Telling others how “the market” is when you only have your very limited subjective and anecdotal experience to share is a bit bold, and probably dispiriting to read for others that do not have the same experience. Do you really have a stat sig number of interviews and offer to say that the market merely tightened a bit?
Are all the people here reporting a shift in their ability to get a job in the last year not even good enough to pass the bar in a normal team ?
I share your experience of having had no issue, but we have to recognize that our specific role, history, location, network, sales skills and luck all play a role, and may not be a general rule.
Aren't people that complain about this not being possible not doing exactly the same? Maybe we can land on: This is a comment section. People bring their own views of things.
The anchor here is Patricks ideas. I am not sure if his data raises to the level of statistical significance, but it's clearly not nothing and, unless he is outright lying, seems to yield significant positive results.
What people in this thread offer on the other end is fairly light, ignores a lot of Patricks advice, tries to make special cases where there are none, and is really a lot of regular grade negativity and excuses – and then claiming that the advice does not work, when, what they really mean is: I really do not want any advice, because I am a grown up person and it would be super uncomfortable to admit to myself that I have done this wrong over potentially many, many years.
I strongly encourage people to read the post and not give up because of the unrelenting cynicism in these comments.
- if you're negotiating with a US tech giant (FAANG, etc) from a position of strength (more than one offer, very good interview and past credentials), you can get away with almost anything, since they want great developers, and they don't mind paying above market. If you barely passed the interview, or you don't have a strong position, they'll just say take the offer or we won't go ahead.
- If you're negotiating with US-based startups or EU companies, then they might not want / be able to go very far with respect to salary (equity is doubly risky for the candidate if they aren't in the US), you can negotiate for great health insurance, more time off, fewer working hours, other benefits.
- If you're negotiating with Indian companies, they'll just hop on to the next candidate who passed the interview and is more desperate than you are. Most Indian companies tend to believe neither in fair wage, nor work life balance, so they won't negotiate properly on either. An employee is not just a replaceable cog, she cannot be allowed to exercise any sort of negotiation lest their current employees start getting ideas.
I'd recommend not getting stressed about people getting a million% extra, if the story really is true they're outliers and there's a natural bias for those stories to surface faster (or there's more to the story).
In my case, as I've gained experience that percentage has increased, specially when prioritising good experience over just pay at the beginning.
Though I'm closer to the end of my career than the start and now at the point I'm maxxed out what I can earn and it is approx graduate salary in US but no cheaper COL.
I need to find how to pivot.
Don't want to be a manager though. Craft path (e.g. staff developer) feels thin at the top, I.e. musical chairs ... not enough seating for the demand!
Therefore giving up the working for someone else game it has to be.
This is, in my experience, the biggest aspect of the whole process. If you go into a raise negotitation undervaluing yourself, you are always going to come out short. By looking at my role, how I help the company, and what it would take for them to replace my skillset (including training and learning company policies/procedures etc) I have massively improved my confidence in this area and been able to consistently negotiate much bigger raises.
Most companies would much rather throw $10-20k at a small problem to make it go away, instead of going through the hassle of a new hire and everything that goes with it.
I will definitely try once a human deigns to speak with me.
…and, CRITICALLY, as Patrick’s article points out, it compounds each time you switch jobs.
This makes it absolutely huge over your lifetime.