[hajile]

That's one more issue with the industry. Everyone says they don't want to train because the devs will just leave, but they refuse to give them the raise to keep them there. If a company won't give a disproportionate raise to a person who deserves it, then some other company will hire that person.

My first gig paid only around 30K/yr, but I became aware that moving jobs was a good way to get a raise. When you already have a job (and genuinely have the ability), it's pretty easy to negotiate aggressively. My next job was 70K and within two years, I was in the top 10% of dev salaries.

If I weren't willing to jump companies, it would have taken years more because (as you point out) companies don't like giving raises.