> * I guess another factor is raise percentage, in this industry, I've never heard of a 2% raise unless they're thinking of letting you go...*
Sounds like you have never worked for a large defense contractor. The "standard" raise given to ~70% of the engineers last year (my last review cycle working for that company) was 2.1%.
So I work in the same industry, and I'd suggest shopping around some companies if possible, or explore the "consulting" side of things (which can still be very technical), but much more lucrative... I'm sure you can get a good pay bump just from a company switch too.
Sounds like you have never worked for a large defense contractor. The "standard" raise given to ~70% of the engineers last year (my last review cycle working for that company) was 2.1%.