[tiffanyh]

Some general (unsolicited) advice ... for whatever field you're interested in - go work for a company that sells that as a service.

E.g.,

- Don't be an internal company accountant, go work for Big 4 accounting firm to sell your skills

- Don't be in internal company IT Security, go work for a company who sells that skill

It's all about moving up in the value chain. By moving up in the value chain, you're more "valued" / appreciated / sought after.

You're general happiness will be much better as a result, and you'll also make much more money.

[DebtDeflation]

Yes. You always want to be part of a profit center, where (directly or indirectly) there is revenue associated with what you do, rather than being part of a cost center where you are just an expense for the company.

[dreamcompiler]

Likewise if you work for a company that sells a security product you're in a profit center, which is good. What's bad is that those sales are extremely difficult to make because what your company is selling is avoidance of loss which is much harder to sell than a product that increases revenue.

This is more true if you're a small startup selling a security product. It's less true if you're one of the top 5 companies in the field.

[zaphod12]

I agree that is it more lucrative that way. But I super disagree with the happiness part. I don't know anyone working at an IT security company, but know many many lawyers and a handful of accountants. 90% of them ditched big law firms/Big 4 accounting firms as soon as their resume was sufficient to do so because the quality of life was terrible. Very very long hours, demanding clients and political atmospheres (As you go up) around bringing in business. By and large the folks that stayed are workaholics who highly valued money and status.

1 good friend of mine, was a super driven lawyer at a huge world-class firm in NYC. She got cancer, and had to take a leave. Fortunately she recovered fully and quit basically the first moment she got back. This isn't one of those 'she left to follow her passion in the arts' cases - she LOVES being a lawyer, but she realized she wasn't living a life. Now she's in-house at a multi-national brewing company.

Anyhow, all that to say - you may be more valued, but it's much easier to be the client!

[saagarjha]

This isn’t universally true. Large tech companies have a need for specialists and are willing to pay quite well for it.

[tiffanyh]

They might pay well, but if you're not in a profit center for the company - you won't be as valued as much as those who are.

[jasonladuke0311]

Profit/cost center is kind of a false dichotomy in some places. At the least, it lacks nuance. If you sell software or services that require privileged access, security tends to be valued more highly than a checkbox.

[saagarjha]

Generally companies that have been burned in the past for not having a good security team and have sufficient organizational memory will continue to value security efforts moving forward.

[drivers99]

I was working for a hospital, then they converted us to work for a company that sells our services to hospitals, then they outsourced 300 of us to offshore including me.

[DeathArrow]

How would that work for a developer?

[RugnirViking]

work for a company where you are developing the comapny's main product, and where the product can be substantially improved by further development. For example, working to develop a website for a supermarket chain, or an app for dominoes pizza, will always have a limit and little respect

[__derek__]

> an app for dominoes pizza

This is a nitpick, but customer-facing ordering and delivery technology arguably is the main product for Domino's Pizza. The food basically defines replacement level, but the tech differentiates the experience from other shops.