I just got my first performance review, and the feedback was literally "you're doing great, keep doing what you're doing," with a 2% raise. Inflation in my city is sitting at 4%, so my reward is effectively a pay cut for a year of hard work. Is this normal? Is the only thing to do jump companies?

I am lead engineer. I get screwed cause I have an engineer in my team that doesnt communicate often and does things on his own. My manager complains to me. How can I justify going forward? I am looking for some guidance.

Does anyone else find it difficult to get another job while you are currently employed? Most people say that it's easier to get a job while you have a job, but that has never been the case for me. What normally happens is I go to an interview with the knowledge that I can mess up the interview and perform poorly. Sometimes I ask questions that I know are going to make the interviewer uncomfortable. This is probably both good and bad. Most jobs I have landed happened when I was unemployed.

I had my performance review recently and my manager says I'm doing great, that he will try to get me max. bonus even though budget is tight.... I'm however feeling very deflated and slow in my career. I feel the "comfort" of a big corporation is slowing down my growth and I want more, I want to reach my potential to the max. I see posts of people getting into OpenAi and I feel I lack the variety of experience to even apply to such companies... Should I take a risk and go into the Startup world?

How do you handle ghosting in job interviews? There is a company that took 3-4 weeks to complete mid level software developer interviews.I gave final interview last week and haven’t heard anything even after a follow up.Is it normal to get ghosted even after coming this long and investing your energy in the process ? I mean, I am fine if they say no or reject me but just don’t take too long that I start losing interest in the role.Has anyone experienced situations like this before? What did u do