It is painful to see how clumsy companies are in trying to keep their techies happy.

We do team building exercises, we offer share options.

Also, we pay free lunches and try to do everything to keep people in the office.

We print team T-shirts and stickers and pretend that the company is a big, happy family.

We pay our technical staff a lot and wonder why people are grumpy and leave.

What gets us going is a feeling of recognition and respect. And only peers who’ve been in the same place can give that. There is no way to give a sincere compliment when you can’t even understand what the person does.

Christian Heilmann

Great article from Christian Heilmann about the career ladders and what comes after senior developer.