Episode 222: Cowboy CTO and underpaid after promotion

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

Questions

1.

Hey, long time fan of the show! 2.

Our current CTO came in as the result of a merger. For most of his life, he was a solo developer and owned his own company. 3.

The struggles we are facing now are: 4.

• He is not responsive at all, neither via chat, nor email, nor any other communication tool.

• He often says “I’ll do it” but then takes weeks to finish

• He has thousands of unread emails in his inbox

• When he writes tickets, the details are unclear for others

• He codes way too much for a CTO, in my opinion, and his code is a bit messy compared to the other developers

5.

Since he is a really nice person, we all want to give him feedback that makes him understand his role better, and to avoid being a bottleneck. 6.

I know that changing another person is hard, but at the same time I know that he is motivated to become a good CTO. 7.

How do I help him?” 8.

9.

Hi. I’ve only recently discovered your podcast this quarantine, and it’s been really helpful at work already. So when I was faced with this problem, I immediately thought of you! 10.

I have been a professional software developer for just over a year and have received great feedback from my manager and team. During my performance review, I asked what I would need to qualify for promotion. I got the news that I had already been recommended for a promotion! 11.

Meanwhile, a friend still in university got an entry-level job offer from my company that pays more than I would make if my promotion went through. Where I come from, there are no negotiations when companies recruit at universities, so it’s not a matter of them negotiating a better deal. 12.

If the promotion does not come through I have no qualms trying to negotiate. If the promotion does comes through, would I come off as ungrateful if I bring this up? Am I asking for too much by wanting to be paid more at a higher position than what a new grad would be paid at entry level? I know it’s not an ideal world and I feel greedy as I type this, but I just want to be compensated for what I think I’m worth. I also think that it also comes down to my ego at some point. SEND HALP 13.