from 17k to $21000 per month

Most people associate big paychecks in IT with management positions, FAANGs, or their own startup. The road even to earning a million dollars is full of mysteries; how to overcome the salary ceiling in the CIS is not clear.

Well, we probably need to learn algorithms, system design, gain some more experience, somehow we’ll definitely break through

In this article, I want to talk in detail, with proof, about my alternative approach to increasing my salary, which allowed me to earn $21,000 per month as a regular line developer. A separate table of income and time periods of work can be view here. I’ll start with an overview of all positions held so that there is no distortion “he was just lucky, it’s a survivor’s mistake.”

I shared even more details in the conversational report video.

Career

My first income in IT began with deception. I entered the targeted enrollment at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University and quickly realized that many came to the university just to hang out. I was struggling with programming. Already in October, a request was received from a classmate “Listen, can you help me figure it out”which was translated as “do everything for me”. For the first laboratory I took 2 sandwiches and a bottle of Fanta. Almost immediately the flow of applications grew so much that I had to ask for the first money. Later we teamed up with a friend in company. Here is our price list at that time, programs with linear lists were available for a whole hundred…

I managed to write small programs in all the languages ​​taught at the university: Java, Pascal, Fortran, C/C++, Delphi, Python, Scala, R. Earnings from freelancing were ~35–40k per month. In the winter session of 2017, I earned an unprecedented 200k and bought a macbook. At the end of the third year, my friend said: “Freelancing is baby talk, it’s time to become serious guys” and we applied for internships. Then EPAM actively took on students: first courses, then practice on internal projects and, finally, a combat project with a real customer.

EPAM

After the interview, I was allowed to skip the courses and in June 2017 I was accepted into practice (Java, Spring). In July, a scholarship of 17k was awarded. They asked in October “What do you want to write on next?”. After thinking about it, I chose Android as a logical continuation of Java, saying that smartphones are the future. To which they answered me “There are no places for Android, but we saw you have a MacBook there… Maybe iOS?”. That’s how, with zero knowledge of Swift/Objective-C, I became an iOS developer with a salary of 40k in October 2017. Unfortunately, the salary card was lost long ago, proofs will only be correspondence.

In March 2018, I actively asked to schedule an internal interview for a middle position, to which they responded “Get some experience first, then we’ll discuss it”. I went to the market and quickly received an offer for 100k from Electrolux. I brought it to the table as confirmation that I was worth more. I was given all the corporate nonsense about “We are a family, our tasks are more interesting, they won’t value you there”, offered to tear 70k from my heart. With this we said goodbye.

Electrolux

I worked for 100k for a record 1 month, I didn’t like the culture, the code base, the tasks. We spent a month trying to get a smart refrigerator to open the door using a button in the app. Can anyone imagine who might need this?

Fear “recruiters will see that you have changed many places of work, and will not hire you anywhere” seemed strange to me. Ok, maybe some percentage have this predisposition. But this does not mean that I need to endure a socially approved term at a bad place of work. You can always explain in words through your mouth why you decided to leave; there are plenty of adequate reasons. And it is not necessary to indicate this in the resume, and the HR department will look at the employment history of the new place after the offer has been made. In short, I went further to the market, realizing that there was nothing to catch here.

Glamy

After a few interviews, the startup Glamy sent me an offer for 140k, and I was interviewed by Katya Petrova, who in a couple of months will become a DJ of the Podlodka podcast.

The best place to work in my life, hanging out in the office, I found my best friend there, with whom I still communicate to this day. Unfortunately, in August it became clear that the startup would soon end. After discussing this prospect with the team lead, I entered the market again. No secret, I saw a vacancy in a chat for mobile developers with a salary in US dollars, and submitted my resume.

Scal.io

It was the easiest social security test in my life, even though it was the first one in English. They sent me an offer for $2500, which was less than my current salary at Glamy. Classic negotiations took place.

