I've been through a handful of job changes in my career, and it seems that most of the time either my title goes up but my pay goes down, or vice versa: * Soft

I've been through a handful of job changes in my career, and it seems that most of the time either my title goes up but my pay goes down, or vice versa: * Software Engineer -> Founder: huge pay cut * Founder -> Principal Engineer: Got a salary again * Principal -> Advisory Engineer: 20% raise * Advisory -> Senior: More than doubled my TC (but the job was stressful and the hours were terrible) * Senior -> Staff: Cut my TC nearly in half (but much better WLB) In general, I'll take the money over the title. But beyond a certain point, I'll take time with my family over the money.