What do you do?

I'd only want one on there every few years. I think the expectation is that you stay about 2 years at a company (might be different in tech). I personally loathe my job but like the money, but I'm looking to make a switch and am willing to take a 25% reduction in salary if I can find something decent. Unfortunately, I a 2 year contract where I would have to return a portion of my pay. I do hear that it isn't enforced, and that would seem logical as they bill me out at such a high rate that having an unhappy employee potentially damage a client relationship for what is essentially 2 weeks of fees wouldn't make much sense. Therefore I'm on the hunt.

I was with a company for 5 years before the hops, but promotion was glacial and it felt dead end so I decided to make a change. I have interviewed so much in the last few years I think I have mastered the art, and my linked in is on fire every day. Its odd, you would think the short hops would chase them away but people are pursing me harder due to the huge shortage of people with this specialty.

For context I went from making (in the midwest, low CoL)
74->86(internal negotiation)->105->145 total comp in the last 2 years. Its hard to turn down 20-30% raises!


I am wondering if 1 more hop (an offer I have on the table) is going to go over some limit on reasonable number of short hops (2x 6mo stays at companies). Its not that I don't like my job, its that the job is similar elsewhere and I get more and more authority/pay with each hop for the same general capabilities.

I feel like the iron is as hot as it will ever be and this is my chance to climb the tech ladder in a short period, but I don't want to get burned doing so either.

There's a pretty set path in my current position. 3 years as research scientist I > 4 years as research scientist II > 5 years as senior research scientist > principle research scientist. Then there's all the other milestones you have to hit along the way. It's a definite career pathway, but the pace of promotions is fairly slow. The good news is that each tier has a fairly significant bump in salary to go with it. The bad news is that state budgeting has made cost of living adjustments a thing of the past. We've been in a "budget freeze" for nearly four years now.

It's one reason I'm looking at the possibility of moving. I'm up for RS II this year, so I've got a promotion in the pipe no matter what. If this new position can beat it financially, then the better title is probably worth jumping tracks at least for a couple of years, especially if I can remain research faculty on paper.

CnCGOD_sl said:

I was with a company for 5 years before the hops, but promotion was glacial and it felt dead end so I decided to make a change. I have interviewed so much in the last few years I think I have mastered the art, and my linked in is on fire every day. Its odd, you would think the short hops would chase them away but people are pursing me harder due to the huge shortage of people with this specialty.

For context I went from making (in the midwest, low CoL)
74->86(internal negotiation)->105->145 total comp in the last 2 years. Its hard to turn down 20-30% raises!


I am wondering if 1 more hop (an offer I have on the table) is going to go over some limit on reasonable number of short hops (2x 6mo stays at companies). Its not that I don't like my job, its that the job is similar elsewhere and I get more and more authority/pay with each hop for the same general capabilities.

I feel like the iron is as hot as it will ever be and this is my chance to climb the tech ladder in a short period, but I don't want to get burned doing so either.

Click to expand...

I've made very similar career moves as you. In the last 5 years I've gone from Developer -> (job hop) Software Engineer -> Lead Software Engineer -> (job hop) Consultant -> Solution Architect. Each hop got me a 30% bump or so and each promotion was a 20% bump. I really don't see the problem with hopping jobs every 6 months to a year as long as it is a noticeable vertical move. I personally don't see myself moving again unless I were offered a Director or C-level gig. The tech market is absolutely crazy though so who knows.

mizovax_sl said:

Reading through the other forums, specifically the job listings forum, and became decidedly curious. Since the forum is new, the community base has been around for quite some time, but there seems to be a desire to expand it; why not open the flood gates?

Be as descriptive or vague as you're comfortable with.

Where do you work?

What do you do? (Title/keywords)

What field/industry?

Wages?

Bonuses/SEP?

Benefits?

I'll leave out the where, for now.
I'm pretty much a step below a supervisor.
Construction/fabrication.
With OT (of which there is a lot) I'm bringing in ~$1,500 a week
SEP (Shared Earnings Program) is dished out every year as long as the company makes so much. All employees share like 1% of the profit or some such.
Medical/Dental/Vision, FMLA, Short and Long Term disability, 401k - plus we can buy company stock every pay period.

Click to expand...

A State agency
Audit other State agencies
Auditing/Accounting
Just got this job a ear ago and don't have my CPA yet. $35K a year right now. Actually less than the manual labor job I had for a decade before this, but much more potential.
Pretty good insurance and retirement package, imo. My coworkers complain that it's now a lot worse than it used to be though.

