I am a developer. I mainly fix bugs reported by customers and I implement some features asked by PM. But I have no idea how to quantify this value. I'm paid X$, so I assume it is > X$.
Maybe PM knows, but they don't tell me the value of each features.
Am I on the path to downsizing? Or what should I put on my resume?
Late here as I was brought in through another HN thread so hopefully you have a chance to catch this.
If I was in your position I would be looking to understand from other business stakeholders how many customers my bug fixes have impacted, both from those that asked and those that would naturally benefit from them if they use the same product. If you know the total customer base, you now the % of the customer base that you have helped (1) improve the actual or perceived probability of retention, (2) directly influence the customer satisfaction of your product(s), (3) improved the chance that the customer continues to subscribes, buys other products / features that your company sells, or recommends your organization to their peers. This can be expressed as contributing to achieve retention goals, improving / meeting targets of NPS scores or other satisfaction measurements, and influencing quarterly or yearly upsell / expansion targets, which you might be able to get explicitly from those other business stakeholders.
Likewise I disagree with the sibling comment that you might be considered a cost to that organization (the organization might actually perceive you that way, but in reality that's actually not the case otherwise there would be no one fixing bugs and implementing features) as are a fundamental core to an organization's strategy of maintaining or achieving retention targets and influence its upsell potential.
Based on the description I would say that yeah, your business probably views you as a cost rather than a source of value. If financial circumstances for the company were to change, your position would be insecure. (aka, sales people get fired last). Your negotiating power for higher salaries is also probably limited.
There's plenty of jobs that are like this and if you're comfortable than I can't really tell you what to do, but I always position myself to be a source of value to my company rather than a cost. The salaries are much higher here.
I'm also a developer, but deep on the IC track (architect). I create platforms that give my company whole capabilities that it wouldn't have otherwise. I can directly measure the value in what I do.
