2 years ago, I wrote about the long term impact of $20k per year in terms of salary. Over the course of 30 years, that difference ends up being about 2 million dollars.

It's interesting to read that post -- and think about a bit of the idealism there. I had just broken 100k and was wondering about my market comp. I'd written

I know I'm under median, but I think I think I'm okay given career stage. Also, early career means bigger pay jumps per year. Personally, I was trying to figure out what level of discount to give my current employer and how that impacts my future, i.e. what do I trade that 20k for. What is my real market value vs. my personally biased perceived market value (parallels MRP SMV directly). For me, job satisfaction, flexible schedule, being well treated, potential for future growth/leadership (i.e. financial catchup) are all parts of my min-max equation.

10 month later, I'd switched jobs.

2 years on, I'm changing jobs again.

Date Salary
Oct 2014 80,000
Jun 2015 96,000
Feb 2017 101,000
Jan 2018 120,000
Jan 2019 122,000 + up to 15% Bonus (paid out in March)
Nov 2019 182,000 ($90/hr w2)

Neither time was about money. The first time was about a better title in an area I'm passionate about. This time, it's again about the experience more than the money. In fact, between base and bonus, the 40k salary increase wasn't enough to sway me. The expanded and formalized roles and responsibilities in the new role are why I made the change. Instead of being an individual contributor, I am being brought in to work with the team and manage stakeholders. That's a clear expansion of what I'm doing, even if the industry isn't a perfect fit

But so here I am in my last week at the current job, and I keep going back to how passionate I am about the work I'm doing and the changes that I'm making. I have effectively changed the way our business unit does business, moving a significant chunk of effort away from the traditional RDBMS -> DataFeed -> Excel tech stack. At the end of the day, this change should pay for itself without issue in terms of both time savings and value add.

It feels like we're in the middle of doing something really transformational and here I am wondering if this change is a mistake. I keep thinking back to this quote....

Every single piece of advice I've heard from C and D level folks has been - if you like what you do and you're treated well - the money will come. I fully support and buy into this notion.

And I do. I got paid really well, top end of most salary charts after base + bonus.

But good isn't enough... not for me. I know I could get paid more, but the expansion of roles and responsibilities and how much more I can do, that's the driving factor now. I'm still looking for that company that I can commit the next 20 years to. I don't think those types of companies exist anymore - the ones that will compensate based on the contribution and return, that can challenge that type of growth, that will march with market expectations. At what type of level do I get to where the work I do is directly compensated in proportion to the gains I make. Do those long term commitment companies still exist? If they do, would I ever be able to settle into that or will I just keep looking for the next challenge/stepping stone?