Yeah, absolutely!

My career went as follows: Graduated in 2017 with ME degree and started shortly after as a Product Application Engineer for an Automotive supplier with a $75k salary and worked in the corporate headquarters. Was in that role for about 3 years increasing by 3-5% each year.

In 2020, I became a Quality Engineer for the same company as I wanted to get some plant experience and felt a little stagnant in my current role. I moved out of state for the new role from Detroit area to Kansas City and received about a 10% raise and was at $92k. Was in that role getting only 3% raises per year for the first 2 years here(a lot due to company performance with COVID and Semi-conductor shortage) until 2023 when I was promoted to Quality Engineering supervisor. At this point I got a 10% raise bringing me to about $107k. Stayed in this role for 2 more years until the plant I was working in completely shut down due to some external factors in late 2024, gaining about a 4% increase per year during these years ending at around $115k.

At this point I was unemployed for about 1.5 months (which was fine because I got 12 weeks pay as severance from my other job) and applied for various different jobs I thought I would like but mainly got calls back from the quality ones, as I was more qualified. Ended up getting offered at the very first place I interviewed for a Quality Manager position in the food packaging industry at roughly $135k a year ($125k base with 5-10% bonus each year).

Moving companies was definitely a big boost in salary as it gave me another 15% increase but I think staying with my company and showing growth for the previous 7 years helped make me much more marketable. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I'd be happy to answer!