[cbsks]

Is the constant churn just a Silicon Valley thing? I get a raise every year of about 8% which keeps me well compensated even after working at the same job for 8 years. It’s possible the company I work for is an outlier? We have lots of engineers who have been working here for 15+ years.

As a result, my interviewing skills have deteriorated significantly. I wouldn’t be surprised if a talented programmer straight out of college could out-interview me even though I have much more experience.

[throwaway_goog]

I doubled my salary each time I changed jobs, from internship -> first job out of high school -> first job out of college -> Google. When I got to Google I said, "I guess that's the end of the doubling." Nope, my compensation doubled again while I was an employee there, and then doubled again. Left to do a startup and then went back - at double the compensation.

[Jakobeha]

Just need to double your job about 25 times and then you'll make as much money as Jeff Bezos

[cbsks]

The "problem" that I have now is that there are few companies that can offer me double my salary, and none in my area. I'm not willing to relocate so my only hope is that FAANG-type companies start to hire remote developers.

I put problem in quotations because it is very hard to complain about being paid too much :(

[oblio]

You're an exception. In developed countries for sure most companies don't give out raises higher than a few percentage points, and definitely not constantly 8%. For reference, at your current rate in 10 years you're doubling your salary.

In developing countries your story is a bit more common but even there you can accelerate things by switching companies once every few years (somewhere between 3-5). After a while you probably want to stay put to get promotions.

[ciceryadam]

It also depends where in your career are you. When I started as a junior and improved year by year, my salary grew 10% yearly in the same company, for 6 years.

[NotSammyHagar]

It definitely depends on industry location. In the big tech centers, 10% avg increase over time would be, well average (Seattle, Austin, NY, Boston, bay area). I was shocked when I learned my last company was paying new college grads more than 100k. Then it got to be 120, 130 (total comp, salary, bonus, stock). I think the starting salary could have gone up 10% a year. This was a company that wasn't a faang but competed with the faangs for hiring.

[NotSammyHagar]

Interview skills do degrade. You have to practice before you interview if you haven't been doing it recently. Interviewing is a performance, it's different than normal programming, but the world mostly expects you to handle that difference.

1. You have to solve a problem immediately (whiteboard or now in a webbrowser)

2. It's often frowned upon to research via google search something, although in real life most people do it all the time.

3. you have only an hour to solve a problem, and what if you don't see the 'right and easy way' to do it? In real life things aren't so simple.

4. Don't forget it's a performance! You have to be on your best, sharpest most intelligent and witty behavior, think through things, it can be exhausting.

These are just a few of the ways that interviewing is artificial.

[goatinaboat]

Interviewing is a performance, it's different than normal programming, but the world mostly expects you to handle that difference.

I was looking last year, I flunked my few interviews. Then I paused and spent a few weeks working through CtCI. After that I was easily getting offers. Was I a better programmer than before? No, of course not, I had just learned how to put on a show, and I forgot it all the moment I had an offer I was happy with.

[NotSammyHagar]

What is CtCI?

[polka_haunts_us]

I think you need to define "interview". I recently just got a new job and in the interview process I definitely did worse on the algorithms than I would've done right out of college, but everything else went great. "Here's how I've done it for 8 years that has been to the satisfaction of people who write paychecks" goes a long way for many companies.

[cbsks]

Yes, that's true. It depends on how the interview is structured. I would not excel in an interview that relies on whiteboard coding, algorithm problems, and CS trivia, but I can talk for hours about the projects that I have worked on and real problems that I have solved.

[TulliusCicero]

A steady raise rate of 8% when not being promoted would be phenomenal. After 15 years you'd be triple your original pay, which, for non-promo compensation, is unheard of.

[cbsks]

I agree that it is pretty great. I think triple my starting pay is very doable at my company. I know that the people at the top of the engineering org chart are doing quite well for themselves.

[bcrosby95]

Looking at my friend group, it seems like a mixed bag.

We're in our early 40s. About half have been at their current place of employment for close to 10 years now. The other half seem to change jobs every couple of years, although some of those had a long tenure before the recent bought of job swapping (they haven't found a new place they like).

[kyawzazaw]

that's only a 6% increase (accounting for us inflation). I am sure you can get more if you change jobs.