Scal.io was a small American development studio, almost all developers from the Russian Federation. I worked until November 2019, my salary was increased twice, the final one was $4200.

I was fired for publishing an article about combining two jobs, which my faithful colleague translated and forwarded to management. There were no complaints about productivity (and why increase the salary then?), it was just that the management was infuriated by such impudence.

Grid Dynamics

I worked in scal.io a couple of months and realized that I spend 4 hours a day on work. In response to my request to give me more tasks, they gently hinted: “Guy, everything is ok, the customer pays, the application is being developed, there is no need to rush, why?”.

The conclusion was simple: there is a lot of free time, I study at the university, go to the gym, drink beer with friends, and still have a lot of free time left. Senior colleagues recommended that in their free time from work they should cut projects, read framework patch notes and masturbate algos. But paid experience seemed a more reliable option, and I got a second job (Labor Code of the Russian Federation + Individual Entrepreneur).

I am very grateful to Grid for the trip to the states where I worked as a contractor at Apple. October 2018 closed at ~456k with a year of experience in commercial development for iOS.

I left Grid Dynamics in April 2020. BLM + Covid happened, Western customers froze projects for contractors. It was unprofitable for outstaff to maintain such a staff, so most were offered to leave on their own, or take unpaid leave until better times.

Your humble servant signed on his own, taking two salaries.

Crisalix

In March 2020, my friend from Glamy called me for an interview at the Spanish startup where he worked.

Because of his recommendations, the social security process was very easy; they gave me €4,200.

Unfortunately, at the end of Covid, investors realized that “application for visualizing the consequences of plastic surgery” It’s unlikely to be popular after the quarantine is lifted, when you can just come to the clinic. The funding fizzled out, the CEO announced to us plans to rewrite everything in React Native, and my friend and I left the company.

I owe this startup a huge number of viewed female breasts, on which neurons were trained and features were tested. It took me a long time to recover mentally after that.

Yap Studios

Again a small American studio. The customer was Tiffany & Co, so girls, I know everything about cutting diamonds and paired engagement/wedding rings, please contact me.

The collaboration ended on April 4, 2021. Tiffany & Co commissioned an app for trying on diamonds in AR. The person who was responsible for lighting in one of the Call Of Duty parts worked with me on the shaders. The progress was not very good (the difficulty of simulating the glare of light from the facets of a diamond), and the very idea of ​​​​trying on diamonds for millions of rubles in an application… Let's just say that it is unlikely that the rich of this world buy expensive toys this way.

They kept me on salary for a couple more months without tasks and threw up their hands, saying there was no project, no funding. In November 2020 I bought an apartment in St. Petersburg for cash, further search for work became a constant stream, because it was necessary to ensure a constant flow of money for repairs.

Zerion

Every developer's career should include a crypto startup, this was mine.

Since February 2020 I started working for $4700.

This is how you imagine working at a crypto startup, and that’s how it was. Rework, the web crashing directly onto the demo, crutches and bicycles just to be released, “what status” five times a day. I hope the guys are doing well now, options, investment rounds and yachts, but then I just didn’t find what was worth staying for.

We parted by mutual agreement after six months of work.

Glovo

If you use Glovo in exile and pay with Apple Pay, then you are the results of my work. If Apple Pay doesn't work, it's not my fault!

We agreed that I would move to Spain after six months of work, but for now I would work as an individual entrepreneur. Naturally, I didn’t go to Spain to work for 5k. It was a shame to learn that there seems to be an agreement on the abolition of double taxation, but it comes into force after six months of work (perhaps something has changed since then). I paid taxes on all foreign exchange transactions through a patent (in St. Petersburg at that time it cost 60k/year).

Everli

Technically a competitor to Glovo in Italy. None of this happened, I’m telling you an incident from GTA RP.

Resigned in May 2022 as part of a general separation from employment. Covid is over, and Italians took to the streets, and delivery profits dropped. By the way, thank you very much to the Everli team for the corporate event in Montepulciano, it was cool!

