I saw an ad on LinkedIn with the hook “Frustrated by getting 200% better at your craft and only getting a 6% raise?” The ad seemed to be selling grievances, and a course on becoming a freelance developer.
What the ad wasn’t doing was disagreeing with the idea that getting 200% better at your primary skill doesn’t make you more valuable or productive. A 6% raise for improving 200% implies that 94% of your job isn’t your primary skill. Or that your employer can’t use the marginal value of you getting better. Becoming a better programmer, by itself, isn’t very valuable to whomever pays your salary.
The ad was trying to do a sleight of hand: Improve your pay by becoming a freelance developer! By learning skills that don’t improve your craft! Being a successful freelancer means learning business, marketing, and sales skills. The same skills the ad starts off by bashing.
If someone is paying you to be a developer, chances are that becoming a better developer will have diminishing returns.
You can be angry, or you can learn about the other 94% of what makes a developer valuable.
Learn your industry, your company’s business model, and business strategy. Learn how to be a better teammate, to lead, to inspire, and help others to grow.