Always have at least two options. Leverage is key in negotiations. Be prepared to walk away from an offer. It helps if the prospective employers need you more than you need them (e.g. in a highly specialized field or your skills exactly match what they're looking for).
Also, don't be afraid to negotiate the contract... don't necessarily automatically accept a first offer. And money isn't the only thing that can be negotiated. There's vacation time, work conditions, etc.
Finally, be careful not to burn any bridges. Be an amazing employee / leave a good impression because you never know if you'll need to go lean on that company or coworkers again in the future.
People in general switch companies for multiple reasons that include but not limited to hike in pay, new learning opportunities, increase in the scope of their role, new environment & new challenges etc. In my humble opinion, switching jobs continuously to increase their pay scale, may not be in one's best career interests. Here is my 2 cents and obviously I have some general assumptions.
One should move on from a job/company only when one feels stagnated with no options for further learning and growth, apart from a bunch of other possible reasons. When one is motivated by sheer monetary reasons for a job switch, one may lose the big picture often. The new place that offers better monetary rewards may not necessarily offer problems that one would like to solve or the culture of the place may not be in sync with one's expectations.
Stay in a place that challenges you the most and where you don't spend a minute learning something new. Create a path breaking impact and amplify your impact to the world around. I'm sure if you a like the place where you work due the opportunities it offers or the highly talented bunch of coworkers whom you work with, monetary rewards may not weigh much in your mind. Always pick a piece of work that excites you the most and something that pushes you to make yourself explore the untapped potential inside you.
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stuff ;)
stay for the knowledge, not the money would be me advice. I personally have the opinion you should switch a company every 3 years. So you take the most knowledge with you.
And since you only work where you can still learn that means you learn a lot the whole time. I still decline a lot of better payed jobs so I can learn.
The next thing is, if you find people you wanna work with, at least try to take them with you, ... :)
but those are just my thoughts :) I think it's about the trade and evolving you skills and knowledge others may think it's about the money or just to have a job. Different people different views ...