How did you get the big pay raise?

[Nurse3242]

So don't get me wrong, I certainly am not a nurse for the money. I love bedside nursing and I chose this career because I love it.

I have been a nurse on the same unit for 2.5 years and make just a little more than I did when I began as a nurse in my facility and was wondering when things "broke" for you, like when did you get your first big pay raise or your first job that payed more than your starting salary? When were you promoted within your hospital? Within bedside nursing, I feel like there isn't much career mobility and was wondering when others "caught their break"?

[EaglesWings21, ASN, RN]

Two words: float pool

[llg, PhD, RN]

Job hopping usually increases your salary early in your career -- but if you're not careful, you can lose on the "benefit" end. Getting the best benefits (such as more vacation time, better schedule options, sometimes more retirement benefit, etc.) comes from staying with the same employer. Those added benefits become significant over time.

Also, as long as you stay at the same level of job (e.g. staff nurse), job hopping will only help so far. Once you reach the upper half of the pay range for that type of position in that community, then you won't see the same pay increases even with job hopping. And as you near the top, your "high salary demands" make you a less attractive candidate to hire.

So ... overall ... job hopping works for the first few years of your career, but you have to actually advance to higher levels of the profession to maintain that upward movement in salary. Sometimes, in order to move to a new level of responsibility, you have to be willing to sacrifice a little in salary to get into the right position that will allow you to advance in the long run.