Why switching jobs is the fastest path to doubling your salary

Why switching jobs is the fastest path to doubling your salary(financialtoolbelt.com)

3 points by AustinGrandt 7 years ago | 3 comments

ldoughty 7 years ago |

An interesting article, I've subconsciously agreed with this in my life, but I've also seen (and encouraged in my companies) change here.

My policy is to fight for lower-salary employees to get closer to 10% raises if they are doing well and gain provable skills. I think the primary issue with job hoping is that 2-4% raises do not match with market value, especially for the first 5 years of a technical career. Eventually it might reach this level (year 10 vs 11), but certainly not the first few years unless the individual is not growing.

barrow-rider 7 years ago |

The case study at the end seems overly modest. Even relatively unimpressive internal promotions can bump you up 7-8% or more; jumping ship to new jobs can often add 50% or more.

AustinGrandt 7 years ago | |

definitely agree. I wrote this a bit overly simplified to showcase the point that even mid-sized raises can quickly be outweighed by bigger jumps. There are a lot of specific situations that may or may not apply to your specific role.

I do think though that I used modest assumptions for switching jobs, so the math evens out. For those that are already underpaid a jump of 30-50% is not unheard of.