Maybe in FAANG world, salaries really do increase linearly like the graphs from the blog showed, but in the F500 corporate and contracting world, the slope starts leveling out after 10 years of experience.
A decent and ambitious dev can definitely gain 30% salary increases after their first few jumps, but once you're at the "senior" level, it's just not happening.
In the first 5-6 years of my career, I jumped about 4 times, each with a large increase: from $55K to $80K to $100K to $120K and finally to $140K about 7 years ago in a relatively high COL city in East Coast US.
As expected, even though my knowledge and skills have really increased over the past 7 years at my current gig, the company gives only the typical 2% inflation raises each year, and there is no equity or bonus system based on seniority.
So now I'm at about $160K, which is still okay for my area, but disappointing considering somebody with similar experience and absolutely no institutional knowledge would be hired for my position at $180K (maybe higher in this market).
But I'm stuck. I can go and play the interview game. And based on what I've seen, at best I'm going to get a salary offer of maybe $180K, and of that $20K increase, I'll end up pocketing maybe $1K / month extra, as all of the extra income will be taxed at my max rate.
Is that worth leaving a company where I've earned respect, have a lot of knowledge, know is tolerable, and where I've got "credibility" and a history with senior executives and management?
It's not for $1K / month, which may even be less if it turns out health insurance has a higher deductible, or I end up having to spend $200 / month more on commuting costs.
I think most seniors hit this same glass ceiling earlier and earlier in their career - by mid to late 30's. And unless they move into management or really strive to jump to the next tier (e.g. FAANG company or finance industry), then there's no real financial incentive to jump, and a lot of risks if your current git is tolerable.
And employers know that.
Is that worth leaving a company where I've earned respect, have a lot of knowledge, know is tolerable, and where I've got "credibility" and a history with senior executives and management?
That's where you make the play of going to whoever controls your salary and saying "I've got an offer that pays much better than here. Can you beat it?" People aren't going to look at you differently for it; it's part of business.
Why are you stuck with this world if there's a clear ceiling?
> at best I'm going to get a salary offer of maybe $180K
If you get a $20k increase every 2 years starting from $160k by hopping jobs, that's way more than your yearly 2%. If you're in the right location, the only risk is to quit a job 2 months in because it's actually not what you expected and come back to a company you initially rejected, or start applying again. If you're a dev in your 30s you should have enough money to stay afloat for at least a few months, in which case this is not that big of a risk.
There's also a risk staying in the same company for very long: if you keep doing the same, using the same tech, you can become complacent and your skills irrelevant. At which point staying at your company is not really a choice anymore.
> If you get a $20k increase every 2 years starting from $160k by hopping jobs, that's way more than your yearly 2%.
This isn't how it works. The $180K is the max I could get in my industry, and that's because the previous max in 2014 or so of $140K (which I did get) is basically tied to inflation or about 2.5%-3%. So while I've been getting 1.5%-2% raises for 7-8 years, I've been missing out on that extra 1.5%, which is where the extra $20K comes from that other companies might offer.
But if I took a job at $180K, I'm again up against the salary ceiling in my city and industry. There is no $20K raise to be had after another 1-2 years by jumping again. At best, I might get the full inflation rate raises, instead of being lowballed by a percent or two, and which the difference accumulates to a large $20K or so jump only after 6-7 years more.
> There's also a risk staying in the same company for very long: if you keep doing the same, using the same tech, you can become complacent and your skills irrelevant. At which point staying at your company is not really a choice anymore.
This is definitely true at most corporate tech departments. However, in the contracting world you can jump around to completely different projects and learn a lot of new technologies. So in that sense, I feel I'm okay. The big issue is that you're not exposed to best practices and large scales that you'd see at FAANG. But it's not as bad as being stuck on a single codebase in a single language and framework with a single CI pipeline for 7 years.
How do you know that for a fact? I think you hint at this a bit in your previous comments, but if your city / field are small to the point that every employer is like any other and that there's no variance in compensation, you're SOL. One way to solve this is remote work, if applicable to your field.
I live in coastal New England, and I faced a similar situation until ~6 years ago, when I started working for all-remote companies.
I've been fortunate to find all-remote employers who pay average non-FAANG silicon valley salaries, regardless of where in the U.S. you live. The result is I'm paid a little (+20%?) higher than I would at a non-fintech company in Boston or NYC.
A decent and ambitious dev can definitely gain 30% salary increases after their first few jumps, but once you're at the "senior" level, it's just not happening.
In the first 5-6 years of my career, I jumped about 4 times, each with a large increase: from $55K to $80K to $100K to $120K and finally to $140K about 7 years ago in a relatively high COL city in East Coast US.
As expected, even though my knowledge and skills have really increased over the past 7 years at my current gig, the company gives only the typical 2% inflation raises each year, and there is no equity or bonus system based on seniority.
So now I'm at about $160K, which is still okay for my area, but disappointing considering somebody with similar experience and absolutely no institutional knowledge would be hired for my position at $180K (maybe higher in this market).
But I'm stuck. I can go and play the interview game. And based on what I've seen, at best I'm going to get a salary offer of maybe $180K, and of that $20K increase, I'll end up pocketing maybe $1K / month extra, as all of the extra income will be taxed at my max rate.
Is that worth leaving a company where I've earned respect, have a lot of knowledge, know is tolerable, and where I've got "credibility" and a history with senior executives and management?
It's not for $1K / month, which may even be less if it turns out health insurance has a higher deductible, or I end up having to spend $200 / month more on commuting costs.
I think most seniors hit this same glass ceiling earlier and earlier in their career - by mid to late 30's. And unless they move into management or really strive to jump to the next tier (e.g. FAANG company or finance industry), then there's no real financial incentive to jump, and a lot of risks if your current git is tolerable. And employers know that.