60k shitty entry level job (< 3 years)... quit for a
90k slightly less shitty job (1 year) ... quit for a
140k + $350k bonus/equity (< 2 years) ... quit for a
160k + much more equity, nearly certain IPO (hopefully for the full 4 years to vest 100%)
Don't hate the mercenary, hate the employer who won't pay you what you are worth!
I think you fail to see a fact, the same fact that was overlooked by all your former bosses actually.
Your 6-years-ago self was probably not worth half of what your current self is. Your ability to land each new job was built upon the foundations of higher skills and professional maturity you achieved on the previous job.
Ambitious, talented employees keep growing, positions are static by nature. Job hopping is the de-facto career path.
1) Management in all but one job I've had invested nothing in training and helping new employees grow. My technical growth has come through personal projects and taking on extra work.
2) Promotion never offered anything like the salary increases a new job offered. The incentive to stay is not there.
I'm in the L.A. area and people want to crap their pants when I tell them to give me 150k.
I think employers massively overweight experience, particularly in a field that changes as fast as ours. Five years ago I was just as smart as I am now, maybe smarter - I didn't have 5 years' experience with tools X, Y and Z, but tools X and Y are already basically obsolete. But the market says I'm worth twice as much now as I was five years ago.
Also, there is the concept of social proof - which you may argue is a form of over-weighting experience, but that's an open ended question. If you have a track record of going to work for somebody else and achieving X, Y, Z goals there, you are perceived to be a safer choice than someone that in theory might be smarter than you, but that is lazy or otherwise unreliable, or with low communication skills, or a first class jerk. Not that you cannot hire this types if you go with someone more experienced, but from HR perspective, you are more of a "known quantity" once you have been around for a few years and built a track record for yourself.
These companies can be found, and you probably know their names. You can get through their interviews by adopting the mannerisms of their interviewers (be it old cynical guys, or Stanford new grads, or whatever) and studying your SAT interview question book.
The way to really strike it rich is look for say a social network with 30+ million active users that is willing to give you options. It's hard to fuck up 30+ million users.
EDIT: Just because I got lucky does not mean the OPs post is wrong. My luck was aided by me jumping ship as frequently as I could whenever a good new opportunity presented itself.
Keep in mind that I stayed at none of these companies for more than 2.5 years!
There were 2 brief interludes 1) Non-technical grad school, but that actually netted me a very slick summer internship one year that paid way better than my previous job too. 2) Failed startup, that paid nothing
Unfortunately, I think I've maxed out on the software engineer pay scale now unless I get even luckier.
> Pick a number, any number: somebody does a lot better than that. For most numbers you’d naively think of, its an awful lot of somebodies. $100k? Not the top. $250k? Not the top. $500k? … Not the top.
The less emotional benefit of getting higher in the pay scale is that job-switches can be about something more meaningful than just, "Oh shit, that's more money!" Now, so long as I can get close, I'll be happy to just go wherever would be most fulfilling.
My trajectories been
25k 6months, 45k 6m, 75k 1yr, 110k now.
Hoping to get to 150k in one more year. 150+ would be a sweet salary!!
(Throwaway)