In my 8 year career so far, I have switched to a new company 3 times. Each time came with a significant pay rise. Have a look:
At this current moment, I don’t feel confident to share my exact salaries, but I thought it is still at least valuable to show my salary growth over time and also compare it to UK Inflation growth and UK Wage growth.
It pays to switch jobs
As shown by my own anecdotal chart, switching jobs has led to significant increases in my salary, when compared to year-on-year performance based raises.
From my experience, performance based raises tend to range anywhere from 0-6% (unless you’re getting a promotion internally). Whereas in every job switch I would estimate I achieved an average boost of ~20%.
Money isn’t everything
Whilst money is one of the biggest factors in my career decisions, it is not the be-all and end-all. For me an equally important aspect of a new role is getting a new challenge that will develop my skills. It would be all good getting offered double my salary, but if that job was me sat doing data-monkey tasks all the time, I wouldn’t take that role. My skills would deteriorate. And as anyone knows in Tech/Data, the field is constantly changing and progressing, and so it is imperative that I continue to develop my skills so that I can continue to demand a high (if not higher) salary.
Therefore I will caveat my chart above that whilst it looks like I might be one to jump at a moments notice of higher salary, there is more strategic consideration behind the moves.
Should I perpetually switch jobs?
What I do acknowledge to myself is that job-hopping won’t always be the best strategy. If I am someone who desires to continue rising up the ranks (I am), then the higher I go, the more likely it is that there is greater value placed on my internal network, the trust others have in me, my business domain knowledge. So as I start to look to transition to lead or manager level roles, I am very conscious that staying longer at a company starts to become a wiser, more strategic option in order to make these hierarchical climbs.
The loss of internal network, built-up trust and domain knowledge is also another reason why job switching is hard. You spend X number of years at a company; you show your skills; you build a network; those around you gain trust and confidence in your ability; then you leave, and you have to essentially prove it all again. And in my opiniong there is no shortcut to re-building that except time. So job-switching does indeed come at a cost, and that is why I think so deeply about it.
Bottom Line
For me the bottom line is that if you are looking for salary and career growth, it is essential to routinely look at the job market, apply for some roles that you think offer new challenges and/or better pay.
It is a lot of effort applying to jobs and going through interviews, but I do believe it is worth it.