Black_Death_sl said:

I've made very similar career moves as you. In the last 5 years I've gone from Developer -> (job hop) Software Engineer -> Lead Software Engineer -> (job hop) Consultant -> Solution Architect. Each hop got me a 30% bump or so and each promotion was a 20% bump. I really don't see the problem with hopping jobs every 6 months to a year as long as it is a noticeable vertical move. I personally don't see myself moving again unless I were offered a Director or C-level gig. The tech market is absolutely crazy though so who knows.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input, good to see I am not alone with this. And yes, the tech market is crazy... I have hit some money milestones I thought were 5-10 years away out of the blue and it feels like I am a hot commodity.

I agree, if I take this Sr. Solution Architect gig I am thinking that will be the last stop for a while. Heck even most Director level folks don't make that much unless they are Consulting (PS) Directors. VP or C-Level would be cool, not sure what that will look like when/if it comes. My biggest hurdle right now to moving forward (isn't huge but is a hurdle) is my inflexibility in terms of moving. Family is here, fiancee is here, finacee's family is here and she has a good job here.

@topic; Eye-candy(aka: secretary). Definitely rather not list my previous professions or "professions". I've figuratively worked nearly every job "type".

Still waiting on an answer regarding the interview I had about two weeks back. It isn't surprising, as I was told at the time that interviews were scheduled for a full week after my own, and college bureaucracies are notoriously slow. My own original hire took months as a temp before the paperwork was hashed out. I sent a follow-up to the director who would be my direct boss (and also who ran the interview). We're on a first name basis, so I don't feel like I'm overstepping by doing that.

It's funny. When I took the interview I wasn't really shopping around for a new job. I went into it without a bit of worry, knowing I'm secure in my current position. The longer that time goes by, the more I want to "win" by getting the new position. I don't even know what the salary would be, only that it's incredibly unlikely that it would be anything less than a substantial raise.

I guess we always want what's on the other side of the glass case.

aychamo_aycono_sl said:

MsB, topic is about working jobs, not knobs !!

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But that always gets a raise faster.

Back to working for myself. After a job offer in a project management position I accepted then they brought up some additional requirements like gettng a TWIC card today. It was an OK job, although it was a paycut going from being self employed. It just didn't pay enough to put up with that BS.

Ended up taking the new position. Wont be able to hop for a while but thats ok as I would like some stability. It's 18% more money, a better title (Sr. Solution Architect Big Data) and a drop in travel requirement from 60% to 5-10%. Also my commute will be < 10min.

150k, 12.5% bonus and 10k signing bonus. Not bad for being 32 and working "for the man" in the midwest!

Took a month, but I finally got a rejection letter for the job I interviewed for at the beginning of April. I'm a little surprised, as the interview went extremely well, but there are any number of reasons they could have gone another direction. I was young for the job, so it could have been something as simple as years of experience.

Sorta bummed, but it's a lot easier to stomach when I'm not really looking. It was just an opportunity that came across my desk. In a couple of weeks the staff page for the department should be updated and I'll have a chance to compare myself with who they hired.

edit: Got a follow up note from my old adviser who was on the committee. Turns out they couldn't offer me a competitive salary with what I currently make. I'm *very* surprised at that, because a director-level job has a specific classification in the job codes table for the university, and none of them are below my current threshold. They must have really jumped through some hoops with HR to post the job that low. So it turns out it was much ado about nothing the whole time.

So, my current employer threw a wrench into things a bit. My manager offered me a different position on the same team which would be focused on remote work and shorter and less frequent trips in addition to bumping my salary to 10k more than the offer I accepted. I know the drum beat of "never accept a counter" but he addressed both compensation AND the travel which was the reason I was looking.

I've never heard of the "never accept a counter" thing either. In fact, I've always felt that getting a nice counter-offer out of your current employer is one of the biggest reasons to get a good offer from someone else.

Question for you dudes up in here.

Graduating in December/January with my BS in computer engineering. I have plans to go for my masters, but right now that's not the issue.

At what point do I start sending out resumes? I know people who started 1 year out, but it seems most recommend starting to look around 6 months out.. is this still the norm?

I'm working at a company right now, but there hasn't been an official job offer yet. The boss that hired me was promoted to one step above his position, and has said that he's looking for a job for me here but can't guarantee anything. Obviously I can't wait around forever. What's the etiquette for an intern who is also applying for jobs and possibly getting interviews? I work 9-5 M-F here. I have a feeling they won't like me interviewing at other companies during the week.

McCheese_sl said:

I've never heard of the "never accept a counter" thing either. In fact, I've always felt that getting a nice counter-offer out of your current employer is one of the biggest reasons to get a good offer from someone else.

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Just google about counter offers, seems the advice is almost all to not accept them. I am very likely to accept it personally since it has multiple advantages.

Deathwing_sl said:

So don't tell them you're going on interviews.

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I'm a full-time intern with a chance I could work here full-time after. I don't want to just start popping off days and burning a bridge.