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[–] 152 points 2 months ago (7 children)

Dear young people entering the work force: your extra efforts will be rewarded with extra work. You won't be paid more or experience progress going this way; you'll be Sisyphus. If you work enough on networking and making the right friends, you might climb the ladder, but it will be at the expense of wife and kids, if you have those. Only a select few can have it all. Remember to focus on the important things while you can.

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  • [–] 39 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Amen. Like the song says, You can’t always get what you want, you get what you need.

    Trying harder only hurts your body more and more, and you rarely see the results you hoped for.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Yeah. The best strategy is to do the average, network, and job hop once every year or so. Focus on your health, friends, and family.

    Networking with seniors and managers is more likely to get you decent pay rises than being the most productive member of any team, but job hopping will likely net you far more; including leaving and coming back.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 months ago

    Job hopping is also very easy to explain during an interview.

    Why did you leave this job. "I was seeking new opportunities for personal growth and development. The 30% pay raise wasn't bad either. "

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  • [–] 24 points 2 months ago

    Bold to assume there are any entry level jobs for young people to get into the work force haha

    Really does suck though. I'm just about at a point in my career where working hard has somewhat paid off (I'm pretty irreplaceable due to having very specific knowledge about our software and infrastructure). I'm absolutely using that power to ransom my manager into treating the Junior Dev I'm mentoring way better than he would otherwise. I'm actually insisting that he gets his promotion to Regular at least 6 months earlier than is company standard, as well as at least a 12% raise this year. Just because my Junior is great, so I'm giving him way easier access to my domain knowledge which makes him irreplaceable as well. And guess who's handing in her resignation tomorrow, so the company has to scramble for a replacement 😎

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    I agree. It isn't an absolute though: you can get employers to train you at their expense, and give you more work in exchange of raises that may not always be worth the effort, but there comes the most important thing that I wasn't told when I was younger and still seems to be a thing that some dinosaurs think: loyalty for employers only means you don't actively try to destroy the company, getting a better employer if the previous one won't pay enough or won't give you better working conditions is almost always easier than managing to convince a stubborn boss.

    And always be a member of a union. If there isn't one, contact union people near you and they'll tell you how to do it, even if your boss is great you're better off in a union (companies can be sold…).

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Memento Mori. Even going into my very first job, I knew that on my death bed I would be wishing for more time with the people I love, not regretting I didn't work overtime for a company that cares about money more than me.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Spot on, I've told coworkers this exact thing in the past when they've been so stressed they're close to crying and shaking. No sane person was ever lying there in their final moments wishing they had worked more.

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  • [+] -14 points 2 months ago* (3 children)

    I don't know a single peer who hasn't got continuous raises pretty much their entire early age mid career. And without crazy changes to life. Maybe not as much as they'd like, but every article one of them has slowly made more.

    I myself have gotten raises for just about every single person on my team. I've gotten them to correct bad hiring salary and even give someone a 40k bump/correction.

    Maybe you just suck and your attitude sucks. Has the thought, that you are the problem ever crossed your mind?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 months ago

    Well, yeah. If you don't get any raise while cost of living keeps inflating, then they're actually paying you less than they did the previous year. Number can go up while quality of life goes down.

    The attitude of: burn yourself out at work hoping for rewards that they stopped giving out decades ago, is the terrible mindset. You had to actively step in to fix an abysmal hiring salary for someone on your team, which your employer wasn't going to do without being forced. I bet your employer counts that as a raise, so their next one will be a pittance.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago*

    It's as if there's people you don't know who haven't been getting the raises you're talking about while they continue to accept bullshit from their jobs while they slowly become unable to leave their apartment due to both financial and mental issues accruing over years.

    I hear your experience as well. I know there's people who aren't in that boat. I don't think that invalidates my position though.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Do the math. Getting a pay increase on par with inflation is not a pay increase, it's to keep your pay the same on paper. It's required in many countries, so it's not due to the employers' benevolence. Add to that the soaring transport costs to get to the office, the food prices going up, energy prices, interest rates, rent, fuel etc. You'll hopefully see that most people aren't getting raises, they're losing money every year. At the same time, their teams are being downsized or partly outsourced due to the aforementioned price increases, and the ones who are left have to pick up the slack. Corporations and their owners, however, are doing better than ever.

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