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Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

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Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#31

Post by kinderczekolada »

gumby wrote: post #22
throwaway65123 wrote: post #20

Yes, these things happen... sometimes, as anything in the universe. I've been promoted to a leading position after renegotiating my contract and it came with a 120% raise. You probably guessed it right - I was heavily underpaid at first. A teammate of mine earned around 60% more than me and our lead over 100%. When I finally found it out I was devastated. It happend for a couple of years. Sounds stupid? Yeah, it was.…

This is why I think that companies should make salaries public. Compensation negotiation is not a skill needed for performance of a job, and hiring managers will have more experience than the candidate. Be fair and don’t worry about “the truth coming out”

That's the point man! Don't be naive. The company is not your friend it pays you as little as possible. There's no incentive for a company to pay you more than it needs to.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#32

Post by throwaway24124 »

d23 wrote: post #29

~10% is more what I've seen. The biggest gain came from actually putting effort into getting lots of offers and negotiating well. This lead to an offer that was 2.75x my pay at the time. I ended up taking one that was lower (a mere 2.25x), but after stock growth, refreshers, and a base pay increase (without a promotion) that has gone up to 4x. A 3% increase for an actual promotion is insulting. You're probably gettin…

After that promotion I started interviewing and immediately found an offer that was 50% higher :)

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#33

Post by NotAnOtter »

Finding a new job takes a lot of energy. People give you raises to prevent you from being bitter enough to spend that energy.

They also know that regardless of what they pay you, you will eventually quit anyways (unless they start paying you in the top 10% of the field, but then, what's in it for them at that point).

So no, 30-40% salary raises do not exist. At the executive level they sorta do, in the form of options and bonuses.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#34

Post by d23 »

throwaway24124 wrote: post #32
d23 wrote: post #29

~10% is more what I've seen. The biggest gain came from actually putting effort into getting lots of offers and negotiating well. This lead to an offer that was 2.75x my pay at the time. I ended up taking one that was lower (a mere 2.25x), but after stock growth, refreshers, and a base pay increase (without a promotion) that has gone up to 4x. A 3% increase for an actual promotion is insulting. You're probably gettin…

After that promotion I started interviewing and immediately found an offer that was 50% higher :)

Congrats!

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#35

Post by throwaway24124 »

avasii wrote: post #21

I am in a similar position to you, 24 years old, and am in my first role after the completion of my bachelor's in computer science. I was just promoted this week for a 28% raise within the same company.

Congrats!

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#36

Post by potta_coffee »

I was working at a small company, I was elevated from a developer to a manger of the development team (there were 4 of us). For this I was raised from $80k to $85k, so a 5k higher salary per year. Still, the real big raises have all come by grinding on skill development and finding new jobs.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#37

Post by potta_coffee »

giantg2 wrote: post #17
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're in OP's position (25 years old), don't react that way. Instead, react by moving. Why? Because if you're filling roles above your grade, you're a perfect candidate for stepping up your grade as you move. That's how you get a big bump in pay. But if you're doing the bare minimum, you're a much less attractive candidate for a higher grade position. And that matters a lot for a person who's 25, because that big…

I was 25 at that time. The tech was obscure, so I didn't have the option to move. If moving was an option, then I would have taken it. Instead I'm in my 30s, burnt out, doing the minimum (sort of), and still a midlevel.

I was almost 30 when I started in tech. I'm not in your commonly discussed SV tech scene, I live in flyover country and work remotely for a giant non-tech company. But I got to a point where I was absolutely desperate for any decently paying work. After doing graphic design for a few years (I studied art), I realized that was never going to pay. I did carpentry, construction, labor, painting, literal ditch digging, sign making, and used car sales. Somewhere in there I was a US Marine and went to war. Eventually I stumbled into a QA job at a small company and learned Python.

All this to say, now I'm well into six figures. I've work six crappy tech jobs, really bad ones. I've had one decent one and now, one really good one. I had to fight really hard to get where I am now. I mean this to be encouraging, it can be done, you can do it.

My advice? You can check out at a job, but never check out on yourself. At every crappy job I've been at, there was opportunity for me to learn something new. Job 1, I learned Python and built test frameworks. Job 2, I learned VueJS. Job 3 I learned how to build complete software projects and deliver them. Job 4, I combined development skills with cloud migration, dealt with tons of nasty legacy code, and was able to deliver major improvements to existing systems. And so forth. Also to get better jobs, I've put in hundreds of resumes. One job literally took me 200 applications to get.

TLDR I hope it's not unwelcome advice but I hate to see people give up.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#38

Post by potta_coffee »

kinderczekolada wrote: post #31
gumby wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I think that companies should make salaries public. Compensation negotiation is not a skill needed for performance of a job, and hiring managers will have more experience than the candidate. Be fair and don’t worry about “the truth coming out”

That's the point man! Don't be naive. The company is not your friend it pays you as little as possible. There's no incentive for a company to pay you more than it needs to.

Once my boss bragged to me about paying one of our European contractors "Chinese slave wages." That took the wind out of my sails at that job and my boss became an enemy. I didn't last long at that company after hearing that.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#39

Post by giantg2 »

potta_coffee wrote: post #37
giantg2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was 25 at that time. The tech was obscure, so I didn't have the option to move. If moving was an option, then I would have taken it. Instead I'm in my 30s, burnt out, doing the minimum (sort of), and still a midlevel.

I was almost 30 when I started in tech. I'm not in your commonly discussed SV tech scene, I live in flyover country and work remotely for a giant non-tech company. But I got to a point where I was absolutely desperate for any decently paying work. After doing graphic design for a few years (I studied art), I realized that was never going to pay. I did carpentry, construction, labor, painting, literal ditch digging, s…

I put in about 250 applications too to get my first tech job. That was during the 09 downturn.

I have a lot of constraints in my life with my family. I don't really have a future that would be any better than the job I have right now.

Re: Ask HN: Software engineers who have been promoted with a large salary increase?

#40

Post by Trias11 »

As a young guy, the best and fastest way to get raise is to jump between companies.

Sticking within the single company will get you into the hamster wheel of promises, policies, processes and procedures with not much of a monetary outcome.

Once you get the offer from next company - put it on your boss desk to beat.

Rinse and repeat.

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