By the time i finished my undergrad i had a couple of good friends. After graduation several of us ended up at the some company and a couple stayed on and worked on the Masters degree in our field. One such friend had interned with the company during grad school and managed to get hired on after he finished his masters. I’d say his issue with compensation started pretty much at that point. Of the people that I know, he seemed to always be the one that was concerned about how much he made and when he was going to get a level bump, and the pay bump that came with it.

For 3 years I’d heard him complaining and then all of a sudden he found a new job last summer. The thing with our industry at the time was it was an employee’s industry. I’d been contacted by his new company at least 5 or 6 times in the last year. So of course his new salary was probably another 40% on top of my current one, and i was a level above his. I was a little jealous of the pay raise all of the way up until I spoke with him and another coworker that knew more than I had been told. Apparently he was technically a contractor and wasn’t getting much for benefits and no holidays off. I was surprised by this because those are important factors for me, but apparently he didn’t care. Where he did care was when he managed to burn bridges and lost a job. In his quest for more cash and a full time job, he approached his manager. She said he wasn’t ready but set up a plan that if he did well enough then they would consider bringing him on full time. Was this good for him? Sadly no. He then went around his manager to HR to seek a full time position. HR then went to his manager and at that point he pretty much wasn’t in favor with the company and lost his job there, and he didnt’ have a position with my company anymore either. All because he was so concerned about his pay.