Ask HN: What should I do to prepare for a meeting about my annual raise?
I've been at my current job for one year. My work-iversary is coming up and we're meeting to talk about giving me a raise. How can I come up with what is a fair raise?
It has probably already been decided. You can articulate what you think is a fair raise for next cycle.
You're getting some silly advice here that will make you seem a bit cocky at best, delusional at worst (do not produce a promotional packet for yourself). This is what happens: the company defines a budget, the budget is allocated across teams based on risks/prior success. The budget defines the pool of salary adjustments and that is the anchor. You can influence your share of that pool in this conversation, at best.
If you want to get your manager to the right frame of mind, have this structure of conversation: first, if you are dissatisfied with your salary, say it. This is not a bluff, you have to be dissatisfied and have options elsewhere. Know what the pay at those options are, and be prepared to get bad news (either they don't think you are worth that, or cannot match it). If you are looking for incremental adjustments, know that COLAs are usually 2-3%, promotions are usually 5-10%, and merit is somewhere in the middle. Think about what you've done in the past year that has a lot of business value (if you did analytics that saved money or increased sales, or did important work on a product that won/retained customers). If you've shown professional development (leading a project, mentoring new team members) or improved the efficiency of an existing process (lower cloud costs, shorter duration) mention it and try to get a read if your manager remembers them and/or agrees. Since this is a form of negotiation be prepared to talk about how you want to build on last year's achievements/progress next year, and ask what you can work on that would help you achieve your salary/growth goals and help the team (what return your manager can expect from the increased investment in you).
1. Data points. Data points. Data points. Go through and document, line by line, what you have done this year. Translate each line item into approximate value created for the company, whether in dollars or resources freed up. Chances are your manager will need to get any bump or promotion cleared with the powers above him, so make it easy by providing as much data as possible.
2. Make a sort of mental script that goes over the data points from item 1 and why all those make you worth what you are seeking. Practice it. Not only will it help you articulate your ideas more clearly, it will also help calm you down a bit. Salary discussions and negotiations can be intimidating.
3. Have a vision for what you can continue to add to the company, after you have received the raise/promotion you are seeking. Is there a specific project you can lead, team members you can mentor, etc. Demonstrate that you have a vision for yourself in the future at the company, to go with (hopefully) a strong list of achievements that have already added value.
This is the logical approach, but it is the wrong one in my opinion. Your salary is not dictated by the value you provide the company. Your salary is dictated by what each of your and your employer's next best options are. You are better off talking about market rates for someone of your skill set rather than value to the company. If you talk about the value you provide, talk about it in relation to your peers. Value is irrelevant in a vacuum. Someone generating millions of dollars in value might not deserve a raise if they are in the bottom 10th percentile among their peers.
Adding to 1, I find that it is very helpful to have kept track of the things you did for the company as they happen as it is very easy to forget even important things along the way.
I have a script that grabs my commits that week and throws them into a templated document. Each week I edit that document by grouping the commits in a logical way, adding things that wouldn't necessarily be captured in my commits, and then cleaning it up to make a reasonable and concise report of what I did that week. Then, at the end of the year, when it is time to discuss adjusting your compensation, gathering all of the data points is as simple as condensing your weekly reports into a single document.
> Translate each line item into approximate value created for the company,
How you do value things in the following cases 1) are opinion (eg Fixed a bug, or 300) or 2) things that have no direct value (wrote a microservice that supports a microservice that alerts users if a microservice is neither micro or servicing) or 3) You delivered exactly what was asked of you, FeatureX say, but FeatureX was poorly researched/designed and received no traction?
Nonetheless I will try to do as you've suggested, I see a lot of value in being able to deliver what you're pointing at.
Try to value the results of your work, not the work itself.
1. If you fixed a bug, what problem did it solve? Was it costing the company money or time? Your customers? Be a partner to the business, not a code-monkey.
2. Fixing a line of code has no value (gasp!) in a vacuum. What happens if that microservice uptime alert doesn't go out? How did your work prevent THAT from happening?
