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Comment by chrisco255 | Hacker News Reader

If only this guy knew how much money he left on the table by not switching jobs every 2 years.

I think it is very very very unlikely that he would earn more money switching jobs as a salesman in a small town in Brazil during the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. Almost no market is like software development in the 2010s and 2020s.

Raises and promotions were a much more certain path for better compensation in his circumstances.

I'm going to assume OP was being sarcastic.

Or, perhaps this guy was happy and has enjoyed his whole career, rather than constantly seeking that bigger paycheck 'cos money rules.

This guy might just ask how content you feel now, or are you already looking out for that next paycheck jump?

He would probably be happy somewhere else as well. You can look at not switching jobs as paying your employer thousands of dollars each year to keep working there, and it gets more expensive for each year you stay.

Or, if you think your employer's business is worthwhile and you are looked after well, why would you?

It seems a common attitude these days that all workplaces are temporary and ripping you off if you stick around. Such ego.

Someday these job-hoppers won't be so lucky to have such a market available and will wonder what happened. They might find out they're not as desirable as they think they are.

Employees only started getting mercenary because the companies treated them like fodder. Listen to any union labor song to get an idea of how they were treated. Companies wouldn’t even pay you in money (only scrip) until the workers revolted. It’s really a bed made by companies, so they better lay in it.

I get that, but it's not quite the same as the sentiment here of 'change jobs every year or few or you're leaving money on the table' except also being based on greed and ego.

Well then maybe companies should be paying their workers better such that they don’t have to switch jobs to optimize their careers. There is no point in blaming employees for a lack of loyalty when employees don’t control their incentives. Workers are merely operating in the system the corporations set up.

If loyalty was that valuable, companies should reward that appropriately by paying them at least as much as an equivalent new hire, maybe even more because they’ve been around longer. Or companies can prioritize putting their most long standing employees in leadership positions, valuing the insight and knowledge of company operations. There are a bunch of things that can be done that often aren’t.

If he gets paid enough to support his envisioned lifestyle, maybe he doesn't need more money and changing employers is an unnecessary risk. Not everyone's main objective to maximize their lifetime earnings.

I know. He could have switched jobs and doubled his TC a long time ago.

i mean i 5x'd my tc with 1 job switch but i didn't start in faang

I did that too once when I went from a 6 hour part time after school job to my first proper job.

How do you know that he wasn't already being compensated well enough?

Our lives are priceless. So IMO, everyone will always be underpaid.

Considering where he lives, the business he is in, and his timeframe, I doubt he would have benefited much from job hopping.

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