Jobs Report 9/25/24

Exploring Differences Between Roles

Software Engineers (SWE) 

SWE roles span a wide range of experience levels, from entry-level to CTO. Salaries can be all over the map depending on location, specialization, and experience. Not to mention this role works on anything related to software in the real world. Due to the current layoff market, competition is fierce especially for entry level positions. Always be the first to apply to a role and/or rely on your network for opportunities.

Data Engineers 

If I had to think of a strategic way to enter the tech game it would be through data engineering via a data analyst role. These roles tend to be a hybrid business + engineer role. Therefore you’re doing engineer related things (databases, SQL, possibly python) with business people.

It can be easier to demonstrate your aptitude to go deeper on these skills to business folks and then leverage that to transition to a full blown data engineering role. Again in your free time, you’d need to skill stack with core data eng concepts: ETL, Python, SQL, Spark, databases, Airflow, and dbt.

Infrastructure Engineers 

Based on the data, Infrastructure roles, such as Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and DevOps professionals, start with higher salaries. I suppose this is because the field tends to have seriously senior folks who’ve experienced a lot in production and have decided to do a DevOps career because they care deeply about reliability.

The career path here typically starts internally at a company. Usually a product engineer takes to working on the CI/CD system to optimize deployment of the app. Then they continue to work in internal tools until you’re a DevOps engineer. That’s how I got started with Kubernetes and the SRE career.

If I have to be honest, this roll is highly recession-proof because you’re usually the last person to go in a layoff. Can’t let go of the system admin, right? Like any role, it does come with downsides.

Though is always demand, you can to get forgotten if you don’t speak up about your accomplishments. In a perfect world if you don’t see the SRE, great! But if you do, sh*t is going down in production Lol

Low Baller of the week

Ping Identity is hiring a SWE 2 for 83k-96k in Vancouver, Canada. USD or CAD? Ehh, either way, sounds pretty low. I say keep looking. If you can’t afford it, take the job, and keep interviewing to find a better salary.

On that note, you should always be interviewing even when you have a job. Think about it. You’re working your cushy job. The work is interesting. You like all your coworkers. All is good! One day they hire a new manager to your team and you instantly clash.

The manger excludes you from meetings, gives you boring projects, doesn’t listen to feedback, takes credit for your work, and denies you a promotion. You are livid!

You start looking for a new job only to quickly realize you need to put up with this guy for 6 more months because the job market is bad. Not to mention you’ve done zero leetcode prep. There goes your mental health for the next few months. That’s no way to live.

On the other hand, if you keep interviewing all that time, you would’ve kept your skills in tip-top shape, and you would’ve had warm contacts you could contact and tell them the situation has changed so you’re looking for a new opportunity.

See it pays to be prepared!

Big Baller of the week

The maker of ClaudeAI, Anthropic, is offering 320k-405k for a Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer. Amazing! However they mention something that fries my circuits.

The role is Remote ”friendly” but requires travel. That’s not remote friendly! The job description doesn’t detail what the travel is far. These tactics are a thinly veiled attempt to get employees to return to the office. Keep that in mind when you read these posts and talk to recruiters. Don’t be fooled!