We have begun to write an overview or discussion of what has happened in IT over the past 10 years and why, sometimes, developers are paid more than managers (yes, sometimes; not always, like it was in previous years – who is interested, links can be found at the end of the note). And, all of a sudden, we realized that it turns out to be quite long and boring as if we were persuading you or ourselves about something.

The story we are witnessing is not new, not the first or the last one. A younger methodology ( to be precise, it’s an entire family of flexible approaches to managing software development) has become quite popular in the industry and changed roles. Previously, the project manager was engaged in the team, now the team is given to the team leader. So, part of the money from the salaries of project managers is transferred to the salaries of the team leaders. There are projects in which this strategy works. Projects in which there are still deadlines, priorities, and tasks still exist as well. There are no conferences devoted to such projects that take place every six months. And so what? The market has always been changing, and it is still changing now. A small surprise awaits the adepts of agile approaches in the new big body of knowledge about project management, but again – and this is not the first time in history.

A separate question is how the situation with burnout in the developer environment is related to the fact that there is no place in flexible frameworks for working with a person and this person’s state. The industry will also deal with this if the problem is significant enough for the cost of tasks that are being performed.

Back in 2019 reports showed that the middle project manager could receive an average of less than the middle software developer, and the senior project manager had an advantage over the senior developer. Nowadays, the market has swung a little and on average managers tend to earn more. At the same time, there are always point positions and rare people – an IT industry knows how to attract and retain these point pieces of competence.

But we are talking about average, dear colleagues. There are rare positions in development or data science, where several developers (about whom everyone talks with aspiration) earn much more than the market. OK, but it doesn’t make the whole market weather. Also, the review rarely includes bonuses that managers receive based on the results of successful projects – and there are not so many of them as to rewrite the history of the entire market greatly.

Let’s go back from review and reflection to modern life, where the IT professional always has several options for growth:
– team management
– project management

We don’t know what you are keener on and what options for positions and transfers your company offers.

There is only one trend, which remains the same from year to year.
This is almost a one-and-a-half/double difference between project manager VS senior project manager and software engineer VS team lead salaries.

In the last post, we came to a certain conclusion that, on average, we do not spend enough time on activities and tasks that lead to growth. It’s just a mathematical calculation that does not claim the depth of analytics. And if all of us somehow understand that the difference in salaries between positions differ at times, then why don’t we invest money and time in our growth? Why do we save on ourselves? We asked our managing partner Alexander Orlov to give one of the answers to this question.

On January 21, an online seminar will be held on the following topic:
Two ways for developing team leader, manager, and director

More about Webinar: https://tetics.com/two-ways/

Time: 18:00 GMT+3, January 21

We will be happy to see you at our event, colleagues.

And we’d like to remind you that the beginning of the next big program is scheduled for February 5, 2021: https://tetics.com/
So, come, and we will discuss and clarify everything.