Chapter One : How Much Are You Worth?

Overview

Right now, you re worth no more than you are currently being paid...your information technology manager has coolly evaluated your skills, your work ethic , your competitors , your actual contribution to the company s success, considered his or her budget, and then quantified all of that into a salary.

Every programmer in every environment wants a savvy answer to that question, no matter what his or her programming language, hardware platform, or level of skill. What does it take to make it to the top? What does it take to earn elite programming status ”the highest title, the best compensation, the most responsibility, authority, and respect?

You can make it to the top. I have watched ”and helped ”young trainee programmers capitalize on their talents to earn major success in corporate programming or go beyond programming to become software entrepreneurs. I have worked with programmers who have been caught in the corporate cubicle with apparently no way out ”or up ”and watched them realize more of their potential than they thought was possible. Along the way, four or five of them became millionaires. What gave them their edge was a willingness to focus intensely, to develop a career plan, and to employ the techniques I lay out in this book.

But first, the harsh truth: Right now, you re worth no more than you are currently being paid. Maybe you d be earning somewhat more in a larger corporation in a different city. But the fact is, your information technology manager has coolly evaluated your skills, your work ethic, your competitors, your actual contribution to the company s success, considered his or her budget, and then quantified all of that into a salary. To get much more, you ll have to prove to your manager that you are significantly more valuable to him and to the IT vice-president than the programmers in the offices surrounding yours ”who are also asking for a raise or more interesting assignments.

What can you do to get better? This book offers many specific details ”among them, understand your company s business processes, upgrade your coding skills, become more flexible, take on the difficult projects, get more aggressive , turn yourself into a respected programming leader, adopt a can-do attitude, focus more fiercely, and make your boss and your end users look good. And, after you ve become more knowledgeable, flexible, dependable, and creative ”therefore much more valuable ”you may have to move to a company that pays more generously to earn what you re worth.