what's the highest increase in salary you've had or seen?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev⁩ to ⁨programming@programming.dev⁩

I’m an 8 year data center network engineer who recently broke 100k for the first time. When I got asked my salary requirements I actually only asked for 90k as my highest previous salary was 80k with lots of travel, then I found out they gave me 100k because it was the minimum they could pay someone in my position. I’ve read before about people making crazy salary increases (150%-300%) and am wondering if I played it incorrectly and how I could play it in the future. I plan to stay with my company for the next few years and upskilling heavily and am eyeing a promotion in my first year as I’ve already delivered big projects by contributing very early. I’ve progressed from call center/help desk/engineer etc so my progression has been pretty linear, are people who are seeing massive jumps in pay just overselling their competency and failing forward? Or are there other fields in IT like programming/etc that are more likely to have higher progression scales?

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MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
was making 125k. Got laid off. Interviewed at another company and asked for 200k. Ended up with 185k. Got laid off again and still haven’t been able to find a job. Ups and downs :/

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- tills13@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’m happy at my current job but know I’m underpaid. Not to toot my own horn but I’m pretty sure I’m un-fireable short of like an HR issue… This sort of scenario definitely makes me think twice about leaving / stirring the pot.
  
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originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
When someone asks what you were paid or what your salary expectations are, ask them what the budget is for the role. They have one. They will not want to tell you, and you shouldn’t tell them your expectations

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- teichflamme@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  So, what happens then?
  
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  - lustrum@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They offer someone else the job
    
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  - originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It’s a negotiation. Unless you have a lot of knowledge about the industry you’re working in and what market salaries are, you’re at a disadvantage. You don’t have to say a number. They do - they’re offering you a job. If they refuse to offer you the job until you tell them your salary desire, they are trying to low ball you and you likely don’t want to work there.
    
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  - 1984@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    A stare and patience contest begins.
    
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- mrsgreenpotato@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I did this several times and never got a proper reply. They say stuff like “It depends on the person and is calculated individually”. You can’t really argue over that unless you’re willing to be very pushy or just straight up walk away from the table - which is something you don’t want to do in most cases.
  
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  - originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Why not be pushy? Why not be willing to walk away? Everyone’s situation differs but a server tech is not going to be lacking for work opportunities. If it’s calculated individually, you say “ok what would it be in my case?”
    
    If they say “it depends on what you’re paid now” that’s a HUGE red flag and you should walk
    
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- custom_situation@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  even then, a position may not be for a certain level so they’re can be a fairly wide band of pay depending on how the interview goes.
  
  i think most folks vastly overthink it. just ask for the money you want to make. either it’s in the ballpark or it’s not. all this “don’t say a number first” stuff is bullshit imo.
  
  you definitely do want to know if your desired pay matches their range though. that’s very important.
  
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- thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  www.tiktok.com/t/ZT86J7mpN/
  
  That was basically how the meeting went lol
  
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  - originalfrozenbanana@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The NDA bit got me ngl
    
    Truth is this is an antagonistic negotiation oftentimes. You want to be paid more, they want to pay you as little as possible. There’s unfortunately no playbook, just advice and experience.
    
    FWIW if they were that evasive I’d just say “look I’m not going to name an initial number, I’d like you to name a range.” But I’m at a somewhat senior level so I have a different experience than others might
    
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- 0x0@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I usually follow it up with a salary range and they end up matching the lower bound.
  
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  - mrsgreenpotato@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, saying a range makes no sense. You hope for the high end, but all they hear is the low end. I always say a specific number.
    
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Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I played a negotiation game of spending two weeks of research to explain to my company that I should be paid $165k, based on roles similar to me.

They said, “Well those are in expensive cities.” And I said, “They’re all remote jobs. And they’re all hiring.”

They came to the table with 155k, which was 30k more than a month prior. The scary part was a few months later, fucking Musk fired a bunch of Twitter people, and triggered the layoffs. So now I can’t do that negotiation again.

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- Obi@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Gottem.
  
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- MajorHavoc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  So now I can’t do that negotiation again.
  
  You can and you should. Musk’s layoffs and the ones that followed are a coordinated press campaign. The total impact on unemployment of IT professional programmers was a tenth or a percentage.
  
  Yes. Companies are hiring slower right now because there’s less venture capital money sloshing around, but they’re accumulating company-ending-event technology debt while they do it.
  
  Mark my words they will be desperate for your talents and paying accordingly soon. I predict another big hike in base pay as the game of chicken ends in a mad scramble. We will also see more companies paying long term consulting rates instead of staff rates for IT solutions.
  
  Source: As a developer who hires developers, I’m watching this trainwreck from both sides of the track.
  
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  - thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’ve heard from some friends/family that are trying to break into entry level cybersecurity or programming roles and it’s extremely difficult right now, why do you think there seems to be such a high demand for skilled workers but seemingly no demand for entry level?
    
