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Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy View Post
However, I've also encountered some fundamental issues that bother me related to the aerospace industry. There seems to be a practice of expecting employees to overperform with little/no reward from the company. It's a common practice for engineers to jump companies every 3 years or so because it's the only way they get raises or promotions. Personally I've been promised three promotions and one bonus, none of which have actually materialized. I'm a pretty black and white kind of guy and believe that you should do what you say and treat people with respect. This bothers me deeply, and not just because I feel I deserve a raise.
I was with GE for 14 years and this was exactly the problem. You need to, as a minimum, post for positions and change jobs every 2 years, and get your salary increase as part of the switch. If you do not, you will be 'three percented' to death. This appears to be very normal in the engineering areas, since most engineers are born without a backbone. Scott Adams did a good job lampooning this in Dilbert, culminating in Dogbert selling strap on backbones to everyone at the company.

If you jump companies every 3 years, you need to make sure you get a sizable boost in salary, and that you are using the 401Ks and investing. No pension for you, not that many companies are offering pensions these days.
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Old 05-18-2009, 08:15 AM
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