Ask HN: Is it still worth it to switch companies every few year?

This is separate from your question, but never trust someone who says “you’ll get promoted in X time” unless that person is directly responsible for making that happen. Promotions in large companies are done by committee, and you can be denied a promotion for a variety of reasons. When applying for a new job, the hiring manager has much more discretion over the leveling of your new job, so it’s almost always easier to get promoted via changing jobs. My wife was strung along at her last job with a promotion that was just out of reach. She finally got fed up and left. Within 3 months they reached out and asked her to come back at a higher level.

As for your question, the answer actually has very little to do with promotions and more to do with the company you’re leaving and the company you’d be joining. Software engineers get a majority of their salary as stock. If you have a large grant at a company with an extremely bright future, it can be very lucrative to stay. Similarly, moving (or even getting promoted) at the wrong time can be disastrous if the stock drops significantly. Whether or not you join or leave should be mostly based on the outlook of the company.

Your problems is similar to the Secretary problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secretary_problem.

There is a perfect mathematical sound answer to your question: for the first n/e year n is the number of working years, e is Euler's constant) you should regularly switch jobs every 2 to 4 years. After these first n/e years you continue switching jobs regularly until you end up with a job that's better than all previous jobs you had. That's, with the highest probability, the best job you would ever get in your life. Don't switch jobs with others after that!

E.g. You would work around 50 years (from 16 to 66), which means that for the first 50 / e = 18.3 years you should switch jobs regularly. After these years you should be think twice before changing jobs.

All else being equal, more money is better. But all else isn’t equal. Generally changing jobs repeatedly will bring you advancement and pay faster, as it allows you to shop around for a company that’s willing to take a chance on you, but there are some trade offs that come with that

You need to evaluate your quality of life outside just the monetary and career aspect, and decide if the stress of job changing and potential increases in work expectations are worth the benefits of more status and more money. It would be a shame to get a new job and discover that you dislike your new colleagues or your work life balance is bad.

Do not underestimate the level of persistent stress job hopping will give you; it takes a few months for that to wear off. I’ve done a lot of it myself, and in the balance it was worth it, but it’s also worn me down a bit too. Personally I’d like to be done with it and settle down for long periods of time and not worry about chasing the next promotion.

I think location plays a role in the decision. If you live in SV, then maybe it would be worth switching in a few years. If you're just about anywhere else, I would say that $250k is great and not to look anywhere else. Either way, $180k straight out of college is awesome.

Just my opinion as a dev making under $100k.

Sounds like you're at a good company with a structured plan for retention/promotion, don't worry about it. At a good company like that you're probably also learning a lot. If you start to feel like there's no way up or skills are stagnating, start switching jobs every 1-3y for similar or bigger pay bumps.

Eventually you hit a point where you feel financially secure or you're hitting the max rate for your skills and your decision to stay/leave gets more nuanced and less about money

Job hopping is mostly for people trying to move up to better companies, not just better titles.

If you’re being paid 180K out of college and your company regularly promotes with 33% raises then you’re already at a top company that gives proper raises. You don’t need to job hop unless you want to try a different company.

Switching is worth-while if your employer doesn’t have a clear path to promotions and you go a year or more without any pay raise or promotion and hear things like “we’ll reevaluate next cycle” often, without concrete steps to get there. As long as you like your company, work, and colleagues, stick around til you plateau.

I just evaluated a candidate and flagged it as “no” because they had too many position changes in the last 5 years. Switching jobs is fine, but if you overdo it, you risk looking like a bad investment.

180k USD as a grad? Seriously what am I doing with my life.

I need to get to the US and start earning real money.

When you change jobs, assuming you are not going to work for a company in the same industry as the previous, you are throwing away domain knowledge. That's a big opportunity cost! The reasons to switch may be valid but you should keep domain knowledge in mind as well. Otherwise, after a few jumps, you will flatline no matter what where you go.

Promotions are not worth anything these days, because the power is with the employer and not the employee. Therefore, the employer can deny a promotion and you can't do much due to that.

So, it's always better to switch, because if you get multiple offers, you retain the leverage to negotiate between each company and switch.

If this is not a troll, I dunno what a troll is. Makes $200k "out of college" and suavely asks "shall I hop"? It's like saying out loud in a crowded bus "I GOT A 12 INCH PENIS, should I take enlargement pills".

Makes me vomit.