Employers do not value you, you should not value them. You can be the most well liked devoted employee but if they think they can replace you and pay somebody less, absorb your job, ship it overseas or replace you with artificial intelligence - they will. My background is a little unique that I practiced law for close to 10 years and then I switched to financial analyst roles which capitalizes on my college degree. My first job in finance was as an analyst making it 75K, I was there for 1.5 years, I took a job at a different company as a financial analyst, salary was 95k not including bonus. I accepted an offer last week as a senior financial analyst with a salary of 125K not including bonus. Total comp will probably be about 160 K. I was pretty comfortable in my job, it was 100% remote where this new job is in office four days a week.
I just feel like the days where you can put a roots down with a company are over, and I can tell you with my current job when I’m looking at a profit and loss statement, labor is always a huge expense and when you’re trying to cut cost it’s by far the easiest way to increase your margin. And I can tell you that even though my current company (until Friday) actually pays people pretty decently, one person is doing the job that two People used to do ,three people are doing the job that five people used to do, etc., etc. So let’s say if there used to be five jobs and everybody used to get paid 75K. (375 k) those three people might get paid $90 (270k) now which might seem pretty decent, but you’re still saving the company 100 K per year on salary approximately.
I think you should be getting a job, if you have a boss that is actually going to teach you new skills, learn them and then once you get to a point where you’re not really learning anything new, you should immediately be applying for higher paying jobs. At most jobs after the first year or two, you’re probably not gonna learn that much more. And just like how when you get a girlfriend other girls are more interested, it’s so much easier to get a job when you’re employed.
Don’t wait for a promotion for 10 years when you can promote yourself by targeting the job title you want at a different company