The Software Developer's Career Handbook

Chapter 7. The Business

You’ve had a small number of career-defining moments. These are the select few moments in time when the trajectory of your career changed instantly and drastically. I have two buckets of these: ones I expected and ones that completely blindsided me. While the surprise and subsequent scrambling involved in being blindsided are chock-full of delicious adrenaline, I highly recommend the moments you can predict.

One such predictable moment is the first glimpse of the offer letter for your new gig. This is the culmination of hours of résumé tweaking, a series of phone screen gymnastics (see Chapter 4), and two grueling days of in-person interviews (see Chapter 6). This is a rare moment where you can answer the question, How much does the world think I’m worth?

Fact is, you should already know. You’re the business.

You Are the Business

Before I break down the offer and offer negotiation process, I want to reset your head. I’ve no clue how badly you need your next job, and the degree of your need will affect your negotiating position, but here’s some reality. You are the business. If you get an offer and take the gig, I think you should pour your heart into it, but I want you to remember that you’ll have 5 to 10 other jobs in your life, just like this next one. This means that for each moment you spend being pumped about the new gig, you’ll have an equal and opposite moment at the end of the gig where you can’t wait to get the next gig started.

Among these 5 ...