It was a lesson I learned early on: "loyalty" doesn't make you any money. It doesn't grow your career, either. Your work life is a big part of your daily life and it should be fun, challenging to some degree, and rewarding.

For me, "rewarding" means financial compensation, learning new things, and being appreciated by my peers and those above me.

Currently, I work as a senior software engineer for Apple. I make a low 6-figure salary while working 100% remote (also before COVID-19). The assigned work is groundbreaking, secretive, uses new tech, and it's going to be used by millions of people around the world.

Then I got the offer a few weeks ago to work for a local bank, setting up their new platform. Even newer technologies and more responsibilities as a competency lead. The salary will increase by 60%.

Imagine making 120k a year and jumping to 192k a year, just by signing a piece of paper. I've worked for Apple for about 2 years now, and I'm having a great time. But there's no way they'll increase my salary like that.

What I have learned over the years is that if I make this switch and don't burn bridges behind me, I should stay in close contact with my current colleagues, and work to learn all I can at the new job.

Two or three years from now, I might apply at Apple again. For a higher-level job. Right now I'm a senior software engineer, but in 3 years with 3 years of enterprise leadership experience, I'd apply for a leadership role. I will use my connections and insider-knowledge to have a more personal connection to them.

That can be a quicker, but certainly more lucrative, way of promoting inside a company. And I've done that before at a different company.

I was a medior developer at CompanyA, moved to CompanyB where I became a senior developer for 2 years, then moved back to CompanyA as a senior developer.

Usually I would have gotten the usual +5% salary increase if I had stayed at CompanyA. But by making a little detour I increased my salary by 30% to 40% with each jump.

Loyalty is worth nothing, except to your employer. That just means you're an asset that is going to become worth increasingly more as time goes by, because your potential market value skyrockets while you remain working for the annual +5%. And every once in a while you'll get the +7% because you're so special. And that one year business is bad, so you'll only get +2%.