Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#51

Post by EliRivers » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 1:46 PM UTC

As many others have said, the best way to get a pay rise is to get a new job. This becomes especially true if you work for BigCorp (or at least, big enough to have internal policies on pay rises).

I used to work with an embedded engineer who got a pay rise of 40% by quitting and getting another (very similar) job. Her manager knew that he needed to pay her a lot more but global company policy tied his hands and limited what pay rises he could hand out. I think he watched this happen over and over and over again.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#52

Post by codegeek » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 1:49 PM UTC

michaelochurch wrote: post #49

You asked for numbers. I probably shouldn't do this under my real name but... who gives a fuck. US, 29 years old, 6.5 years in the industry. Salary growth has been about 12-14% per year, and I've made a lot of career mistakes, hence fairly average results. I'd probably have done 18-20% if I had (a) not made those mistakes, while (b) switching employers strategically. Most of the growth, as others have noted, occurs w…

Don't mean to undermine your point but where in US is 12-14% raise average ? From what I know, most full time employers go for the usual inflation crap of 3-4%. Unless you change jobs or are in contracting, 12-14% seems high to me in the US.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#53

Post by codegeek » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 1:55 PM UTC

aioprisan wrote: post #15

From what I've seen with software engineering positions, you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase. I also can't stress enough how much negotiating a higher starting salary can have an impact over your long term prospects. It's very important to know what you're worth on the market so that you can make sure that you're compensated fairly for the amount of experience AND potential that you have. R…

"you can expect roughly a 10-25% year over year salary increase"

Which country or states specifically ?

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#54

Post by kokey » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:05 PM UTC

sgt wrote: post #36

instakill wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can confirm.

Dis reg ja!

verseker, at least while I was living there.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#55

Post by brudgers » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:06 PM UTC

gavingmiller wrote: post #50

brudgers wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In so doing you saved the company the cost of finding, hiring and bringing your replacement up to speed. It's a bullshit argument because the speaker doesn't care if you believe them.

So my employees should get a raise for not leaving me? Not sure that logic will fly. I'm certain there's a bad date analogy somewhere in there too! :D

If it costs $30,000 to hire someone and the the employee is making $100,000 a year, it will be quite some time before a 3% annual raise costs the company anything out of pocket.

I would add that if you are in the knowledge industry, the benefits of keeping knowledge from walking out the door can be significant. The benefits of good will from employees and former employees can be especially beneficial when it comes to acquiring staff.

Leadership means going to bat for one's subordinates. It is a quality which distinguishes good management from mediocre.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#56

Post by kingofspain » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:15 PM UTC

snooblywoobly wrote: post #32

It's my experience that getting a pay rise in the same job is rather difficult in small/medium sized companies. The only way I have so far accomplished it is to move. Opinions tend to be quite viscous, it takes a lot of energy applied over a long period of time to change a view point. First impressions count. Just like your parents will tend to always see you as a child, your boss will tend to see you as the person y…

Very similar for me. I was doing a job I could easily have got £40k for, for £13.5k (I incredibly stupidly applied labelling myself as 'junior' because I only had 4 years experience back then). I never got a single pay rise, not even for inflation. Eventually I wised up and moved on. Up until I went freelance it was the only way I ever got an increase.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#57

Post by JeffJenkins » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:17 PM UTC

I've been doing a broad job search for the last month, and my general impression is that the numbers are too low on those sites (in NYC, with 7-8 years of experience). It basically meant that I was in for a pleasant surprise!

I don't actually know what normal raises look like since I was in a startup and the raises tended to be huge followed by nothing for a while.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#58

Post by wheaties » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:19 PM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #52

michaelochurch wrote: post #49

You asked for numbers. I probably shouldn't do this under my real name but... who gives a fuck. US, 29 years old, 6.5 years in the industry. Salary growth has been about 12-14% per year, and I've made a lot of career mistakes, hence fairly average results. I'd probably have done 18-20% if I had (a) not made those mistakes, while (b) switching employers strategically. Most of the growth, as others have noted, occurs w…

Don't mean to undermine your point but where in US is 12-14% raise average ? From what I know, most full time employers go for the usual inflation crap of 3-4%. Unless you change jobs or are in contracting, 12-14% seems high to me in the US.

It's quite spot on for the past few years wherein we saw the stratospheric growth of software salaries. Remember, 2002 was right after the dot com bust and 2012 is at the peak of "angel" investing. Supply/demand can really change things.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#59

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:28 PM UTC

codegeek wrote: post #52

michaelochurch wrote: post #49

You asked for numbers. I probably shouldn't do this under my real name but... who gives a fuck. US, 29 years old, 6.5 years in the industry. Salary growth has been about 12-14% per year, and I've made a lot of career mistakes, hence fairly average results. I'd probably have done 18-20% if I had (a) not made those mistakes, while (b) switching employers strategically. Most of the growth, as others have noted, occurs w…

Don't mean to undermine your point but where in US is 12-14% raise average ? From what I know, most full time employers go for the usual inflation crap of 3-4%. Unless you change jobs or are in contracting, 12-14% seems high to me in the US.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#60

Post by geori » Thu, Dec 20, 2012, 2:29 PM UTC

In order to credibly get a raise and get paid what you're worth, you need a BATNA - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiate...

Otherwise your employer has no reason to give you a raise. If they don't think you're a risk of taking another job why would they voluntarily give you a large raise and cut into their margins?