In my short career I’ve noticed that employers are notorious for underpaying you to the point that people with 3-4 years of experience are getting paid the same as freshers. The management always has an excuse to not increase pay or increase it very minimally. The best way to increase pay has been to keep moving every 2-3 years from one company to the next if switching means at least 1.5x or 2x the current salary.
This means major interview prep requiring solving leetcode style questions, solving system design questions, then some more. I just wanted to how often do you prepare? Are you always interview ready or start prepping a few months before switching jobs?
I’ve switched jobs about every two years on average for the past 19 years of my career. Unfortunately it’s just like you said, the only way to get a meaningful increase is to jump ship. That said, once you break 100k, that motive seems to calm down a bit. You start caring more about the culture and the people you work with than how much you’re getting paid. I’ve taken a pay cut even once because my mental health required a better environment.
But sadly, at least in the startup world, there is this perpetual arch I see all the companies take. They all start good then slowly devolve into something worse, where when you finally leave you’re glad to go. Something about getting bigger corrupts what was good about a place, and if you IPO good luck. Culture goes out the window as soon as shareholders become your only driving concern.
So as jaded as that sounds, sometimes you do find a good place, and they give you decent enough raises and you can stay a while. Although for me personally, the longest I’ve stayed somewhere yet is 4 years or so. Maybe one day I’ll find that magic place that’s worth staying at for a full decade
Oh and for interview prep. I don’t really do much training. I either pass their genitalia measuring contest, or I don’t and I move on. If I’m qualified for the gig, then I should be able to roll with whatever they give me. Luckily the better jobs I’ve had didn’t even really do much whiteboarding and brain teasers though. Research has shown it really doesn’t do anything for your quality of hires. It’s better to get a feeling for how someone thinks and if they will be a good culture fit than if they can memorize the latest hot code kata.