I know on projects are easily over the 100k mark. This of course assumes they are working on medium-long term projects.

[G]

You are lucky to even have a job. We go out of our way to filter out all Devry applicants....terrible so called school where everyone comes out with a 4.0...:rolleyes:

[buffonomics]

Originally posted by G
You are lucky to even have a job. We go out of our way to filter out all Devry applicants....terrible so called school where everyone comes out with a 4.0...:rolleyes:

I heard about this sillyness.
I wonder why this even matters given my years of experience. :rolleyes: Given your reasons (we're not even bringing up the validity behind your logic), that should only logically apply to a person who just graduated, not a person with 6 years of great experience.

If the work you and your company do are still considered intellectually on par with the knowledge level of a B.Sc (because there would be no other logical reason to ignore someone with actual proven experience and recommendations because he didn't go to the same school as you), then questions abound about the very quality of this company you claim to work for.

In short, I think people who think like you and your employers aren't worth working with to be honest. The snobbery would be quite unnecessary and would get old fairly quickly :)

[buffonomics]

Originally posted by hampstor
Not sure if this helps - but consider looking at other streams that software developers support. Roles such as architects (solution/infrastructure/information), analysts (business, functional and technical) are higher paying, and more difficult to outsource overseas.

This is an analogy I often use with software development...

I'm building a box. I need someone to come in and run the entire project because I don't know the first thing about building boxes. I need someone to and help me determine my requirements. Then, I need someone to turn those requirements into a design. Then I need someone to take that design and do the grunt work to build the box.

Out of all those roles - the ones that's easiest to outsource overseas is the grunt work. Because of that, it's the lowest paying since now you have to compete with the guys overseas.

For pay I only know rates from the consultant side - not too sure about what an on-staff resource makes. Most intermediate and senior architects and functional/technical consultants I know on projects are easily over the 100k mark. This of course assumes they are working on medium-long term projects.

Thanks. I'm quite aware of how things are on the consulting side. Did some of it a little myself. I was curious about the more full-time strategies.

And yeah, I totally agree with that analogy :D . Hence my need to break-through to the next level.
Though I would put myself intellectually at the level of "I need someone to help me determine my requirements. Then, I need someone to turn those requirements into a design", not necessarily the far end. Most software developers are capable of being more than just programmers....it's just the darned titles.

The company I consulted with never asked me for even my resume. They saw my work and my carriage/swagger and that was enough for them to make a decision. Designing/architecting solutions right now is not a problem for me as I do this all the time.

[benyl]

Originally posted by G
You are lucky to even have a job. We go out of our way to filter out all Devry applicants....terrible so called school where everyone comes out with a 4.0...:rolleyes:

Ding Ding Ding Ding.

[buffonomics]

Originally posted by benyl


Ding Ding Ding Ding.

Wow. And here I was thinking the gentleman a few posts back was just an exception. This seems to be a real, sadly popular predisposition.

I don't regret going to DeVry. it was a practical school like SAIT and I liked that about it, besides the ability to take some courses in the US. But school only teaches you how to learn and the basic concepts (however sparingly you think they are). It CANNOT teach you what you need to get the job done in the real world.

That comes from experience and personal learning, especially in my field. So I'm really having a challenge understanding why grown adults who claim to be logical human beings would reason this way given the experience I have.

[G]

Originally posted by buffonomics


Wow. And here I was thinking the gentleman a few posts back was just an exception. This seems to be a real, sadly popular predisposition.

I don't regret going to DeVry. it was a practical school like SAIT and I liked that about it, besides the ability to take some courses in the US. But school only teaches you how to learn and the basic concepts (however sparingly you think they are). It CANNOT teach you what you need to get the job done in the real world.

That comes from experience and personal learning, especially in my field. So I'm really having a challenge understanding why grown adults who claim to be logical human beings would reason this way given the experience I have.

Sorry I guess I should say new Devry grads with no experience. You may be the exception but in general Devry grads know how to do the work but cannot solve problems and think outside the box they need a lot of mentoring and hand holding....actually so much that I can get it done faster and better.

Edit: And because of the demographics of Devry students they are usually older, financially strained by tuition and family therefore they usually walk around with a chip on their shoulders.

[AsianAfroSamurai]

Well, I will try to give you my perspective on this.

At your level of experience it doesn't matter too much where you went to school, as you already know. Would be an issue if you had just started out.

I would say to you that there is a ceiling on the salary of a software developer and 100K is pretty much the top end. Unless you branch out to a more technical lead/solution architect/enterprise architect or a more specialist role, such as SharePoint Architect you will have a hard time getting to 100K as a full time employee.

