[tedmiston]

I've always personally believed in the show-by-doing approach here. If you want to negotiate a raise, find a way to provide more value to your company, get feedback from your boss that it would be valuable. Then come review time, demonstrate that you've been contributing beyond your current role in this capacity.

Most engineers are getting messaged by recruiters regularly. This is not a surprise to your boss if he has good engineers on the team. But I don't think that leveraging this in itself is an effective technique for negotiating a raise. In my opinion, being recruited doesn't affect the value you create in your current role unless you believe that your comp is below market, or you have grown significantly beyond the role you're officially in now. Just my 2¢.