That's not a counter offer, that's asking for a raise. Counter offer is when you get an offer from another company and tell your boss you want to leave, but your boss makes a counter offer to keep you to stay.

At many companies there are HR policies that make it extremely difficult for your manager to just give you a raise. Oftentimes these policies don't apply to counteroffers. I don't have any opinion on whether this is a good idea or not, but I do think that getting an offer somewhere else can at least be a plausible strategy - possibly the only plausible strategy - for getting a decent raise if you find yourself working at such a company.

Yes, that's another unfortunate thing HR does. If I'm so miserable that I've actively sought, interviewed and received an offer, I'm gone. Like someone else alluded to, most shitty jobs aren't shitty because of pay.

I've worked at 2 companies in the last 14 years and they both got really shitty after being acquired by a private equity firm. It usually takes 2 years until it's unbearable. I stayed so long because they were wonderful jobs; work and pay; and growing like wildfire before the M&A.

> If I'm so miserable that I've actively sought, interviewed and received an offer, I'm gone.

Do you not look around unless you are miserable?

A lot of people don't. Hell, my last job change occurred because I was contacted by a recruiter from what was literally my dream job for the past decade (you don't ignore an email like that). I was content in my previous job and not actively looking, and had actually been promoted to lead developer not a year prior.

How DO YOU GET these?

The only recruitment calls I ever get are from body-shop class contracting firms that never manage to even come close to my current compensation for scut work.

Optimize your LinkedIn as you would for SEO purposes and you should get plenty of contacts. You have to also know a bit about LinkedIn's algorithm - for example, a profile without a photo will be considered more incomplete and thus score lower than one with a photo (doesn't matter what the photo is obviously).

If I had to guess, it's because I interviewed with them when I was still in college and didn't get the job, but remained on their radar for later follow-up. This ended up being seven years later though, so who knows.

Another guess is that I had a recently listed promotion to Lead Developer on my LinkedIn account. Anecdotally I've heard similar experience from other people who started getting more high quality contacts once their job title on LinkedIn reflected a more senior role. I know we all hate LinkedIn but it matters because people on the hire side use it extensively, so spend some time entering details in there so that it's as impressive as your resume.

I get them through LinkedIn. I have a well-written, informative profile that's peppered with Big Data buzzwords.

Miserable can cover pay, emotions, mental health, and others. I would say 'yes'.

Then again, curiosity doesn't hurt either.

> If I'm so miserable that I've actively sought

You don't have to be miserable just to look for another job that will pay more.

Sounds like a fairly fuzzy distinction. Is it only a counteroffer if you actually give your n weeks notice? What if you ask for a raise, and while asking you note that you have an offer from another company for a higher salary?

Yes, I suppose a counter offer doesn't require notice, just another offer, real or imaginary.

Sometimes they'll ask to see it, so bluffing can be a very high stakes game. I wouldn't want to put myself in the position of lying like that.