By changing workplaces twice I tripled my income in under 2 years. The biggest thing that happened is that I was promoted to a much more senior position 6 months into the middle workplace, but they screwed me on the salary thinking that because it was a big bump from my lower position it would keep me around.
So I did that job for a year and got hired for the same job elsewhere for a 50% pay increase.
The public sector model, there's definitely something good about knowing exactly where you are and where you're going, only a problem when the scale is totally off of whack with current CoL etc.
Old article, but it’s certainly true in my industry. Having said that, I’m a bit conflicted with this at least for my own personal situation.
I’ve been with my current employer for a decade. I’m sure I can get a significant pay bump if I switch, but I’m in a comfortable position where I think the trade off is worth it. I earn enough to support myself and my wife on a single income. Work from home, unlimited PTO, and the job itself is not super stressful that I get good work/life balance. My manager and teammates are awesome. The company has great benefits and lots of perks.
I’m at a point in my life where I no longer want to be “challenged” with work. Meaning, I just want to clock in, do work, clock out. I don’t yearn for promotions, new challenges, and moving up. I just want to get paid for work I’m familiar with and good at, and focus my energy on my personal life. And my current job allows me to do that plus all the perks mentioned. So the question is, will I be willing to potentially sacrifice all the comfort I currently enjoy to get paid more? Sure, there’s a chance I could get a better paying job AND all the same perks, but that’s not a guarantee and I will never know until I’m working that new job. Also take into account all the effort required to learn everything on the new job and having to “perform” to impress as a new hire.
But who knows, it might come to a point where my current pay is no longer enough. Only time will tell.
It sounds like you are in a good place, and are satisfied. For what it's worth, IMO, just stay happy. If that means staying where you are, you don't gotta impress nobody but yourself. So don't worry about all the other noise. Always keep one eye on the prize, like in today's professional world, you always have to be prepared for the rug to be pulled up from under you with a layoff or if the company hires a new boss for you and they are a zeeb, but once you got that concern appropriately hedged, always put professional well being above everything else.
I left my last job to make double what the previous one paid, and my job is a nightmare job. Each successive job pays me more, makes me more miserable, the people are always worse and more money just means more problems. Money ain't everything, and I mean it. Make enough to survive, live your happy idea of a perfect lifestyle, save for rainy days and retirement, and the rest is just noise.
I think job-hopping helps people who still need to climb the ladder until they land some “senior” position into which they can settle in, safe in the knowledge that they can always find another job elsewhere with their experience.
Article is old but I have often heard this anecdotally. I have known a number of people over the years who changed jobs every 1-2 years, because they said it's the only way to get ahead salary-wise. I suspect it's a lot harder to pull it off now, tough. There's a lot of fake job postings. Not to mention running the gauntlet of submitting your resume 300 times to get auto-rejected 299 times by some dumbass AI where a clueless HR person typed in the criteria prompt. "A young person with at least 30 years of experience who knows ALL the latest technology but will work for less than a landscaper per hour thanks bye".
P.S. I'm not shitting on landscapers. They do real work, unlike most office drones like me.
Incidentally it can also work at your existing company. I’ve gotten 5 promotions in 6 years and my salary is 120% more than when I started. It’s less the company hopping part and more ensuring you grow in your career. I’ve found that it’s definitely about stating your desires (having a clearly defined “this is where I want to go in my career”), volunteering for the random projects your boss or their boss needs done and showing you want to grow.
That only works if you have managers that give a rip about helping you grow and compensating you well for that growth, which sadly, most people don't have.
In my experience, staying at the same place and taking on more "growth opportunities" was just an excuse for management to throw more on my plate without compensation increases. Sure I would get a little raise sometimes, but it was always pissy amounts of money, even when I asked for more.
I started jumping jobs aggressively and magically my pay exploded upwards. I now have basically zero loyalty to the companies I work for, just like they have for me. Contract work is even better for this, but the downside is usually you have bad or zero benefits.
While not focused on exactly the same topic, this HMW video has some intersection and gets into the nitty of what's going on.
It also means the employers hosed themselves, since skilled labor is not threatened by a potential firing (the way they once were) and are continuously looking for their next rung on the ladder elsewhere. Also, it means promotions are no longer an incentive for hard work, since the workers expect you to hire from elsewhere. So all those incentives to overperform are gone.
PS: Curiously in The Sims 2 (a 2004 game) I figured out the best way to get rich legitimately (e.g. without using cheats, and not getting an Open For Business storefront, was to swap careers whenever you reached the top tier of a career ladder while sustaining necessary skill and friend minimums. The sim would get promotions every day of work, including a fat bonus, and I could finally afford that pre-built dream-house I made.)
I used to be one of the “loyal” ones but around covid time I decided to see where I could get by doing this. Since then, and three jobs later, my salary went from around 66k to now 105k. Current gig seems cool and a cake walk, so may stick around a bit.
Same! There was a shortage in IT for a little while and I took advantage of it and got a $30k increase! With same benefits and paid vacation.
Now even a 2% pay raise is significant on the salary I make. I feel like I'm finally being appreciated and paid what I'm really worth after a decade of struggling.
It's funny when I put in my notice in my last job and why, they magically had money to counter. Like where was this cash when I was closing difficult tickets and completing projects?
I've been mostly working at startups since I graduated and I haven't had a job for longer than 2 years once I stopped delivering pizza for Papa John's and driving for Lyft. My pay is pretty good but it's kinda balanced out by the amount of time I've been unemployed.
This sucks for the general public. You're always either going to be dealing with a] a disgruntled employee who knows he deserves a raise or b] an under trained new guy. You never get the one who knows the job really well.
Unless you have a union job, then you're making the same thing as anyone else with the same experience as you and you've got benefits and probably job security 👍
For the record, I’ve never worked anywhere that this was the case. I mean, yes, if you get hammered and act stupid, that’s obviously going to impact your job (probably, unless you work in the kind of place where your boss is right there with you), but pretty much everywhere I’ve ever worked, people came if they felt like it, had a drink or two and some snacks, and not one person ever gave it another thought.
Caveat: I’ve worked for the government for my entire career. It might be different in more sociopathic industries.
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