Am I on an average CS career trajectory? Feeling stagnated. /u/AINT-NOBODY-STUDYING CSCQ protests reddit

I started working as a software developer about 3 years ago. Prior to that, I was working in education as a high school teacher. My salary in the Midwest has been as follows:

Y1 – 70k, bumped to 75k after 6 months.

Y2 – new company, started at 78k, bumped to 82k after ~6 months. (and just received a 1k holiday bonus).

Y3 – Still at 82k, verbally informed I will get another bump up after Feb.

Now that I’m a mid-level developer (3 YOE and a MS), I’m wondering if I should look for a better opportunity. I do enjoy my current position (fully remote), but I just feel like I’m actually going backwards in salary/buying power (when adjusted for inflation). Is what I’m experiencing typical for software developers?

Some of the students I taught in high school are now graduating college and posting on LinkedIn their positions as developers at Uber, FB, Apple, Microsoft, and the likes. Lately, I can’t help but compare myself to my former students and part of me wonders how/why they were able to get in these top 10 tech companies (and 120k+ packages) with just their BS, while I’m barely able to jump around mid-size businesses despite having a MS and more experience. I’m not trying to take away from their well-deserved achievements; I just wonder if I should be aiming higher. I’ve never actually tried applying to any top 10 tech companies.

Additional info: I work with C#/.NET. I also do some DevOps work with Azure (CI/CD pipelines, cloud resources, deployments, integrations, etc.) and working towards the 204 cert.

I started working as a software developer about 3 years ago. Prior to that, I was working in education as a high school teacher. My salary in the Midwest has been as follows:

Y1 – 70k, bumped to 75k after 6 months.

Y2 – new company, started at 78k, bumped to 82k after ~6 months. (and just received a 1k holiday bonus).

Y3 – Still at 82k, verbally informed I will get another bump up after Feb.

Now that I’m a mid-level developer (3 YOE and a MS), I’m wondering if I should look for a better opportunity. I do enjoy my current position (fully remote), but I just feel like I’m actually going backwards in salary/buying power (when adjusted for inflation). Is what I’m experiencing typical for software developers?

Some of the students I taught in high school are now graduating college and posting on LinkedIn their positions as developers at Uber, FB, Apple, Microsoft, and the likes. Lately, I can’t help but compare myself to my former students and part of me wonders how/why they were able to get in these top 10 tech companies (and 120k+ packages) with just their BS, while I’m barely able to jump around mid-size businesses despite having a MS and more experience. I’m not trying to take away from their well-deserved achievements; I just wonder if I should be aiming higher. I’ve never actually tried applying to any top 10 tech companies.

Additional info: I work with C#/.NET. I also do some DevOps work with Azure (CI/CD pipelines, cloud resources, deployments, integrations, etc.) and working towards the 204 cert.