Possibly jump ship before bonus?
I work in IT, and I’m an engineer in a mid sized company (10K employees). Been here 17 years and have been keeping my eye open for a few years for new positions at other companies. The main reason is I feel I’m underpaid, and have hit a ceiling. I really like what I do, but have no interest in management. And at my company that is a very limiting factor. Also like most other companies they don’t really adjust salaries internally, you typically get the standard 2%-3% pay increase per year no matter what the market is. I have switched roles internally over the years and was able to negotiate higher salary increases each time, but now I see no opportunity for that, I’m probably about 10%-20% under the current market rate. Up until about 2 years ago…. the market was much stronger, and I’d get fairly regular interviews, and head hunters reaching out to me, but over the last 18 months things have really dried up. Now to my dilemma, I have an interview for a position at a company, it would be a very lateral move, same industry, same work, but about 15% pay bump, which is what I’m looking for. The problem is where this falls in our yearly payout cycle for bonuses. Those won’t come out until March. So, if I leave, I’m 99% sure that I’ll won’t get any of that, which is significant (15%-20% of my base salary). But if I pass on this opportunity, I’m afraid something this good might not come around again, or not for a long time. Also note I’m in my late 50’s, and I think that is definitely a factor when people are looking at me now for new positions. So, trying to weigh the pros and cons of possibly jumping ship, but loosing out on the bonus which would be difficult. I don’t have all the numbers for the new job yet, not that far along in the interview process. If it gets to that point, I could see if a signing bonus would be available. I also have thought about asking them if they could delay the start date for 3 months. But I’m not sure how well that would go over if I tell them it’s so I can get my bonus from my current employer. Anyone been in this type of situation recently? Thanks.
Posted Dec 6, 2025, 4:59 PM UTC