Re: Growing your own programmers

At 09:49 19/06/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> I finally left because like most home-grown programmers, once you get the
>> skills, the company fails to adjust your compensation accordingly.  So
>> that's definitely something else to keep in mind.

>
>6 months later i was complaining because i wasn't being paid what the
>want ads were saying programmers were worth.  somehow in my 19 year old
>maturity, i missed out on the fact that the bank paid for the training,
>and my salary while i was training, and my time to futz around when i
>didn't know what i was doing.  and there was a lot of that.
>

I have resisted replying to this thread so far (mainly because I can't top
the "changing-light-bulbs-to-programmer" type histories) but Nina's
comments reminded me a little of my own history with a couple of differences.

I was an accounts clerk that scored well on the aptitude test when an
opportunity came up to work with the "new" 38 back in 1983, so I had the
same compensation issues, except that the company I worked for at the time
*did* raise the compensation as I became more productive, and secondly (and
this is the point of the post) it was highlighted up front that they were
investing in me and that I owed them a return on their investment.

One might argue that this is dark ages stuff, but if you know up front then
you can make the choice. Make whoever you decide to train up aware of the
kind of time period that needs to elapse before you would expect them to
get market rates. Have some competencies identified that are also tied to
this. Structure it the way you would any other business pay back deal
bearing in mind that you are dealing with a person however.

My experience has always been that people will grumble a lot less if they
went in with their eyes open and what each party obtains from the deal is
identified up front.

Oh, and try not to take too much advantage of them !

Cheers
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