How to get a raise
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Is it just me or does it seem like the only way to get a sizeable raise is to change who you work for? I get the max raise provided by the company, which is usually just under inflation. But, I don't get a merit raise unless I quite and go to work somewhere else. Does anyone else find this to be true? If it is, what is required to change this? I hear people in different careers talk about the same thing so it isn't just my profession.
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I must admit that I have given some thought to writing an article on the "softer side". In other words, dealing with clients, winning work, that type of thing.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
I second Mustafa. This is an article I would love reading. Especially because it will be written from a software developer's perspective as well (of course also the owner, manager, marketer, etc) but nonetheless a techie.
Cheers, Mircea "Pay people peanuts and you get monkeys" - David Ogilvy
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ramhog wrote:
Is it just me or does it seem like the only way to get a sizeable raise is to change who you work for?
Either that or to get promoted within the same company. Significant salary increases while staying in the same position/title seem to be pretty rare.
In my company almost all promotions are lateral unless you want to become manager (as in, no technical responsibilities.) I've been "promoted" to Sr developer, applications architect, project lead, team lead, tech lead, and others over the years. Not one of those promotions came with a raise. Although I must admit, my last several annual raises were significantly higher than the inflation rate.
Grim (aka Toby) MCDBA, MCSD, MCP+SB SELECT * FROM users WHERE clue IS NOT NULL (0 row(s) affected)
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That should be fine. I'd love to see that one finished.
"Every time Lotus Notes starts up, somewhere a puppy, a kitten, a lamb, and a baby seal are killed. Lotus Notes is a conspiracy by the forces of Satan to drive us over the brink into madness. The CRC-32 for each file in the installation includes the numbers 666." Gary Wheeler "The secret to a long and healthy life is simple. Don't get ill and don't die." Pete O'Hanlon, courtesy of Rama "I realised that all of my best anecdotes started with "So there we were, pissed". Pete O'Hanlon
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Is it just me or does it seem like the only way to get a sizeable raise is to change who you work for? I get the max raise provided by the company, which is usually just under inflation. But, I don't get a merit raise unless I quite and go to work somewhere else. Does anyone else find this to be true? If it is, what is required to change this? I hear people in different careers talk about the same thing so it isn't just my profession.
Well, it's determined by the company that you're working for. I would guess most don't have a huge IT budget to give thier people "sizable" raises just for the pure joy of doing so, though I have been at companies that did (and they no longer exist due to bankruptcy or whatever). They are paying you what they feel you are worth to them for the work that you are providing to them, so expect the inflationary paise raise and live with it...or show them your worth more by being better then your peers...or work hard to get a promotion and the raise that comes with it. Bottom line is you do what you have to do to make yourself happy, and if your worried that you should make more money and the company doesn't feel the same by only providing the infationary raises, then yes, move on. The company probably knows, as most do, that there's always someone to fill the position, so they pay accordingly.
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Nice job answering the OP question. Maybe get a hotel room and you two can start a partnership...
I hope you followed the thread and found that we did answer the question. :-D Perhaps you just need a hug.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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Is it just me or does it seem like the only way to get a sizeable raise is to change who you work for? I get the max raise provided by the company, which is usually just under inflation. But, I don't get a merit raise unless I quite and go to work somewhere else. Does anyone else find this to be true? If it is, what is required to change this? I hear people in different careers talk about the same thing so it isn't just my profession.
Hi this is my first reply ... so here are my 2 cents After working on a couple of companies (SKEC, GE, Nokia), I have found that it is a HR Policy to not give big raises to employed people (from 5% to 15% if you exceed expectations), but they can offer huge starting salaries to any position. So I have found that if you plan to work for companies... first ... sell yourself expensive, so you can survive for 2 or 3 years without a big raise. Prove yourself worthie, and then you have one and only one shot to get a big raise (you can go as far as 100% raise depends on you and your performance) by getting a new job , and expect a counter offert of your actual boss. The second time you do this ... I promise, they will say goodbye , no matter how good you were, the secret is ... to have real job offers, not just bluff. My final advice... Starting your own company will be always your best choice. Best Regards
Edgar Prieto Software Engineer
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Is it just me or does it seem like the only way to get a sizeable raise is to change who you work for? I get the max raise provided by the company, which is usually just under inflation. But, I don't get a merit raise unless I quite and go to work somewhere else. Does anyone else find this to be true? If it is, what is required to change this? I hear people in different careers talk about the same thing so it isn't just my profession.