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ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
140-150 is pretty average for a senior DevOps/AWS person. Coding and terrorism/AWS will pay more then networking in general.

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- nul@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Did you maybe mean to say Terraform, or am I missing a key aspect of my job role?
  
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  - ShittyRedditWasBetter@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Lmaoooooo yes. Although some tf is terrorism.
    
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  - thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    lmao I was thinking the same. Like damn I gotta start working some on some defense contractor stuff
    
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Astroturfed@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
You just learned a valuable lesson. Always add like at least 25% to what you think you can get. Unless you are very aware of what the salary range should be. They’ll almost always make a counter offer if you’ve gone over. It’s hard to walk it back if you lowball yourself though.

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- Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Hell yeah this is the way. Negotiate for 25% more, and expect to land at 10-15% more.
  
  I like the tip someone said where if they want you to name a number, you reply with, “Im currently in the middle of interviews with positions whose salary range from (range 1 to range 2)”.
  
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glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s only a sample of one but I almost doubled my salary by switching jobs. I was bullied and harassed in a shitty startup for more than 3 years. I got fat, almost had a depression and I was not doing anything interesting. Even my skills were decreasing.

A bunch of managers asked me once to do something illegal. HR was also telling me to do this because “it’s an order from the bosses.” That was the last straw and I told them to fuck off, and I resigned.

I was underpaid at this shitty company, but I accidentally found another job at a good company with nice people. My salary almost doubled overnight. I don’t want that much money but it was nice “fuck you” to my previous manager that I deeply thanked for being such an asshole.

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Lasso1971@thelemmy.club ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Two years ago out software lead left. Me with 3 years experience was the most knowledgeable person on the team. We had gotten acquired. 3 months later they gave me a raise from 92 to 103k, which I showed annoyance with. 6 months later the new company decided to throw money at the people they couldn’t afford to lose so I went to 128k. 6 months later I went to 143k

This is on a small team at a government contractor

TLDR: 51K in 1 year without switching companies

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0x0@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
99% of the time, the only way people get a raise around these parts is by switching jobs. There’s never budget until you resign.

I haven’t seen any huge increase 'cos I don’t have access to manager’s records.

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AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
When I went from being Head Chef in fine dining, at $34,000 a year, to being a General Manager at Taco Bell, for $36,000, but because of some law that was passed and went into effect in 2019, I got another $3000 per year raise, giving me a salary of $39,000 a year.

I guess when I threw my back out a year later, and started working for myself, growing flower, fostering dogs, and building computers would be my highest pay raise, since I either went from $39,000 a year, or really $0 a year, to making almost $100,000 my first year, and now I’m considering “retiring” at 43 years old because I have consistently made about $1,500,000 after taxes for the last couple years. I only need about $10,000,000 to retire and buy a house in the town I want to live in, that I currently live in.

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- MonkCanatella@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  That’s not including the fact that in 1998, The Undertaker threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer’s table
  
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  - AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Nah, I’m not u/shittymorph. He tells better stories than I do
    
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- falsem@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  What the fuck are you doing that makes you 1.5M/yr?
  
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  - subignition@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Seems like they started up a cannabis cultivation operation among other things.
    
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  - AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Building computers, and growing flower.
    
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nomecks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I worked on a team where everyone but one employee was making 100k+. He was the only one who worked his way up the ranks, and he was only making 49k. I pointed out to him that his job title didn’t match everyone else on the team, as titles matched pay bands. He got more than a 100% raise when he showed our manager.

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josh_dix@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I didn’t finish my degree so ended up going ops -> devops route.

Salary include estimated benefit values (ending salary) 12/hr -> 50k (60k) -> 70k (80k) -> 115k (125k) -> 115k (counter offered 185k upon resignation which I rejected) -> 190k -> 210k

There’s a lot more to the story but that might give an idea of possible bumps.

When I took a pay decrease from 125k -> 115k it was because the weekly cash was still slightly better but the benefits were far worse. I mostly took it because I needed to get to a cloud focused company to progress my career where I wanted it to go and my company at the time couldn’t get me any meaningful experience in cloud stuff at all. The pay jump after that really proved that the experience was worth it. I kind of wish I never joined the 190k company and instead took the counter offer. The 190k company I ended up really not liking leadership’s direction and handling of things.

Super happy now at 210k company where I am a bit of a manager. I really like the people, responsibilities, etc. Pay is pretty great, more than I need for sure, so paying extra on the house and good bucks in retirement for later. Of the higher paying places I’ve been at it is the only one I feel fulfilled and not constantly frustrated.

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- thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  That’s great, can you elaborate what you mean by ops>devops? Do you support infrastructure or applications? I know devops is kind of a catch-all term now for automation, did you work on understanding cloud deployments from the POV of the servers/application or from infra?
  
