[piaw]

Having assisted in negotiating a couple of those multi-million dollar offers, that is absolutely correct. Most of those offers aren't going to "successful senior people." They're going to people who were repeatedly passed over for promotions despite doing great work (i.e., people who fail to manage their careers properly).

[AlexC04]

I've read this a few times and am trying to parse exactly what you mean.

The million dollar offers tend to go to people who keep their head down and quietly work hard, possibly doing less-than-glamorous work (As opposed to the big-shot high flying 'executive' who get their photo in the company newsletter)?

That seems counter-intuitive to me - but - maybe it's because the "company newsletter types" are already getting the recognition and compensation they deserve? Or at the very least get the opportunity to discuss those factors more often?

[piaw]

That's because those are the people most likely to apply to another job! The people I know getting the big packages aren't waiting to be "noticed." That's not likely to happen since they weren't recognized where they were. They took a proactive approach and shopped around for a new job.

Only then were their contributions recognized internally and the big offers were required to keep them as they were already pissed off.

Trust me, it's not the fast track people who are getting the giant paydays right now. Those people are sitting pretty and already have substantial awards and wouldn't bother interviewing elsewhere.