Jumping

Little over a year ago I interviewed for a generic SE position (hiring for multiple levels of experience) with a large, international tech company that had been on my radar for years. The interviews went well, and at offer I was surprised to see TC would roughly match what I was currently on (competitive, but not by big tech standards). Some of that would be RSUs, which vest front-heavy, so my TC risks becoming less competitive year-on-year. At the time I tried negotiating and they pushed back. At the time, I was keen to leave my current gig so thought; “hey, this one is for the long haul, and I’m sure once I’m in it’ll all work out”. I was informed that my level could be reviewed after my 6 months probation. It’s important to note that, at this stage, I have no understanding of their internal levelling system. There’s no “juniors”, “mids” and “seniors”; it’s all just I-level “engineer”. Fast forward 4 months, manager says he’s putting me forward for a level-bump. “Fantastic”, I thought, “everything is balancing out”. 6 months comes and goes and there’s no real reasoning why my level hasn’t been bumped, but I remained the level I was hired in as. I’m told “you’re doing everything right, and at the annual review cycle, you’ll be put forward”. I push the point, and for feedback, but ultimately leave it - I don’t want to rock this nice boat I’m in. 10 months approaches, my responsibilities have grown significantly, as more people from my team leave and our domain grows - we also hire a new set of juniors which need onboarding, and our department is now world-wide, meaning more anti-social working hours. I push the point of promotion with my manager again, to be told that everything should be fine, but company policy is that someone at my role needs to be in the position for 1.5 years before being eligible for promotion. I say “this should be an exception”. He makes no guarantees. I feel this drifting away, and wonder what I can do. I make 2 applications total, with the idea that I’ll use them as leverage against my current position. “That’s how people do it, right?” I think to myself. One of the 2 positions is a long-shot; a staff-level position in a mid-size company. 4 rounds of interview later, they’re offering me a position at a 20% TC increase vs my current role, with promises of a better WLB. I weigh my options. At the same time, I’m discovering more about the internal levelling system. I ask HR for some guidance, and they forward me to a page which outlines the I-levels used. I find that I’ve been hired at a level usually associated with someone who is 1-2 years into their career. It’s one level above “entry level”. Naturally salty, I hand my notice in the same week. This year has moved fast; I’m still reflecting on this decision. I’ve no doubt that staying at the big tech company would have yielded good results, but I’m optimistic about the opportunity I’ll have in the second company. On a personal level, I feel jaded over my brief experience at this company. It’s the one point in my career where I’ve felt adversarial to my employer; as if I needed to actually fight for what was owed. I never really got an explanation for what happened; perhaps it’s either it’s genuinely some clerical error, or some of my previous experience was treated as insignificant. Anyways, that’s the story. There’s some life-lessons here about fully understanding the offers that are being made, and researching companies like this for internal levelling systems _before_ accepting the offer. I won’t forget that in a hurry. Has anyone had similar or contrasting experiences? Or has anyone with better insight into these processes got any theories as to how this happened?