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Ask HN: What percentage to expect for salary increase between jobs?

by mrks_ on 10/23/17, 8:35 PM with 12 comments

• by wyldfire on 10/23/17, 9:14 PM

  You can get salary expectations per titles from places like Stack Overflow and Glassdoor.

  Most hiring managers shouldn't offer "X% over your current salary" -- and you shouldn't look for that either. You should look at your experience, your capabilities and compare that with market rates for those.

  If your current employer is paying you 20% below market rate, then this is an opportunity for you to reset to (or above) the market rate. But in this example, if you were to use your current salary as an input to determining your new one, you'd probably still lose out.

  The trickiest bit is mapping titles among different companies. The public salary data is usually indexed by title. You can probably come up with good estimates for which title you think makes the best sense for you.

• by deathtrader666 on 10/24/17, 8:25 AM

  In India, you are required to mention your current salary and the expected salary on the job application to even be considered.

  The expected salary is usually a 30% bump if you are between junior-mid levels.

• by gvajravelu on 10/24/17, 12:43 AM

  It will depend on your location, job title, the company, and your education background.

  The good news is that you can plug all of that into a salary calculator on Glassdoor or Indeed.

  I've also found talking to recruiters helpful in this one case. They have a good idea of what salary you can command on the job market based on your skills and work experience.

  These articles I wrote walk you through finding what salary you can get and negotiating during the interview process:

  http://www.climbuptheladder.com/how-to-know-if-youre-paid-wh...

  http://www.climbuptheladder.com/they-asked-me-what-salary-i-...

• by asnyc on 10/23/17, 10:37 PM

  You can get ANY salary increase % depending on the following:

  - You should do very well in the interview

  - It should be dependent on how much they need your skills

  - It should be dependent on how much they can pay for a role like yours, or one notch above [Please take Glassdoor data with a pinch of salt - some of the data is averaged out, or outdated]

  Negotiation skills are key.

• by avitzurel on 10/24/17, 12:58 AM

  One thing that (most) people ignore is the risk involved in switching jobs.

  Let's say you make 100K today if someone offers you 120K that's a 20% increase. BUT, what happens if you get fired or quit after 2 months. How long will it take you to find another job and how likely are you to match that 120K or 100K?

  If the answer to that question is not "a week", the job move should make sure this risk is smoothed out. Usually but a signing bonus on top of the pay increase or something like that.

  Not saying that every job should have a signing bonus or that you should hard require it, just saying that pay increase is not the only thing to look for.

• by acconrad on 10/24/17, 1:56 AM

  Honestly I don't see how anyone can answer this without knowing what you are already making and what your local market is offering (assuming you also want to stay in the same place with the same title). If you're underpaid (e.g. making $65k in the Bay) you could more than double your salary quite easily. However if you're already making $200k as a senior engineer in say Seattle or Austin, well I would expect anywhere from 0 to a decrease, with a very rare possibility of an increase at all.

• by le-mark on 10/24/17, 12:07 AM

  It depends on the local market. For example in my local market, with 5-10 years exp you max out at around $85k. The ceiling for me seems to be around $120k (15 years Java enterprise). I judge this on constantly interviewing the past few years.

  The idea being, if you're at market rate for your skill set, you may not see much increase at all.