Comment by djsumdog | Hacker News Reader

Comment by djsumdog | Hacker News Reader

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My longest stay at one job as been 2.5 years. By changing jobs, I get a lot more experience in a lot of different things. I've worked in five different markets:

https://battlepenguin.com/tech/tech-culture-shock-from-ameri...

I know people who've been at the same job for 6~7 years and they are totally getting paid way under market. A company might give you a 2~3% cost of living increase, or a $5k promotion every few years, but switching jobs let's you ask for $10k or more.

On the downside, I would NOT recommend anyone else change jobs almost yearly like I did. My job loyalty is shit and it's hard for me to take on other jobs when people are concerned I could just leave.

That being said, the good jobs with good pipeline engineering, tests and CI/CD flows allow people to flow in and out; quickly pick up things and move with fast/good deploys. Those shops are the best, but they are rare. They tend to not care as much weird resumes because they want to hire people who are innovative.

> but switching jobs let's you ask for $10k or more

Right... but aren't the options you're throwing away worth 10x that? How can it possibly be worth it?

Why wouldn't you be obtaining the equivalent amount of options at the next job?

Let's say your vesting schedule is 4 years w/ 1 year cliff, it's only necessary to stay 1 year. Thereafter you're not 'losing' options by leaving.

You're forgetting the options gain value as the company grows (due to your own hard work which is the whole point!)

You're awarded $100k but then it grows to $200k by the time you start cashing it in. When you switch company you get $100k again, not the $200k you threw away.

Do the vast majority of jobs in these companies actually give you stock options?

Most places I know of do not

Consider it similar to diversifying your stock portfolio. By switching jobs every year, you're effectively hedging your portfolio. You're increasing your lottery chances of a unicorn exit, which is where the Big Money is.

That's a fair point, we'd have to compare projected growth vs. expected salary of new job. Certainly the benefit of working at large tech companies or rocketships.

My experience with smaller startups, was that it's impossible to determine if the options would be worth $0 or $$$.

Ah right - I'm used to public companies where stock options are cold hard cash as soon as they vest.

Sure, but likely, more of those $100k options will be worth $0 than $200k. If you spread it around, you're more likely to hit big.

I've never worked at a place that gave me stock options.

I think an optimal time within a project in between 3 to 5 years, and the reason is to get deeper understanding of problems rather than surface. My YoY compensation growth is between 20% and 30% compounded.

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