Ask HN: I did not get pay rise – as only person in team. Should I quit?

Nicely articulated, I had quite the same experience as well.

People under-estimate the energy and effort to find a good second job and so actually best to take the time to get it right instead of jumping from one bad job to another just because of being afraid to quit while there is no job offer yet.

Also, logically thinking, every new graduate who is fresh out of school is just equipped with skills but is able to find a job so it should be even easier for someone who has already even further developed their skills to be able to find a second job even if they've already resigned from their previous job.

It seems like some people just think that they need some leverage of having an existing job in order to find a second job but in reality that doesn't make sense since skills are what is more important.

Working weekends? Yeah you should find another job. Often have problems with my team. Yeah you should find another job. No pay raise... Is this a rhetorical question? Without those other red flags, no pay raise is a very good indication you should be looking for another position. There are plenty of options out there. No reason to be stuck in an unhappy job especially one that won't give you a raise (any raise, even over less than inflation)

I have found that if you're good at what you do, companies would like you to keep doing it. That limits the potential for growth into new positions.

I'm not particularly good at office politics, and corporate performance management is pretty useless. Moving jobs is how I have maximised my growth, experience and pay.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that this is the right thing to do in this case. Understanding why no pay rise was given is a huge learning opportunity. I would certainly take no pay rise as a signal that the company wasn't happy in some way. Knowing why that is would be very helpful for personal development, whether staying or moving on.

It would help to approach from the position of wanting to improve and asking if improvement in any areas are needed. Maybe they don't have good reasons, maybe they do and were too scared to tell someone known to be abrasive. A bit of humility goes a long way.

Many years ago someone taught me the value of learning from my mistakes. It's not enough to just acknowledge your mistakes, or apologise for them, which is difficult enough. Then you have to do something about it.