Wasn’t ever in the software part but i still remember being shocked when a company asked me what I wanted for a salary, I said x, and they said they’d get back to me later on that day to confirm if they could do it. Got a call back 20 minutes later offering me 35% more than I asked for.

They knew I was probably scared to ask for more, and they needed people who weren’t going to want to leave soon as they got a better offer. Turnover in some positions makes it near impossible to ever get a really good staff. Pay them right and you end up with a really good group fairly quickly. It isn’t a constant “oh that guy who set that system up left 3 years ago and left no notes for any of how that was set up.”. If you give them time as well, they create the documentation because they know if they don’t have to touch if for 4 years, when they come back to it it’ll kick cobwebs off.