How we replaced Salary Negotiations
With a Sinatra App
Konstantin Haase
@konstantinhaase / @rkh_popcorn
Travis CI
travis-ci.com
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There will be code.
I promise.
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@jocranford
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What’s in a salary?
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$1,000,000 per episode $100,000 per episode
10x actor?
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“Why are the best programmers
10x more productive than
mediocre programmers, but paid
only 3x as much?”
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“How do bootstrapped
companies hire talent?”
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‣ bootstrapped
‣ 38 employees
‣ top talent
‣ base in Berlin, Germany
Travis CI
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‣ 8 countries, 16 nationalities
‣ 54% women (50% in engineering)
‣ wide range of backgrounds
‣ we’ll keep hiring
Travis CI
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Salaries account for 46% of
our spendings, making it the
biggest cost centre.
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We don’t negotiate
salaries.
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A Sinatra application tells us what
to pay someone.
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Negotiation skills don’t
reflect your value to the
company.
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Negotiation skills
don’t reflect your
financial needs.
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Salary negotiations harm
underrepresented
groups.
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Source: Fortune Magazine
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The Travis CI Salary
Framework™
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Developing the “Framework”
took a full year.
Everyone could participate.
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We pay by value.
We pay by needs.
We use generalised rules
that apply to everyone.
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Value
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How do you define a 10x
developer (if they exist)?
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Example:
Software Engineer — Level 10
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Shows an intuitive grasp of
situations, analytic approach
used only in novel situations.
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Is self-motivated to the point that they
create new work (for themselves and
sometimes others) and has their own
vision for what needs to be done.
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Understands business requirements.
Does not just understand but also shape
the big picture.
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Engineering Career Path defined
up to level 17 at the moment.
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Employees should level up about
once a year.
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If an employee doesn’t get a raise,
that’s considered a bug, not a
feature.
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Needs
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We use a generalised “needs” model
based on location.
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www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index
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numbeo.com
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rkh.im/move (outdated, does not work properly for Singapore)
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glassdoor.com
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payscale.com
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Only compare data points from the
same source.
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Country base line based on how market rates*
compare to Berlin.
City adjustments based on how the living costs
compared to national average.
Income tax estimation is added on top.
* Factor adjusted upwards for low income countries, for city states Consumer Prices and Rent Index will be used if higher
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Rates calculated for 3563 cities
in 209 countries
Four countries also have 92 regions.