When I first joined I came in as "Front-end Developer", and over the past years I've lead many successful large projects, and have been a dedicated employee. All this had lead to me getting a good amount of pay raises, I'm now leading a team of 15 developers, and I'm relied upon to lead many of the important projects for the company.
The issue is, my job title hasn't really changed over the years (basically it's now "Lead Front-end Developer"). In fact, as we've grown, despite asking to be considered for promotions, the company has only hired from outside for higher level positions in engineering, and mostly given me raises instead (to be clear, it's not just me that they haven't promoted, other iOS and backend developers also leading teams have not been promoted as well). When I've asked if I could be promoted, I've gotten a vague "maybe in a few years" response from them, and to be fair to them, I was never promised a promotion from my position, I just assumed if I worked really hard and showed my value, eventually I'd rise up the ranks of the company.
From what they've told me, it will be probably be at least two more years before I'll grow any higher at my company, and because we're growing so fast as well, the people we are hiring for the next positions are also way more qualified than me (former VPs of Facebook), which I'll never be able to compete with if I'm being honest with myself.
All this makes me consider leaving for another company, but because I haven't been promoted very often, but I have been given raises, any position at my same "level" will be a huge step down (for reference, the average Front-end Developer salary where I live is 50k/year, and I'm at 150k/year + benefits).
All this feels like a huge 1st world problem, but it's really been painful for me. Anyone in a similar situation that can share?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_dismissal#Changes...
I am not even remotely suggesting that you bring this up to management. However, the concept of 'Job changed, title and/or pay stayed the same', is well understood, and has legal connotations in both civil code, and employment legislation.
My point is, have your job duties changed significantly?
Are you managing other developers? Mentoring them? It sounds like you're leading projects, which isn't just 'Front-end Developer'.
Hence, you have been "constructively dismissed".
However!
You're getting paid for the role. This is why I'd not even remotely suggesting that you approach management from this angle, but I might if I was about to leave, due to insufficient pay raises for a changed role.
So mostly, this is to give you info that 'lots of thought has gone into changing roles, and title/pay as a result'. And maybe a string to pull at.
For every time you were given additional responsibilities, list that as a separate section. And as long as you are safe at your current job, you can just keep applying with your salary requirements, and often times places look at your salary as a proxy for how well you perform.
It's a salary site based on individuals rather than job titles. If you have time for a user interview I'd love to talk to you.