  I only ask because some of what I do is considered “devops” in the sense that I’m working on network automation, but a lot of times when I hear people discuss devops they’re talking about supporting applications
  
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  - josh_dix@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Yeah, happy to elaborate!
    
    When I first started (hourly) I was doing basically field tech work at an msp. That means I was just a monkey following a document and would call for backup if I experienced any issues. I started getting some basic tasks to come up with newer processes, script some existing ones, and generally manage existing clients. I mostly got familiar with OS stuff, took a few Microsoft certs, that sort of stuff.
    
    Second and third job I was doing more engineering of my own. I’d get higher level tasks like design an implementation of a next Gen firewall here, design next developer image, implement monitoring system, revamp backups, etc. Third job involved some public site management but I wasn’t yet too responsible for app deployments themselves though was often involved as escalation in app support.
    
    Fourth job was more of the same but focused on automation this time. Our group was called ‘automation team’ and we revamped processes at a larger regional bank while adding automation. Before I left there we transitioned to DevOps team, but was more of a DevOps processes and platforms team. We wrote a lot of ci and automation but the goal was to have existing app support teams to own it. That model largely worked and we helped train the ops folks to be DevOps folks.
    
    I moved to a cloud consulting company bc I wanted cloud experience and to get closer to app deployments. If you work on line of business applications then you’re more likely to demand higher pay while doing more interesting and important work. Managers usually need to improve the product so they’re less likely to be wanting to stick to the status quo.
    
    The last two are similar, both justify architecture in the name. The previous though had a lot of bad practices, status quo managers, and was generally miserable. I’m currently quite a generalist because we’re at a small business. That said, main responsibilities include writing and supporting cicd pipeline, all infrastructure changes and automation, 3rd party mail system config, etc.
    
    If you have any more questions lmk.
    
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vector_zero@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
65k->72k->80k->92k->106k->113k->118k->277k

See if you can pinpoint the year I got into a big tech job.

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- jigsaw250@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  As a person who makes about 50k, that could be any one of them for all I know. Seriously though, 160k is quite the raise.
  
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  - vector_zero@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    My jaw damn near hit the floor when I got the offer. A lot of it is wrapped up in stocks, but the base salary is 175k with a cash signing bonus of 160k spread across the first two years’ paychecks.
    
    Despite that (and even when saving quite aggressively), I still can’t afford more than my tiny condo in my area. It’s silly.
    
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loganmarchione@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Here are some tips about salary negotiations:

twitter.com/GergelyOrosz/…/1392090746988208128?la…

www.getrichslowly.org/salary-negotiation/

blog.pragmaticengineer.com/equity-for-software-en…

github.com/petermekhaeil/salary-negotiating
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ishanpage@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m from India so these numbers might be a bit weird. My yearly comp has basically gone like this from 2017 to 2023

$0.7k -> $3.6k -> $4.8k -> $20k

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- philm@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  $0.7k annually? Is it anyhow possible to live with that low salary in India? I can’t even live a month with that here, even if I don’t buy anything but the cheapest food and live in the smallest apartments here…
  
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  - ishanpage@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    It is possible to live on that, there are people who live on less than it. Personally all of it went to supplementing my Mom’s income so we could survive.
    
    There are plenty of entry level jobs in India that offer those kinds of wages. There are more that offer less.
    
    Yes, it’s exploitative.
    
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- harendra21@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Almost same for me also I started with $1.5k in 2017, now it is near about $20k
  
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LoamImprovement@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
When I started at the company I currently work for, my then manager saw how hard I was working and negotiated an 11% raise on my behalf during my first annual review, and another 10% following. She was cool as hell and protected me from the upper management bullshit that was going on at the time. She left because they had her working 65+ hours every week for a CEO who was/is pissing away the company’s capital and goodwill with clients.

My current manager is the bullshit, I haven’t had a raise since she left three years ago and I’ve been looking off and on for something else while I steadily lower my effort to be commensurate with my effective pay.

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- Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  You can find her online. Maybe she can hire you at her new job
  
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Stumblinbear@pawb.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My first "real* job was 120k a year as a software engineer. I left that job for 200k within six months and here I happily stay

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IronSage@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
41k -> 60k -> 70k -> 85k -> 100k -> 110k (2018-2023) That 41 -> 60 felt huge. 60 -> 70 felt like a drop, it was a job change and I lost overtime and we were paid every 2 weeks instead of twice a month. (26 paychecks instead of 24)

These days, what makes all the difference are the bonus programs. My income is generally 25% higher than my base through company stock programs, bonuses and high performance grants.