3. You delivered exactly what you asked for. Full stop. You executed (well, presumably) and worked with the business to build to address an opportunity. Not all opportunities pan out but all opportunities go to waste if not acted upon.
You don't necessarily need to quantify the value for every item in this case, or in some cases for quantifying achievements I'd look for other measurements outside of a $ impact or estimate of time saved.
For example, for something like fixing bugs, if its difficult to peg it to a financial or resource benefit, measure how quickly you closed your issues, point out that all of your fixes had no further issues, etc.
If you delivered FeatureX but FeautureX received no traction, use this as a starting point to have a discussion about your expanded role in the company. Perhaps after you've received the promotion/raise you could take a more active role in the design/research phase, and have some ideas available offhand.
Why would you want to be paid fairly? Aim to get paid what you want - not what some group of people decide is "fair". If you don't get what you want, that's not the end of the world, just gives you goals to strive for.
Also, never let people who pay you tell you what is fair. You only talk about what you think you're worth, and what they are willing to pay -- if there's overlap then great, otherwise no cigar.
And final point to OP of thread
> How can I come up with what is a fair raise?
You search inside your soul and find a number that below which you'll feel bad (resentful/undervalued/cheated/etc) and above which you'll feel good (well-compensated/proud/valued/etc). That is the number you aim for
This sounds like good advice, but lost its luster once I thought about it for a bit. Given that it's a market, people's worth is constantly changing, sometimes dramatically so, and you should largely try to get as much as you can.
But yeah you should also consider both party's BATNA when deciding how hard to push.
It's a market, but I don't think we're at a point yet where we're a commodity that is line replacable. There's no fair running daily auction on standard-issue developer/tech talent. Everyone has backgrounds and specialties that are so unique you can't really make apples-to-apples comparison.
For your next annual raise, I suggest the following: start a work journal and make entries in it daily. Log the things you've done, the things you're waiting for (blocked on), the meetings you've had and how long they took. Use this as a guide to read from during your standups, if you have them.
At the end of the week, look through the previous week's entries and conduct a review [1]. Create a separate entry in a weekly log detailing the accomplishments, things to improve, things that went well, etc.
You can keep rolling these up if you prefer (monthly, quarterly, etc.), but I've found ~50 weekly logs pretty skimmable in the time leading up to a review. Keep in mind that the more rollups you do, the more work it will be, and the more likely you will be to stop logging altogether.
While you may be able to capture some big accomplishments with an end-of-year brain dump, your weekly logs will expose the more subtle things: conflicts encountered, how you moved obstacles out of your way, the people you worked closely with, etc. Addressing these things in your review alongside your "hard" accomplishments will make for a stronger argument in your manager's eyes.
[1] Cal Newport, in "Deep Work" (http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/), has a good section on doing a weekly review as a means to increase the amount of deep work in your working day.
You should understand in advance the way the company does raises. Typically youll have a (usually guaranteed) COLA which is small. From there salary is tied to peformance and responsibilities. Your manager should have already shared this with you and ideally youve been working towards making progress.
If none of those things are in place then like other posts suggest, perhaps get a backstop and negotiate with other companies. Just remember the difference in salary might not make up for all other benefits. Just be honest with yourself about what you want / need.
Don't make it personal. This is a business transaction. So don't think or talk about it in terms of what you want or what you think you need or what you think is fair. That's going to lose the negotiation.
Find jobs that are similar to what you actually do (not necessarily the same title or description) and get salary information about them. Pick a number that's in the range of what you can find and go with that.
The conversation from there is simple: this is what I'm actually doing, and this is what the market pays for it. That number will either be in your boss's budget or it won't. If it is, the conversation shouldn't be difficult for either one of you. If it isn't, you can negotiate for things that might be available but not counted towards budget. Extra paid vacation, ability to expense some things, etc.