In Calgary, I feel that the dirty secret (if it can be called that) is that the only way to make real money is to go full time contract. You are already doing this on the side so why not do it full time?

You will basically work your 35/40 hours a week, be in an office just like everybody else and get paid much much better. If you have 5-10 years experience and you are applying for contract positions $65 an hour would be a good minimum starting point. You could go as high as $90-$95 an hour (if you are billing direct and not going through a recruiter, with a recruiter you will be in the range of $65-85).

For example, at $65/hr you are looking at $120K (which is equivalent to about $135K as full time - if you pay yourself via dividends and do the standard deductions). This includes 2 weeks vacation, with the 12 stat holidays.

It is very possible to be contracting on a full-time basis doing software development year after year. I have friends who have been contracting at $80 and above for many years with very little gaps.

Now, you may have guessed that a lot of this is possible because of the oil and gas industry. And its true. Calgary is a city where you can be a contractor your whole career (and not just in software). The money is here. Part of this, especially for the software industry, is that the oil and gas companies thinking of their non-core business units (such as IT and IS) as plumbers that should be hired to carry out a task and not worthy of being an employee. They obviously have full time staff in both areas but they are less likely to be bringing in the top salaries in the company. It is unlikely that a systems analyst is going to be making the same as a exploitation engineer. This is not something you will hear them explicitly say but that's the sentiment.

You are more likely to see the higher rates at the oil and gas side versus for example the City of Calgary or Shaw. Another dirty secret is that a lot of the government organizations in the province hire many many contractors for their IS needs. This is simply because the employees are usually bottlenecks and cannot get the job done (please, please, I am generalizing here, there are outstanding people in these organizations, they are just not the norm).

So, go talk to S.i. Systems, Eagle, or one of the other agencies. Give them your minimum rate. Don't settle for what you are not worth. If you aren't careful, you could end up at the City of Calgary making $50/hr while the market can hire you at much higher rates.

As you are aware there is a lot of Microsoft .NET. Embrace it. Go to S.i. Systems site and look at the postings for various positions. The government contracts like VB.NET but most will be C#. There is a lot of web development. ASP.NET Web Forms is still around but thank God there is a lot more ASP.NET MVC development going on. SQL Server is quite strong but the majors (oil and gas) will have a lot of their production systems in Oracle.

If you are good (and good is not just defined technically - the personal and "soft" skills are really important) you should have no problems getting contracts. Lean on the agencies to start with and then start with trying to go direct. Don't view yourself as a contractor but rather a consultant. The skills you will learn from going to various clients will make you very employable for more senior roles down the road.

In terms of your skillset, for contracting a more focused resume is better. Your network is going to be make a difference but its better to focus on keeping your resume focused. For example, if you do a PHP,MySQL, or Ruby on Rails, and you are applying for a contract at a .NET shop, its better to really de-emphasize these and focus on the .NET tools and skillset. Someone hiring a contractor is looking for a strong person that closely matches what they want.

Anyways, this is getting too long but you already are doing part-time moonlighting on contract. Just go and get a full time contract. Don't do freelancing and take on mini-projects. Apply for the contracts where the company expects you to be in the office 35-40 hours a week and the contracts last 6 months and beyond.

By the way, a six month contract will usually end up being a year or even longer.

[lint]

^^^ outstanding post

[CanmoreOrLess]

AsianAfroSamurai, sweet post.

[sabad66]

Yep, AsianAfro hit the nail on the head.

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by AsianAfroSamurai
Part of this, especially for the software industry, is that the oil and gas companies thinking of their non-core business units (such as IT and IS) as plumbers that should be hired to carry out a task and not worthy of being an employee.

What he said. To expand on that concept a little bit, the fact of the matter is that software developers generally support the main business of a company. As such they are viewed as an expense and a necessary evil that is kept at a minimum. Unless you work at a company where the work you do IS the main business of that company (e.g. software company) you're not going to see huge money or profit sharing or anything of that nature.

For the record, when I say big money I'm not talking $100k, I mean in the $150k+ range. $100k is what I assume a very competent person with post secondary and no risk exposure (non-owner) should be receiving in Calgary after 10 years experience.

With that said, don't be discouraged from a career in software development. There are lots of avenues for smart developers to make lots of money.

[Jeff_E]

A friend of mine works for Husky Energy. He's been with them for just under two years. Got promoted a couple months ago and he is making six figures yearly now. Yes he graduated as a software developer at SAIT. I guess it really depends on the company that you are working with? I'm not sure as I am not in this field. Just sharing someone else's experience. :burnout: