re: 5 Years Outlook For A Given Career

A promotion every 2-3 years is reasonable early in your career. Of course, this slows down a little as you get more senior in an organization but it should never be 5 years in the same position.

If you are looking to maximize your salary, then you have to change companies (with the exception of a few, forward thinking companies or a special boss).

Most people advancing quickly early on do something like this:

- Position 1 for 2 years
- Promotion to Position 2 (+15% salary bump), stay for 1 year
- Leave Company 1 for Company 2 and either (A) Stay in Position level 2 (+15% salary bump for changing company) or (B) promoted to Position level 3 (+25% salary bump for new company and new title)

Position 3 roughly begins the start of middle management so the key is how you get from Position 3 to Position 5 because there is likely a hundred-plus thousand dollar difference in salary between them.

Just my $0.02. Naturally, this is a broad generalization so there will be many exceptions.