[Milestone met] X2 starting salary and thoughts

Introduction

Shared on my earlier post (here) and on investingnote (here) that after a period of being unhappy at the current workplace, i have managed to secure new employment. .

At a glance

• 1st job: - ; 18% increase from starting salary
• 2nd job: 22% increase from last drawn of first job; 18% increment over 3 years
• 3rd job: 20% increase from last drawn of 2nd job

Summary: >100% increase from 1st job starting pay.

First Job (4 years)

First job was technical based, hands-on as an engineer. loved the job scope, was very competent in it. Had a high bonus but increment were like 1-2% each yr... my promotion gave me a 8% increment.

fulfilling, and well recognised, but not well paid

Second Job (3 years)

Initially huge learning curve and took time to fit into the culture. Job is more like runner for big bosses. totally a noob at work, though high base pay, the bonus was low. though i worked shorter hours, but felt burnt by the end of the day.

stable & well paid, but unfulfilling and unrecognised

Third Job (not yet start)

Haven't start yet, but it is technical based in an area that is quite different from what i studied in uni, but have exposure to it due to second job. Hoping it will be a fruitful stint.

unknown

What I Realized

• Each stint brought me different perspective and understanding. some skills are hard ( like first job), some are softer (2nd job). 
• Staying too long in a position without growth is no good, if my close work friends didn't encourage me to move on. I would not have started finding jobs or internal posting. Then i wont have realised how future-less it was in my current organization (2nd job), as all the internal postings were not geared to my strength. 
• Nothing ventured nothing gained, I was totally not in the industry where my 3rd job is in, but the experience in the second job gave me exposure and an idea how to do it.  most interestingly, the 3rd job was willing to give me an okay bump up the salary.

What other people shared

• TheIntelligentInvestor shared that using the 72 rule, it will take someone 10 years to double their salary at a 7% increment per year. That too is also on the high side, maybe not that high if you are in audit firm.

• People typically take 5-7 years to double from their starting salary. If you do the maths, assuming linear progression, that translate to 10-14% increment per annum. That is probably equivalent to getting promoted every year in a company (highly unlikely). Probably Work a few years and Jump strategy was deployed.

please see the maths i have done... indeed they corroborate

Work a few years and Jump
This involves working 2.5 to 3 years to see if there is promotion opportunities, before jumping to the next job that is a "higher" appointment, this is effectively creating your own "promotion" so to speak, but i think it only works for the entry to junior-mid level positions. Thus i assume it to be up to maybe 8 to 9K per month of salary.

After that, I think it becomes important to build up a portfolio of works to establish strong reputation. But i am not sure if it will be a worthy endeavour or not. perhaps those who jump quickly amongst this level (Deputy-Director/ VP and above levels) are those who have good people skills and are strategic thinkers, who can tap other people's time and strength, to do only the critical and things that matter (I am not sure how this works yet, but it sure seems like this to me). Even then i think the limitation of this route is that it is a long and tumultuous route.

Parting thoughts

• We are exchanging time for money, and time is a limited resource. by working a job, we are trying to up the level of earning per unit time. Doing this is attention (also a limited resource) intensive and difficult with diminishing return.

• Having multiple streams of income (Investing, Trading, Business) will optimize our time-attention utilization. And that amongst the income streams, investing in equity whether for income or capital gains is very attractive because the one-off due diligence can be scaled up rather infinitely for the commoner. While for business, The initial outlay is super attention and time intensive; and for trading, it is constantly attention intensive and not scalable.