The Golden First Year

You will never get paid more than you do in the first year of programming.

While the actual salary will be low, the ability to put on your resume that first year will pay dividends year over year for the rest of your life. Some people call it the Magical First Year. The phenomenon is real and overpowering. It started before the Net Bubble, although you could argue it was most noticeable during the Bubble.

But why do companies persist in this pattern. Having acquired skill or technical knowledge in specialty after specialty over the years I have noticed it all pretty much happens in 90 days. That is, if I am focused on an area, I will acquire nearly everything needed in the first 90 days. Some residual learning occurs over the remaining part of the year but it is small. The second year is nearly empty of significant growth.

So one wonders why don't companies hire 0 year experience and write off the first three months. Or better yet why not conduct a training year. To be sure quite a few companies do opt for a 'boot camp' or training program. These seem to be diminishing. I do not have hard numbers, just what I observe in the market. I suspect the problem is that after that Golden First Year is in possession of the employee, the market beckons and the employee cashes in with another company.

But what about on an individual project level? Perhaps that 9 months will payoff the start up 3 and most projects do not last multiple years anyway. Well this is also true but the sad truth is the projects are never started with 3 months of lead time. So this amount to starting 3 months behind and hoping. You see there is a risk that the person will not get the skill in 3 months. So then what? Start over? Give up another 3 months?

I do not see anyway out of this dilemma. It all comes down to the brutal market place. Skill is the coin of realm.