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My last year of still being considered a "junior/mid" level developer I job hopped about 3 times within 7 months and propelled myself into the very high end of

My last year of still being considered a "junior/mid" level developer I job hopped about 3 times within 7 months and propelled myself into the very high end of the (national and local) pay scale for a Senior Developer. A lot of people take years to make this transition (or wait to be promoted) but I felt I was considerably undervalued and that I could be a Senior within a couple of years. To my surprise, the reality became that I did it in 7 months by taking a lot of big risks (including moving across country) and doing a lot of bluffing (but never lying) with regards to my contracting terms. I tend to be offered a lot of contract-to-perm but in practice I never actually get around to the "perm" part, as I like to control my hours and my overtime and usually by that time I am ready to move on to broaden my experience. These employers were more surprised rather than pissed at me. I don't consider myself a "rockstar" or any of that mumbo-jumbo but I always make sure I am a productive part of any team I'm on. I made it clear I wish to burn no bridges and that I always followed my experience and the opportunities they opened up. I also always make sure the money is right so that I could say no to any counter-offers. Usually when I'm ready to leave money is not going to get me to stay. There are always many other factors at play in a departing worker's decision besides money.

scarecrowbob 13y ago
That very much meets with my general career pattern. If you want to make quick advancement (especially if, like me you started as a developer at 33 instead of 23), then this make s a whole lot of sense. I literally doubled my hourly rate every three months for a year (it didn't hurt that I started off crapping out small marketing sites for $14/hr). I gave each group I moved on from chances to match whatever offer I was moving to, but usually when confronted with having to pay me almost double, they were quite happy for me and totally understood why I was moving on (even though it's not about the money). To add to the other things that I agree with (don't burn bridges, neither lie nor undersell yourself, don't move to "perm", money isn't the motivator as much as finding higher quality projects): having a pad of cash saved up when you can do it makes all of that a lot less risky and makes decisions easier to make. If you're used to living on $16/hr, the first step is risky and hard to take, but if you can maintain that way of living the next several steps all seem increasingly less risky, to the point where I have tow concurrent contracts who want to hire me and I don't know if I want to get pinned.

scarecrowbob 13y ago

That very much meets with my general career pattern. If you want to make quick advancement (especially if, like me you started as a developer at 33 instead of 23), then this make s a whole lot of sense. I literally doubled my hourly rate every three months for a year (it didn't hurt that I started off crapping out small marketing sites for $14/hr). I gave each group I moved on from chances to match whatever offer I was moving to, but usually when confronted with having to pay me almost double, they were quite happy for me and totally understood why I was moving on (even though it's not about the money). To add to the other things that I agree with (don't burn bridges, neither lie nor undersell yourself, don't move to "perm", money isn't the motivator as much as finding higher quality projects): having a pad of cash saved up when you can do it makes all of that a lot less risky and makes decisions easier to make. If you're used to living on $16/hr, the first step is risky and hard to take, but if you can maintain that way of living the next several steps all seem increasingly less risky, to the point where I have tow concurrent contracts who want to hire me and I don't know if I want to get pinned.