One thing NOT to do is just sit and wait for your supervisor to give you the raise. 1) Budgets are typically determined a year in advance. This includes anticipated salary increases. NOW is the time to plan, and talk about NEXT YEAR'S increase. Tell your boss (before budget planning) what you plan to do in the next year, and that you expect to see a decent raise because of it. 2) Bosses like people to volunteer for extra work. Tell your boss you will do such-and-such in the next year, above the normal workload (head a project, design a new system, be a mentor, generate extra revenue), ask his/her thoughts on it, and tell him/her that you expect it to reflect in your raise. 3) Before your annual review, review yourself - on paper. What you did good, what you did poorly. - rank yourself for competence, willingness to take on work, expertise, ability to get along with others, ability to work without hand-holding, etc. Give this to your boss BEFORE your annual review (annual reviews suck, but that is the status quo), and bring it with you to your review. The goal is to make it embarrassing to give you a nominal raise because of superior work. 4) Do something extra that brings revenue into the company. At one company, I helped someone in your situation (I designed, he coded) uncover a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of missed government claims that were reimbursable. He went into his review with reports under the old system and his new system, showing the recoverable amount. He got a big raise that year. I implemented a system that increased profits by 2% (on $100 million). Got a good raise that year. 5) Increase your skill set until you can get another position in the same company. Try sales support, marketing, management. Ask your boss what improvements he would like to see in you, or what positions he think you should try for. 6) This is a small thing, but dress a notch above what your position calls for. It WILL be noticed, by more than just your boss. 7) Threatening to leave works, but not all the time. I was at a company that was going though serious attrition. They were begging everyone to stay for extra pay. I turned in my resignation but never got an offer to stay like the others. I later learned that I was too excited when talking about the new job, the VP didn't have the nerve to ask me to stay. Later I worked for a company where one good, long-time (accounting) employee used the tactic every year - threaten to leave during her review. It worked every year.
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MrPlankton wrote:
Get a govi job. Doesn't matter which country, they all get yearly raises.
No amount of money is worth the mind-numbing, skill-atrophying, technologically stagnant, backstabbing Hell that is government employment. I'm just glad I got out with most of my sanity and enough remaining skills to still be employable.
Sunrise Wallpaper Project | The StartPage Randomizer | The Windows Cheerleader
I guess that depends on what agency and who/what you do with your time. During my
Miszou wrote:
mind-numbing, skill-atrophying, technologically stagnant
period I learned to program in Assembler and C, came up with the concept of "induced surfance ensembles on transition metal surfaces" via numerical modeling and then proved experimentally, used 4th-order runge-kutta fitting to model reactions for predictivie capabilities (know done w/fuzzy-logic apps not then available to me). Patents. Publications. Paid trips to professional conferences. Or, you could just sit there.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein
"How do you find out if you're unwanted if everyone you try to ask tells you to go away?" - Balboos HaGadol -
How to get a raise? Have compromising pictures of the boss. I never get a raise - although as I own the company, I don't know who to appeal to. Actually, I employ a quarterly appraisal scheme where staff get a chance for a payrise every quarter. If they go above and beyond they can really get a rise every three months.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
I completely agree with the original poster's quandary and question. Based on my company's practices, you're lucky to get a raise that close to inflation. Ours is about half that, and when I first started about 3 years ago there was no such thing as a raise. I'm now in a position where I'm evaluating my options for how I could earn more money, and the easiest way seems to be to find another place to work. I wish I could think of a great reason why my current employer should increase my salary by about 20K when I'm currently doing the same work for less than that. Sorry, it was more of a commiseration than an idea for you.