Have you ever priced yourself out of a job?

[BlackRubbishBag]

In my industry, it usually goes second in charge senior manager at a small site, then medium, then large or "challenging" site, then you step to senior manager in charge at small, medium etc.
Having been in my role for a number of years now, with a guaranteed pay rise each year - varying in amounts - plus guaranteed bonus each year - again, varying in amounts based on kpis, I have found that swapping company at a similar role level means I cannot get the salary I am currently on anymore.
I'm fact, I did apply for the next role up at a small site, as is the natural progression, with another company and found I was already above the salary banding for that site! At a higher level!
I am lucky that I love my role and don't actually even want the higher level, and actually I only applied (and was offered) the role to see what else was out there, but I do feel if I wanted to now progress with another company then I couldn't get the salary I am currently on.
Anyone else feel the same?

For context, I am not paid much! This ain't a bragging post! It is an incredibly badly paid industry 🤣 think less than 35k, working upwards of 45-50 hour weeks!

Just me then? 🤣

No. The further up the ladder you go, the fewer the jobs available. If you only need one manager type role for every 7-10 jobs it stands to reason that most people won’t climb the corporate ladder without moving jobs or being the last person standing. Job titles aren’t fixed either. In my (very large) workplace we have people who are managers, heads of, and directors of x unit or Y project. They will all earn less than me because what I do is specialist and hard to recruit to. There isn’t much way round it - just know what you want and what’s important to you - your values, I guess.

Out industry is quite standard, there aren't specialist roles. It's either in charge or second in charge.
I agree about not climbing the corporate ladder without moving jobs. The issue is, one, I don't want to go up the ladder and two, even if I did, I am now outside the banding of a smaller site at the next level up. So I could only ever "skip" a level to get a higher salary. Which is generally not done. So if I wanted to move up the ladder, I would have to take a pay cut.

I know what you mean I think. I'm at consultant level but paid more than a lot of heads of and directors internally, for various reasons. Although I assume if I moved internally I'd keep my salary and maybe get a bump up for the promotion, regardless.