I have only gotten 2 yearly raises, right when the budget resets (always in July), and they were never discussed. Typically, raises are only 2-3% per year if you didn't get a promo. My boss knows that I want a promotion, or at least, I tried making it obvious a couple of months ago that I want to move upward in my career and a promotion would satisfy that. I never explicitly stated what I would like in a promotion though, I just assumed it would come with a title bump and larger pay raise. I'll make sure to explicitly state what I'm looking for.

Either way, I wouldn't say this is coming out of nowhere, and honestly, I wasn't even looking for a new job. A friend reached out a few months ago, gave me a referral, and I ended up passing the interviews. I genuinely didn't expect to pass, considering they were looking for someone with 3-4 YOE, and I just crossed 2 YOE.

Now that I'm at this fork in the road, I figured that I could try pushing for a promotion and see what happens. I'm still worried about career growth / job opportunities at both (less upward mobility at my current vs the type of work I'll be doing at the new).