I'm an engineer at a really big corporation. This is my first job, and this is the most amount of money I have ever made. I have been working for about 3 to 4 years with no raise, no bonus, and literally the base line benefits (PTO and health insurance). I was contracted initially and was told, everyone does this, and it usually lasts 3-year before e we higher you in. OK, sounds good I like the job and i like helping people. Fast forward to last year, and i began asking my management as well as my contract house for a way to increase my pay and maintain the same position. In short, I did not get a response from my contract house and my management pretty much told me, we can't do anything for you.
As much as it pained me to hurt my team, I started to look for new work. I finally found another contract house offering me a position that was offering DOUBLE what I make right now. There were some issues with the hiring process, but I did receive an offer. I proposed it to my current management, and they literally shat themselves. I asked their advice, in good faith as I have a good working relationship with my management. As an engineer I could not leave my work incomplete and had to reject the offer as the timing was not right.
Now my current management is doubling our workload, being super-duper critical about everything, and expect us to meet our deadlines with the additional work. Additionally, they often ask me for help with their process definition as well as training other new people. In hindsight I should have taken the other job because it would have been literally the same amount of stress with more pay.
TLDR: I did not take the job because I was loyal to my team and the project. Management decided this would be a good time to fist me and my team. Learn from my mistake and take the damm job. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD TAKE THE NEW JOB.
-Cheeze