Golden Handcuffs

Or how its better peel potatoes at Pujol than to be Head Chef at KFC

¡Bienvenidos a Gringo Jobs! Estoy súper feliz que aceptaste darme una pequeña porción de tu inbox y atención. Espero te vaya a gustar. 

En Gringo Jobs somos una comunidad de profesionales de la web en LatAm con ojo en el extranjero. En un mundo con trabajo más remoto y globalizado, nos ayudamos a salir adelante para obtener mejores retos y oportunidades.

Este es nuestro primer newsletter, si conoces alguien a quien le pudiera interesar ayudanos a compartir y pasar la voz.

---

Today I want to talk to you about an interesting story and phenomenon I see regularly in my job. La Jaula de Oro, or The Golden Handcuffs.

I was speaking to a candidate a few weeks ago. He was making around $3,500 USD monthly doing some Wordpress work for a US agency. Now, $3,500 is pretty good for many Mexican devs, don’t get me wrong - but this guy had the potential to really excel and put his career in a better position. I got him an offer in a US company with a large enough structure for him to become an engineering leader in 5 to 7 years. 

He rejected the offer. He was happy with his $3,500 job in his agency. He had on Golden Handcuffs. 

Basically, Golden Handcuffs are financial incentives given to employees to discourage them from leaving a company: a good salary, stock options, company car, free food and other benefits.

It obviously sounds great no? But beware of these things, especially when you are starting out.

Think about the total amount of money you will make over the course of your career. When do you make it? As you can imagine, you probably don’t make it in a linear way. It would probably look something like this. 

As you can see, the earnings in the first 2 decades of your career are miniscule in comparison to the last 2. Put another way, there is a Time for Learning and a Time for Earning. You need to know at what stage you are in. 

Mark Suster (a big VC in the US) writes in his blog about just this. Not every job needs to be your big money-making break. In fact, it would be wise to focus on learning early on, and then move into a much more lucrative position once you have built up your career capital. 

The classic error that my candidate made was putting on the Golden Handcuffs too early in his career. If he had focused more on learning, his overall earnings would have been drastically different…in a good way.

So, my advice to you is - beware of the Golden Handcuffs! Take a long term view, and remember —it's always better to be a potato peeler at Pujol than the head chef at KFC especially when you are starting out. 

---

Google has announced it will continue to offer fully remote work for at least another year. June 2021 is the new target date. Who knows what will happen then, but Google will have had nearly 18 months of full remote work. I can’t really see them turning back the clock on all the systems and processes they will have put together.

I’m going to do a Webinar on Salary Negotiation this Friday - learn more about how to approach the process, how to prepare, and tips to come out on top. Register here.

Want to “gringificar” your resume? I’m doing free resume reviews on Wednesday and Fridays. Pick a time here. Lo podemos hacer en español si prefieres. 

---

That’s all folks! Thanks for giving me your precious time and attention. Follow me @GeorgesJanin and @GringoJobs on Twitter. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Peace and Jobs,

Georges