[Blackstone4]

First company I worked for, I worked hard and was rated star of project out of 40 people…I was training people on a super technical project who had 10-15 years of more experience than me. I was client facing and traveling to sites in multiple countries. The company was hiring people for $8k more than my salary with similar experience to me (Java and security clearance). After 1.5 yrs had my first pay rise of $400 for the year…what a joke.

I received a job offer in finance and for almost double my salary….told my employer I was leaving. They asked what can we do to keep you and I said you can double my salary…and the project manager said yes..to be honest I didn’t believe them.

Since then I’ve gone on to work at different companies for good pay but little upside since the companies were not growing (often shrinking!). This makes it difficult to get promoted as quickly since the organisations are not growing so senior management ranks stagnant and no one leaves and new roles are not created. Right now there’s no incentive to me working hard…it won’t make a meaningful difference.