Just at this moment I reach a total income of $21,000+. remember, that the course was different. I was 23 years old.

Once I burned the team lead in the IDE bookmarks of the Glovo project. In response to his question, he joked that he was doing a test task for them. It was exciting.

Autodesk

The remote currency of your dreams, without exaggeration. Old corporate: long deadlines, bureaucracy, general slowness. Worried about my productivity, I asked a Russian colleague. He laughed and said “bro, have fun, there’s no need to rush here, that’s the way it’s done.”. Essentially, he worked as an on-call engineer who sorted out bugs, communicated with users and sometimes developed new features. Salary negotiations allowed me to negotiate +$2100.

Autodesk was my last hired job, I left in June 2022. Even after leaving Russia, I was offered to continue working through a double VPN, but I refused (explanation at the end of the article).

Recommendations for action

When I was growing up, there were no councils. It was not customary to discuss money openly in IT, nor did combining several jobs to maximize income. I experimented a lot and looked for effective ways, the proof of the correctness of my approach is my life. Here are the main conclusions that will help you walk the road shorter than I once walked:

• don't be satisfied with the answer “You just have to wait, and everything will be a pleasure”. There are no rules in the world order “You can ask for X only with experience Y”. Let them prove that you don't deserve so much. Let them ask you questions, give you problems that you cannot solve. Then you will return with new knowledge for a new attempt. If you pass all the checks, the money is on the barrel. And no “Wait, be patient, gain experience.”

• never close your resume. Interviewing skills atrophy during work. After three years of working for one company, a senior is unlikely to pass an interview for a middle position in another without preparation. This skill needs to be constantly trained. It is not necessary to jump to a new place for a 10% increase, but every month there should be a benefit, in case they offer something interesting?

• always know when the next salary review is. No “I will work, they will mark me and offer me more” does not work. Only the moment you ask, the manager will start the salary review process. It will last from several months to infinity. Completed the probationary period, worked for six months without promotion, implemented a large-scale feature, passed a performance review – when is the review? There is no penalty for asking.

• Find an environment that openly talks about money and perceives IT as work. And not as divine art for or you, in which it is sinful to stutter about material things. You are selling your finite time for money. It is in your best interest to do this for the maximum payout. This is exactly the kind of environment I have gathered around me in the “Conscious Commercialism” community. This article contains only top-level life hacks. More tips about remote currency exchanges, salary negotiations and hacking interviews inside. Here's a link to a free trial, decide for yourself if it's worth it.

• send those who consider combining jobs to be deception or theft from the employer. From a legal point of view, this is nonsense. From a moral point of view – extrapolation of personal moral beliefs to the size of universal truths. The team leader is happy, tasks are completed on time, is there any free time left? Go ahead and get a second job if you want to earn x2

Someone might say scornfully “After so many job changes they won’t hire you anywhere”. No, they will take it here's the proof. I don’t know what other proof is needed… To work in IT until the very end, so that it is engraved on the memorial plaque “He was right”?

Thank you for reading, I hope you were able to learn something useful, I’m ready to answer any questions in the comments.

Why did I quit hiring?

Hidden text

I never liked the unfairness of the system towards the average worker: “we are a family, work on weekends while we charge you a hundredfold margin”. And it would be nice if this only came from the lips of employers. But the snobbish ladies become infected with this destructive mindset and consider selfless dedication an honor. They say real engineers don’t actually need money.

For some time I tried to influence IT community with articles and reports “look, there is such an alternative to the generally accepted one”. It was possible to awaken individual people, but no general trend emerged. Therefore, I decided that now I will have my own IT community, in which I will help solve the pain that I myself suffered from. When I was growing up, there were only a few conscious and materialistic people in my environment. My community members have thousands of them.

In June 2022, subscriptions brought in 100k+. This is not comparable to hiring salaries, but the growth prospects were endless. I deliberately deprived myself of a Plan B so as not to be distracted from creativity and community development. The results speak for themselves.