
Ask HN: Who feels undervalued at work? - tech_crawl_
Feeling undervalued at work. Anyone else feel the same way?
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J-dawg
I'm a web developer in the consulting business of a big international IT
company. I'd like to be paid more, but if I'm honest with myself, my salary
probably isn't far from market rate.

However in terms of recognition of my skills I feel massively undervalued. The
management are business consultants rather than technical people, and there's
a pervasive culture that technical work is something to be
outsourced/offshored and generally done by the lowest bidder. I was hired as a
"Technical Consultant" and yet I've repeatedly had to fight to do technical
roles.

I often think about leaving to get a pure web developer role, but I'm still at
quite a junior level and junior dev salaries here in London are awful.

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johnward
I'm kind of in the same position. Consulting is pretty thankless. They just
expect you to bill as much time as humanly possible (and sometimes more). You
rarely get thanks but you are on the hook when things go wrong. I know my
salary is below the average rate even within my own company.

~~~
J-dawg
It's good to know I'm not the only one here! Yep, pretty thankless sums it up.

Plus having to go through a long appraisal process at the end of every year
which is essentially a test of how good you are at networking and self-
promotion, rather than what you've actually acheived.

I keep thinking I'd be happier in either a startup or a corporate dev team,
but I guess the grass is always greener on the other side

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insoluble
Would you rather feel undervalued, or would you rather be underpaid? Sometimes
you can't have both vocal appreciation and good pay at the same time. Being
paid without hassle can at times be the only show of appreciation, at least in
contract work.

Afterward, instead of trying to buy happiness, it would be more advisable to
appreciate yourself. If you don't appreciate yourself, then you may want to
find something that gives you a purpose in life, even if outside of work.
There are many worthwhile causes in this world -- many things in need of care.
If you can find something where (a) you care personally and (b) you can make a
difference, then (c) you may have found purpose.

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andymurd
Everybody.

Turn your question on its head - who here feels overvalued at work?

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hacknat
I actually do right now, and it is part of the reason I'm looking to leave. I
got promoted into management too fast, IMO, and I've been told by my CTO I'm
being groomed for leadership. I'm not interested.

How did I get here? I built new products that were my own ideas, and they
generate revenue for the company now. I know our entire stack so I'm able to
pretty much build whatever I want. If you do the same for any company you'll
start to look valuable in a hurry. Learn your business, apply some insight and
make something new.

FYI, I didn't work my ass off for this, I was able to do this 9-to-5.

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askafriend
What caliber of company is this? How many people are there? Just curious.

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hacknat
About 500 people right now.

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Ishtar
A downside of a lack of micromanagement (which I think is a positive thing) is
that sometimes I wonder if anyone knows how much work or insight goes into
what I have accomplished...

Perhaps this is a reverse Dunning–Kruger effect? When each team member has a
unique set of skills, how can you evaluate competence in each other, if you
are not even able to properly evaluate your own skills until you become an
expert?

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Isammoc
"how can you evaluate competence" => Do you really want to evaluate competence
at this time? Or evaluate evolution of this competence? First is a comparison
with others but you are unique in your team; second is a comparison with your
past self, and this is easily achievable.