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fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
The simple answer is, maybe. You could have had more if the competition wasn’t better. But you will never know if they were. My advice would be to focus on the fact that you just got a big raise, and enjoy the work. In a year, ask for more, say 10%, and if you’re good and fit the culture, they’ll do it. If not, start looking. Just be careful of jumping jobs too much.

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- MajorHavoc@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  Just be careful of jumping jobs too much.
  
  I hear this a lot, but as a hiring manager, jumping jobs every year or so isn’t a red flag, to me.
  
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  - fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I’ve been in leadership for a number of companies now. I’ve only had one manager actively tell me it was of no consequence to them. They retracted that after two good applicants, one with 6 jobs in 6 years was in the mix. Personal experience and gut, but it tells me you are in the minority.
    
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- thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I appreciate the advice. I’m certainly happy with the raise, just trying to think ahead
  
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  - fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Enjoy your time and good luck!
    
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mrsgreenpotato@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I got just about 60% by switching the company. Previously biggest bump that I got internally was about 30%, when I put an ultimatum on the table. Without the ultimatum I’d probably get like 10% max. It’s always either switching the job or the threat of switching the hob that will make them pay.

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ArtemZ@nowoke.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
200% increase once I moved to the U. S from Sweden. I’m so happy to finally leave Europe

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NormandyEssex@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I jumped from 65k to 110k switching jobs and cities, but that was the biggest. The rest were like 10-20k

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MXX53@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Over the last 5 years I have went from 50k to 90k. Same company, but recently got promoted to a new department.

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winky88@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
My last raise was 10k. But that was after 7+ years of no raises (agency work, slow times). When COVID hit, our business picked up for 2 years straight and I finally convinced them it was stable enough to commit. We’re a small company and they’d rather give out bonuses or assistance with personal expenses than commit to an annual salary (which I get), but COL has spiked in recent times, so the raise was well past due.

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shiveyarbles@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Jumping jobs is a great way to increase your salary, but be aware that having a bunch of short stints is a major red flag in the hiring process.

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Taako_Tuesday@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m fresh out of grad school, and the shift from 22k to 60k has been life changing

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athaki@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I got a 35% salary increase when I started a new job a few months ago. I was very excited.

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archaeoraptor@beehaw.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m job hunting right now and turning over a lot of similar questions, about how much I should be asking for.

A few years back I got over 80% by switching sectors - I was underpaid at a public sector job I loved, and switched to a private sector job in the finance industry and a higher COL area. Similar to you, they offered more than I asked for because corporate had specific pay brackets for that position.

I think your pay depends a lot on the specific area/tech stack you’re working in and who you’re working for. Some tech stacks just pay more on average than others, bigger corporations can usually pay more than smaller companies, and private sector will always pay more than public sector (but usually with worse benefits). You can check Glassdoor or similar sites to see what people with a similar title make at the company you’re applying to, but that’s only helpful at really big companies where there are enough employees reporting to give a good average.

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railsdev@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
$40K to $125K per year. I’m a self-taught web developer that worked all the shitty jobs for a long time; $40K was for a “small” company (that made bank)

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- thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Dang, I thought it was easier to break into programming. Did you have any formal education? I totally felt that, I had to climb through the ranks one painful step at a time.
  
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  - railsdev@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I basically started learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript in my free time when I was like 10. I lived in the middle of nowhere and had tons of time. I eventually moved onto PHP then Ruby on Rails.
    
    Because I didn’t have the proper experience/education, I was never seriously considered for any tech jobs. Basically I ended up building systems for places I worked at. One day while working in a warehouse the owner of another company we worked with offered me a job on the down low.
    
    While working there I realized I could automate like 70% of my job and realized they were spending thousands of dollars on a system that hardly did anything.
    
    I moved onto a small but highly profitable company but ended up leaving because the pay was terrible and my boss started cussing me out for stuff.
    
    So finally last year I landed a web developer job at a “real” company, the one job still uses my web application to run their business and things are good. If only I could get more customers for my side business…
    
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MedicPigBabySaver@voxpop.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Last Spring all the Paramedics & EMTs got an hourly increase. I was expecting maybe $1.00-1.50… very shocked with a $6.30hr raise!

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- thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  If I had the chance to follow my dreams, I would have been a paramedic, followed by either park ranger or some form of rescue team. Unfortunately, as a poor immigrant, I had to focus on pay, and paramedic pay was only about 2x minimum wage where I live, so I decided not to follow my dream. Thankfully I ended up in something else I enjoy. All that to say, you’re a hero in my book, and I’ve always thought paramedics should be paid significantly more.
  
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  - MedicPigBabySaver@voxpop.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Ty
    
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Solemn@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
~220% total comp for me last year, switching companies from a job with okay but below market pay, and becoming a senior software engineer in the move. I think I can feasibly double one more time if I try, but it’d be a bigger push and likely involve working for FAANG. Anything more that is outside my reasonably likely career path.

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