Job-Hopping to increase pay

[Matthew Danda <dandam -at- 1STNET -dot- NET>]

Dear all:

Just wanted to share my personal experiences with job-hopping as a method of
 increasing pay.

I am currently doing what many people would call a "no-no" in the computer
world: I will have worked as a full-time employee for 3 companies in 2.5
years. I realize that I am in danger of becoming a "job-hopper."

However, once you hear the numbers, you can understand my willingness to
take this risk:

Pay raise from first job to second: 35%
Pay raise from second job to third: over 50%
Overall raise, from first job to third: 2.5 times.

Granted, my initial pay was low and my current pay is adjusted for
geographic cost-of-living changes. Other factors include pure luck and
timeliness of skills (especially object-oriented development).

A colleage of mine is a little upset that I am leaving a project
semi-unfinished as I begin my new job. This is a moral decision, since the
project is not complete. However, when the dollar figures become so
dramatic, and the current employer is unaware, unwilling, and inflexible,
these decisions have to be made.

At night, when I relax and think about how I am abandoning a project to take
a new job, I feel some shame. But then I pull out the calculator, review the
major salary changes, and think, well, I'll just have to live with it.

BTW, I plan on staying with my newest employer a very, very long time. It
took 2 years and 3 jobs, but I think that I have finally found a company
worth keeping.

--Matt

  Matthew Danda
  Technical Writer
  St. Louis, MO
  dandam -at- 1stnet -dot- net