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 (no degree, just certs) 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?
65k->72k->80k->92k->106k->113k->118k->277k
See if you can pinpoint the year I got into a big tech job.
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.
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.