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Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

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Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#71

Post by brixon »

jimwalsh wrote: post #42

When I was a Sys Admin in USA, your salary never increased unless you left the company and took a job elsewhere. Those were your raises, and it's why SA turnover is so high and how even companies just treat them as a dime a dozen now a days.

That is more the aftermath of the dot com days when there was a severe shortage of SA people. Big companies would train people and get them certified and those people would turn around a leave for double the salary. So companies quit training and did not expect anyone to stay over a year.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#72

Post by djb_hackernews »

I'll give you some real world numbers:

* 2006 entered the job market as a new CS grad in Boston area. 39k salary.

* 2007 was given a 7% raise

* 2008 I asked for and got a raise to 50k (roughly 19% increase)

* 2009 I quit and travelled

* 2010 Moved to DC and found a job at 65k (roughly 30% increase)

* 2011 I asked for and got a raise to 85k (roughly 30% increase)

* 2012-first half I switched jobs in DC to 100k (roughly 17% increase)

* 2012-second half I left that job to travel and start my own thing

* 2013 Hopefully I won't be talking about salaries.

Two things:

* I definitely dug a hole for myself a few times, but I can say every job was a great place to work and I was surrounded by people I learned from every day.

* I never negotiated. Anytime I asked for a raise I was honest with them and I told them up front I wasn't negotiating. I gave them a number and told them that's what it'd take to make me happy. Both times they came back with a counter offer and both times I repeated I wasn't negotiating and thanked them for taking the time to see what they could do. In both cases I ended up getting what I asked for.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#73

Post by michaelochurch »

tatsuke95 wrote: post #65
[deleted] wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

>"Sure, that's average, but why stay at an average company?" How many years are you talking about being employed? Because doubling your salary every 3-5 years is completely unsustainable. If this occupation is so leveraged that 10% annual salary gains are "average", and 20% are "expected", there is going to be some heartache at some point. That isn't happening anywhere else on the planet.

If this occupation is so leveraged that 10% annual salary gains are "average", and 20% are "expected", there is going to be some heartache at some point.

I don't think "leveraged" is the word you want.

Obviously, it stops at some point. I think most people get to a point where they care more about autonomy and control over their own time than they do about money. Once you can afford to buy a house, raise a family, and take vacations, how much more do you need? I think most people focus on doing more interesting and meaningful work at that point, not pushing up their salary.

But as long as I am going to be following orders and putting my time into others' ideas, I want either (a) a 20%-increase track or (b) enough autonomy to get the skills that will help me along that curve.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#74

Post by michaelochurch »

djb_hackernews wrote: post #72

I'll give you some real world numbers: * 2006 entered the job market as a new CS grad in Boston area. 39k salary. * 2007 was given a 7% raise * 2008 I asked for and got a raise to 50k (roughly 19% increase) * 2009 I quit and travelled * 2010 Moved to DC and found a job at 65k (roughly 30% increase) * 2011 I asked for and got a raise to 85k (roughly 30% increase) * 2012-first half I switched jobs in DC to 100k (roughl…

I never negotiated. Anytime I asked for a raise I was honest with them and I told them up front I wasn't negotiating.

Who says negotiation is dishonest?

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#75

Post by djb_hackernews »

michaelochurch wrote: post #74
djb_hackernews wrote: post #72

I'll give you some real world numbers: * 2006 entered the job market as a new CS grad in Boston area. 39k salary. * 2007 was given a 7% raise * 2008 I asked for and got a raise to 50k (roughly 19% increase) * 2009 I quit and travelled * 2010 Moved to DC and found a job at 65k (roughly 30% increase) * 2011 I asked for and got a raise to 85k (roughly 30% increase) * 2012-first half I switched jobs in DC to 100k (roughl…

I never negotiated. Anytime I asked for a raise I was honest with them and I told them up front I wasn't negotiating. Who says negotiation is dishonest?

Not what I was implying at all.

I was honest in that I told them I was happy with the job and my work but not happy with my salary. I just tried to be as direct as possible.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#76

Post by philwelch »

rlpb wrote: post #27
beaumartinez wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are doing the same job as last year, except with a whole nother year's worth of experience .

Experience is secondary. It's only any good to your employer if it increases the value you provide.

Experience in the exact same role at the exact same company is going to be maximally valuable in that role, at that company. It translates to deep understanding of the problem domain and of the existing systems you are maintaining and building upon. It's completely perverse and backwards that you get a raise for switching companies and don't get a raise for staying put, because most of that understanding becomes irrelevant when you switch companies.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#77

Post by moocow01 »

The thing that Ive found is that once you get into the upper-tier range (I define this as 125-150k and on average seems to include people with 5 to 10 years experience) it gets harder than before.

My first 5 years on average I had great raises - 15-20% on average (all mostly from job changes). Now it seems a little bit harder - I most likely can go out and convince someone to pay me 5 or 10k more but I feel my head starting to skim that glass ceiling. There are things I could do to change - I could go find a job doing financial transactions or blindly go work for the highest bidder with no care work conditions and other things, etc.

The point being is that developer salaries in the first part of the career can go up relatively fast but in my opinion top out relatively quickly (not such a bad thing necessarily). I think from there you need to go out on your own if you want to really make more.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#78

Post by mathattack »

IMHO the big breaks (40+%) happen at major transition points: Promotion, post-grad-degree & new job. Everything should be aimed at those big 3 for long term compensation increases.

It's very hard to generalize on specifics. If you're freelancing, contracting or consulting, it's largely a function of how much your billing rate increases. If you're in software it's more a function of how the firm is doing, and how much credit you get for it. (If it's a weak link to how you get the credit, it's hard to point to)

One other note - there tend to be caps at levels within firms, so you can catch up if you're underpaid, but it's hard to break above without one of the big discontinuous jumps I mentioned above.

ok - one last note... You get paid best if you succeed in "line" jobs where you are contributing directly to money coming in, rather than "staff" jobs. This means that good Sales people always do well, and they'll get better comped than someone purchasing advertising from outside vendors. Likewise, a developer on a core product with get paid better than someone with the same degree and experience working in internal IT.

Salary reporting sites frequently get their data from H1-B applications, so the #s are reliable, but you have to be careful about timing. Someone working in banking technology in 2007 will get paid much more than the same job today.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#79

Post by toyg »

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

It's called "rewarding loyalty". Companies used to do that, then the '80s happened.

Re: Ask HN: Salary Increases Over Time

#80

Post by sjg007 »

beaumartinez wrote: post #20
Ntrails wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The phrasing bandied about where I currently work is: "You are doing the same job as last year, so your pay should be the same adjusted for inflation. If you want more money, you need to be taking on more responsibility, growing your role."

You are doing the same job as last year, except with a whole nother year's worth of experience .

It is also not as if the job is rote work.
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