[freshfunk]

Having worked for a number of years in the Valley, I can say that the salary part is true. However, now that I work at a large tech company that's public, the big thing that's missing from this is stock / RSUs. After doing my taxes, I realized how much of my compensation came from them and it makes a difference in a couple percentage points for base salary look small. On top of that, companies give refresher stock so that you accrue more of it the longer you stay.

After 4 years and earned all of that initial grant, it probably will make more financial sense to move on as the refresher grants don't come close to the initial grant. It also is a point where salary disparity might be significantly different (depending on economic conditions).

[ryandrake]

This is only true for those rare positions (senior/upper management) that offer such equity grants, or if you lucked into one of those one-in-a-million rocketship growth companies. I've been in the tech industry as an engineer and lower/middle manager for 15+ years and equity has never ended up making up even a tiny fraction of my compensation. Often it ends up being worthless (underwater options). I suspect my situation is the more common one.