To put it bluntly, correctly identified value/impact and being able to talk about that = more money.
You have to leverage this stuff while interviewing because lots of people will have the same skills and education. Find something that can move the needle, learn to do it well, and then bank off that.
That being said, the interviewing process isn’t all gumdrops and rainbows. As most of you know, sometimes it’s giving “everything is on fire, how did I get this far, why do they keep asking me to prove myself.” The interviewing process is broken. We need a full culture switch from approaching the hiring process as you need to prove to us why you are good enough to work here to we want to make sure you’re a good fit for this company. Imagine being in a later round of interviews recently where they asked him to do a 5-6 hour take-home project. “I have all these examples of my similar work, do I have to do the take home? Yes? Then I don’t want to work for you.” Hiring managers, if you’re listening— do you want to hire an engineer that’s going to move your business forward or do you want to hire as someone that’s just going to check boxes?
Sometimes obstacles make you stronger, sometimes obstacles make you fall flat on your face, and sometimes obstacles are an arbitrary challenge that serve no purpose and only exist because people don’t want to change how things have always been done. Regardless, never forget there’s someone out there way less qualified getting paid way more. Let’s all strive to be that person.