Category: gzGenTmp

[13]striking back (long letter never sent)

Posted on by tiger40490

Hi friends,

Just some thoughts to share. No need to reply me.
In Singapore, many of my peers are moving ahead on the management track. Some are rising in rank, running more , bigger projects, leading bigger teams, given bigger budgets, involved in more decisions. I feel left behind. (In fact, my peers in China are even more powerful.)
Most Singapore companies including banks value manager contribution more than technical expertise. The C-level decision makers tend to feel technical talent is cheap and easy to replace.
I feel there’s a deep-rooted, pervasive, widespread perception that managers contribute more and are rewarded more (which is also true on Wall St but more true in Singapore) I have a few Singapore-based friends who worry about me staying on the technical ladder and not on the leadership ladder. Many advise me to move first to project management or architect then to higher management.
But are managers more important than hands-on developers? I feel we had better take a deeper look and dismiss the concept of “importance”. On a tight project every worker plays a critical role, but sometimes the DBA earns highest (why?), sometimes the QA guy earns highest (why?), and sometimes the BA earns highest (though usually manager earns highest). Why? Perhaps the project involves a lot of Database work; perhaps QA is very challenging and stringent and there’s a large and experienced QA team… But ultimately, the compensation depends on “market rate” of the skillset. Best example is WPF (Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation). For a while on Wall St WPF expertise sometimes commands a higher rate than the highest java developer, because it’s in demand and very few guys are available with advanced skill in WPF.
Managers bring special skill to the team — management skill. (Some managers bring technical insight, but many I have seen don’t have the sharpest insight — out of practice.) This skill has a market rate too. I will just talk about project management skill for now. In the US I feel PM isn’t a highly valued skill. It’s a generalist skill. In many Singapore companies it’s valued higher than technical skills.
For various reasons, I am firm in my decision to stay technical. I’m not talented at managing and I won’t be given such responsibilities soon. However, I don’t want to stand still while my peers move ahead. I am planning to do something with my spare energy (if any) to strengthen my career safety and stability ( bullet proof 🙂
* learn more main-stream technologies. My favorites are threading, c++, socket programming, FIX, C#, swing, …
** go in-depth on important details. These are the differentiation factors between experienced developer vs expert developer or top talent.
* learn more financial math. This skill won’t become obsolete like tech skills. Financial math is the hardest part of financial domain knowledge. I much prefer hard knowledge — “soft”, general knowledge don’t differentiate.
* take up algorithm challenges. Most bank interviewers won’t go crazy on this, but some top employers test programmer’s “coding abilities” with on-the-spot algo challenges. I have seen it in Google, Facebook, Amazon and Wall st employers.
* take some mock interviews once a while to keep in combat form
This is my little “strike-back” plan. It takes a lot of time and energy. I doubt I have any spare time.
— TAN, Bin (Victor) http://blog.tanbin.com

Q:which country u call home

Posted on by tiger40490

I can imagine a (legal or illegal) immigrant to the U.S. (or Sgp) without GreenCard. She has lived most if not 98% of her life in the this country (perhaps born here) and is more familiar with this country than her original country, but she has a relatively priviledged life in her original country (wealth, family network/relationships, status,,,)

Q: which country does she call home?
%%A: her original country, not the country where she spends most of her life ! In the U.S. she remains a second-class citizen (immigration status, skin color, wealth, Language,,,). She belongs to some sub-group, but not upper-middle class.

Aha: it’s your social strata within each country, that determine which country you prefer. You can call it exclub, FOLB or peer comparison.

[22]no more envy: underpaid cf US for20Y

Posted on by tiger40490

This is a deep and long “bruise” (imperfect metaphor.. LG), occasionally painful but extremely common.

For most of my life, I was constantly envious of nationals of richer countries. More resources, bigger safety net, more life chances. That’s until I became SPR.

— underpaid .. When I became a SWE in SG, for years I was envious of SWE in U.S. — Same workload, I was paid far less.

Now in 2022, I feel whether in SG or WSt (where I can work), I am paid similar to the highest paid SWEs i.e. in WCBA.

[10] best manager for me #S.liu, Tanko

Posted on by tiger40490

Nothing new to share — Just want to say Thank You again for giving me a lot of advice on working with managers.

Before GS, I had always avoided large companies, because in 2002 I had deeply negative experiences with large company politics. Then I decided to stick to finance. Now I can’t avoid large company politics any more.

I still feel the more Chinese-like, the worse I will suffer. I had Indian, Chinese, Singaporean and White managers. The best “match” are those relaxed, trusting, hands-off managers. Obviously, some of my Chinese managers are nice (forgiving and informal …) too. As a crude analogy, not all Chocolates are more bitter than all non-chocolate candies.

Inevitably, I will head back to Singapore and jump into the muddier water there, leaving behind the less-muddy water on Wall Street. I feel it’s critically important to find a “matching” manager, but I doubt I can tell over those telephonic interviews. I might be lucky to get a matching manager, but it’s more likely I will suffer quite a bit.

— in 2021, I told Tanko .. the perfect job/mgr is one who accepts me as a greying, low-energy, unambitious techie, who does get things done at a reasonable quality but slower pace. Tanko said some older managers are tolerant. Many team members are probably similar in productivity. Those fast workers are not necessarily more productive considering quality (rework, support issues…)

Tanko said he is older/slower than colleagues but more attentive to details. Sounds similar to me.

[17] family-level stocktaking #10 items

Posted on by tiger40490
  1. GC on-track
  2. wife career growth
  3. good, well-adjusted, healthy kids
  4. healthy grand parents
  5. long term (+retirement) cash-flow well-planned thanks to properties and the excellent environment of Singapore
  6. tech career longevity esp. in the U.S.
    1. still no growth direction
    2. mgr prospect dim .. painful to compare with them
  • — the unremarkable
  • stable marriage
  • good education ….
  • reasonable income
  • health

 

[07] question`U.S. trec

Posted on by tiger40490

@55, US trec is likely to beat SG trec on the job market, even though

* perhaps lower positions in US. Consider LN in China
* SGD and SG salary level could rise relative to US

Somehow US, Europe, Jap trec have d halo for the past …. years.

authors on tech career – mostly for FTE

Posted on by tiger40490

Bottom line – don’t spend too much time reading those authors.

To succeed professionally (and financially), you need to add value and be important to the organization (including your own business). Commercial value is not the only value. Leadership is not the only value-add…

Therefore, most authors write for the full-time employee — Implicit assumption.

The readers tend to be in their 20’s and 30’s, since people of my age are known to be less interested, so those authors will target the younger readers. [end]

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