5 ms·

I think the bigger message in the post you're responding to is that for the first few years of your career, you should switch jobs often. In the first few years

I think the bigger message in the post you're responding to is that for the first few years of your career, you should switch jobs often. In the first few years of my career I was put in the situation a few times where: 1. Raises at my current company weren't offered unless requested, or unless a promotion (change in title) occurred. Sometimes both. 2. Raises associated with normal growth in your role at my current company were pretty consistently 3-4%, raises associated with a promotion were 5-8%. 3. Switching companies would get me a 10-20% raise. Early in your career, the value you're providing is improving fast, and your compensation should keep up, but for most, it doesn't, because management has an idea that some percentage is "standard". Having talked to lots of people about their salaries (which all workers should do), it doesn't seem to matter much whether you're switching between startups, between FAANG (or similar) companies, or between the two. But if the person you're responding to took a trajectory that led through a few companies to FAANG, it might create the impression that it's good to go to other companies before FAANG.

astrange 4y ago
I've seen the salaries people get by "switching companies often" and they don't seem to be a lot better than what you can get from good perf reviews at a FAANG. I'm sure it depends on the company, but you can also switch teams and products inside a large company if you feel there's more opportunity elsewhere. (One thing people think is that boring-but-important work might pay better - this actually isn't true, the exciting meme work also pays the most but is less stable.)
- kerkeslager 4y ago
  > I've seen the salaries people get by "switching companies often" and they don't seem to be a lot better than what you can get from good perf reviews at a FAANG. I suppose it's possible none of the FAANG folks I have spoken to about this were getting good performance reviews, but I have never heard of someone getting a 20% raise in one year at a FAANG company unless there were some obvious extenuating circumstances. I'm sure HNers will rush in now to tell me they got X>20% raise at Y FAANG, but that definitely seems like outliers to me. And the thing is, you don't even have to be great to get a 20% raise by switching jobs early in your career. Normal, even mediocre growth as an engineer puts you at that valuation easily.
  - astrange 4y ago
    That happened to me, but I started as an intern so there was a lot of room to grow. If you come in as a mid-level engineer it'll take a while to get a "permanent" raise that high. But I'd say in a FAANG the target isn't salary growth, it's getting enough stock refreshers to avoid TC falloffs, which you should be able to do through good perf reviews and promos.
    - kerkeslager 4y ago
      > But I'd say in a FAANG the target isn't salary growth, it's getting enough stock refreshers to avoid TC falloffs, which you should be able to do through good perf reviews and promos. Could you explain this further? I'm not sure I understand.
01100011 4y ago
I definitely agree that a new engineer should, generally, avoid the trap of working at the same company for more than the first 5 years of their career. If nothing else, you will learn different mindsets, cultures, skills, etc that you just can't get staying at the same place. It will give you perspective that will prove valuable as the industry and your career evolves. Also, yes, easier to get raises that way.

astrange 4y ago

I've seen the salaries people get by "switching companies often" and they don't seem to be a lot better than what you can get from good perf reviews at a FAANG. I'm sure it depends on the company, but you can also switch teams and products inside a large company if you feel there's more opportunity elsewhere. (One thing people think is that boring-but-important work might pay better - this actually isn't true, the exciting meme work also pays the most but is less stable.)

kerkeslager 4y ago
> I've seen the salaries people get by "switching companies often" and they don't seem to be a lot better than what you can get from good perf reviews at a FAANG. I suppose it's possible none of the FAANG folks I have spoken to about this were getting good performance reviews, but I have never heard of someone getting a 20% raise in one year at a FAANG company unless there were some obvious extenuating circumstances. I'm sure HNers will rush in now to tell me they got X>20% raise at Y FAANG, but that definitely seems like outliers to me. And the thing is, you don't even have to be great to get a 20% raise by switching jobs early in your career. Normal, even mediocre growth as an engineer puts you at that valuation easily.
- astrange 4y ago
  That happened to me, but I started as an intern so there was a lot of room to grow. If you come in as a mid-level engineer it'll take a while to get a "permanent" raise that high. But I'd say in a FAANG the target isn't salary growth, it's getting enough stock refreshers to avoid TC falloffs, which you should be able to do through good perf reviews and promos.
  - kerkeslager 4y ago
    > But I'd say in a FAANG the target isn't salary growth, it's getting enough stock refreshers to avoid TC falloffs, which you should be able to do through good perf reviews and promos. Could you explain this further? I'm not sure I understand.

01100011 4y ago

I definitely agree that a new engineer should, generally, avoid the trap of working at the same company for more than the first 5 years of their career. If nothing else, you will learn different mindsets, cultures, skills, etc that you just can't get staying at the same place. It will give you perspective that will prove valuable as the industry and your career evolves. Also, yes, easier to get raises that way.