If you were so happy why did you start looking for another job? People don't leave because someone gave them an offer out of the blue. They have to start looking in the first place and whatever triggered that search is what's important.
I assume many people are smart enough to know that they need to increase earnings to gain security in life and stay ahead of inflation. Me being content at work is not going to pay the kids’ tuition, healthcare, or legal expenses. Or my expenses in 40 years.
A large amount of assets yielding healthy levels of passive income will.
I can think of the following, and there are probably others:
1. To know your market value so that you know what to ask for during your compensation review at your current company.
2. To practice interviewing skills when you don't need them, so that it's easier when you do
3. To network and learn about companies that might be relevant for you in the future (as in, you wouldn't accept an offer now, but if it looks nice you might apply again later, and if it doesn't you might consider it only as a last resort).
2. especially makes sense for coding interviews, and I've been advising the following to a few friends: ideally, one year before you actually want to apply, apply everywhere you can with such interviews. Your results won't matter anyway, you'll be able to apply again one year after, but you'll get a lot of real-world practice and an idea of what you might want to work on.
That's not true at all. I just switched a few weeks ago for a 50% increase that I did indeed receive "out of the blue". Emailed by a recruiter, I turned them down, they were persistent, and I took it.
I was not actively looking and the thought of leaving hadn't crossed my mind.
Because I'm trying to start a family and to move into a bigger house, and I knew that there were little to no opportunities for advancement/promotion at my current job. It's really not that complicated.
You were unhappy there were no advancement opportunities so you started looking?, OP is saying the same thing, if it was perfect people generally don't look for new jobs.
It is not because of loyalty it is because we are risk averse, a new job is a lot of risk. Many things can go wrong you may not like that new job, or even purely financially it can be risky as a new company may not pay as promised, shutdown, you get fired pretty quick and may not find a job at same compensation , or variable/ equity compensation wasn't as good as promised/imagined. All of these scenarios have substantial financial risk.
To take that risk(even if only financial) there has to strong motivation.
If I could have stayed doing the same thing I was (software development) for more pay I would have stayed. Might have gotten a bit stagnant/boring in a few more years but I would have been happy until then at least. The only potential advancement opportunity (salary-wise) would have involved changing over to being a DBA or a sort of DBA/developer hybrid role which would have been interesting (I would definitely prefer the hybrid role to being a pure DBA) but some statements from higher-ups about hiring freezes etc. made it clear that wouldn't happen any time soon (even though my direct manager was supportive and trying to help).
This is not true at all. I get 3-5 recruiter emails per day many of which state comp up-front. Recently the numbers have got so high that I have to admit, it’s tempting, despite being perfectly happy in my current role.
At least on Indeed 1/2 to 2/3rds of job postings for C# developers include salary ranges, and I'm sure it's similar for other languages. It's pretty nice for getting an idea of what you're worth.
> People don't leave because someone gave them an offer out of the blue. They have to start looking in the first place and whatever triggered that search is what's important.
You don't have to look around to know that you're underpaid, just talk to people from industry and they'll tell ya
Recruiters are constantly contacting people these days. Some companies have reputations for paying well, so when you hear from them you sort of know what is coming.
Inflation, cost of housing skyrocketing, etc. I’m looking for a new job because my current one does not pay enough to own a house any more. You basically have to make FAANG bux to own a house here so that is why I started looking.
In my case I did not look for another job. I was scouted (ex boss recommendation) and took the offer. I bet there are many others like me - frequently getting offers.
It can be true that the job itself is largely great and also that the person knows they could get a lot more money elsewhere, which causes them to start looking.
