Yeah, I think we're on the same page here. It does create a weird conundrum that makes a lot of people want to solve with asinine and borderline unethical logic. You know you should be making more than you are, but your employer just won't see that. The easy assumption to make is that your employer is being sociopathic and that you should be more sociopathic in return. "It's just business!"
But the stakes are really high here. Your employer has a lot more to lose than you do if you jump ship over a relatively small amount of money. You took the job, so obviously it was right for you at some point. Did that really change just because they turned your raise request down? Do you really want to hang them out to dry over what's essentially a misunderstanding? Don't sacrifice your professionalism to feed your ego.
My solution is to just keep getting better and better until I can make my own opportunities. Then to start on one as my current projects wind down, giving plenty of notice as to my intentions. Everybody wins.
> I think the parent was actually tl;dr'ing his own post up front.
I'm going to show an opposing viewpoint here: I believe this is the thought pattern that screws developers over.
It's not about being sociopathic. You said it yourself: it's just business. Really, that's what it is. You are exchanging skills for money, if one party isn't happy with the agreement, they can terminate it. Don't confuse the issue with wording like "hang them out to dry" or "professionalism." Professionalism has nothing to do with martyring yourself. If you're unhappy with anything enough to leave, then leave.
I agree with what you're saying, but that isn't what we're talking about here. We're talking about the idea of it being unethical to shop yourself around with no intention of accepting a competing company's offer. I see this as ethically neutral with respect to your current employer, but as kinda unethical with respect to the other companies whose time, effort, and resources you are wasting by pushing yourself through a hiring pipeline with no intention of following through.
If you can get a better deal from your current employer via other means, you should certainly do so. If not... well, I'm personally uncomfortable interviewing at other companies with no intention of accepting an offer. Opinions differ, of course.
The article, and this comment thread, is definitely heavy on the money factor, but there's also the everything-other-than-money compensation aspect mentioned in the article as well.
I find it really hard to try and figure out what other benefits, aside from a salary hike, you might get from a new job. Realistically, I think you need to make your way right up until the point where they do or don't offer you something. Everything about the interview process is as much of the company seeing if they like you as it is you seeing if you like the company.
Sure, if you have no intention of changing your employment situation, well, yeah, you're wasting a bit of someone else's time... but there's also the flipside that you might not even notice that there's something more interesting, or something intrinsically more valuable, about a new job until you actually get to the point where you're being offered it.
That's a really good point that I haven't considered. I guess the key point is there that our hypothetical raise-seeker isn't really too interested in a change, but at least has an open mind and would consider making a jump if something unexpectedly great popped up during the process.
But the stakes are really high here. Your employer has a lot more to lose than you do if you jump ship over a relatively small amount of money. You took the job, so obviously it was right for you at some point. Did that really change just because they turned your raise request down? Do you really want to hang them out to dry over what's essentially a misunderstanding? Don't sacrifice your professionalism to feed your ego.
My solution is to just keep getting better and better until I can make my own opportunities. Then to start on one as my current projects wind down, giving plenty of notice as to my intentions. Everybody wins.
> I think the parent was actually tl;dr'ing his own post up front.
Ah, right.