You know I love your writing Attila, but this is a weird column. The dealy-wheel is that job hopping is the way to maximize your salary and bonuses. Does anybody really hop jobs based on the calendar? No, you hop jobs because somebody offered you a big salary bump + bonus to go there. "Don't leave you job if you love it and they are treating you well" is kind of Captain Obvious advice. But here's when you want to jump: when you figure out that new hires are earning substantially more than long-time engineers at the same level, and your boss won't make it right, go get what you can be getting on the open market. Thus it is important to suss out what people are earning, even though the company wants to keep that opaque because of the bargaining power that information gives. So share your salary level with other professionals around you and encourage them to share theirs! Yes, I am a bitter tenure-type employee who trusted my companies and managers to "take care of me" and I found that they did not. Of course "tenure" is funny term here. I worked at small to medium sized companies and they always crashed or got acquired before I could put in five years.