If it's just not in the budget, though, you've accomplished a couple of things by keeping it a business transaction. 1. You've put your boss on notice that you know what the market value is for your skills and you've done it without having to play any mind games or go get some other offer to try and negotiate that. And 2. You've just done some of your boss's job for him/her. You've just given data they can use at the next budget meeting so say, "Yeah, this position is getting x amount from everywhere else. We need to match." 3. You've proven that you have an adult understanding of how these things work, which will be very much appreciated.
If you let the conversation go personal based on what you feel like you want or need, this is a risky move, whether it's an initial salary negotiation or an incremental. If you say you need this or were hoping for that and the company can't match, you're a flight risk. You have very probably just priced yourself out of a job.
Keep it business, appeal to market data, and play your personal feeling close to your vest and you can negotiate for as much as you want without painting yourself into a corner.
Specifically, check out Chapters 1 & 2 (they're pretty short) to get a sense of how companies decide what to pay you and then jump to Chapter 7 for specific steps to take as you prep for your meeting.
(Thanks for the pointer @f_allwein, I appreciate it!)
Working hard, being punctual, never calling in sick, being respectful are all things a company is already paying you for. I know shocking. These are not qualities for raises, they are expected of you. What matters is your impact to the company and helping them make money. Build your talking points around the value you add to the company and it reaching its goal (make money). Also keep in mind, salary is only one point in compensation. Things like more vacation time, better benefits, pension/401K contributions, stock options, educational funds, having them pay for an annual conference(s) you want to attend. But much of this depends on the company you are working for.
I agree with all the other points in your first sentence, but your company should not expect you to never call in sick. You get sick days for a reason.
The only thing worse than an employee calling in sick is an employee not calling in sick when they are sick. Nothing good is going to come of doing a half assed job and infecting the rest of the office.
I'm not advocating no sicks days. They are a good thing and the last thing I want is a sick person coming into the office and infecting others. The point I was making is that "ideally" this is what is expected.
"I really like working here. I really want to keep working here. And I think I've proven that I'm a very valuable member of the team. But to continue being happy working here I need to receive a raise of $n. Otherwise I'm going to feel like I'm not being fair to the financial future of myself and/or my family."
Being direct and firm is really the only way. The threat of quitting is probably better implied than made directly. It feels less like a harsh ultimatum which might trigger a defensive response. You want them to understand that you're not upset at anyone, you're just doing what's best for yourself and/or your family.
But it's important to realize that it's usually hard to get a significant raise without changing jobs. Most companies have a very hard time doing this even when it's entirely warranted.
All of these answers are right and wrong. It depends on the company and how things are structured. I manage about 90 people in an environment where the main lever for compensation upgrade is promotion. About 5-10% can get promoted in a given year. IMO, 30% deserve more. You may be a superstar, but go unrecognized (in dollar form) because I have a position in a different title series or tied to a project.
You need to have a clue about how decisions are made and where discretion lies. In some places, you’ll be assigned numerical ratings and HR pukes out a number. In other cases, a manager/director has discretion, in others you get a 2% raise for breathing for another year.
In all scenarios, you need to be able to confidently talk about the value you bring today and tomorrow. The hardest part is knowing who to tell the story too.
Well, you can put together a promo packet. Collect all your best design docs, pull requests, list out the feature you shipped, the people you mentored, the opportunities you won the company, the money you saved the company, feedback from your peers and managers, etc..
Although I agree with jaequery, if you really want a raise the sure fire way is to get another job offer and have your current company match or take the other offer. The biggest raise I've gotten at a company without that is $10k, but changing jobs can gain you much more.
Ask for more responsibility. Put your manager on the spot and get them to tell you how you can take the next step in your career. But you need to be ready to actually do it. Just asking for more than a cost-of-living bump for no particular reason is not likely to get you much unless you are underpaid significantly (from HR's perspective) for the position you are in.
1. Have you defined your value statement? What qualities you bring to the table, and what you have developed over the previous year that make you more impactful and invaluable at your current company. That is your starting point for discussing a raise.
2. Determine what would make you feel good (i.e., a what salary increase would make you feel short changed and resentful, and what would make you feel good and valued and fairly compensated). Take that number and use that as your baseline.
If what comes in is under that threshold (at which you feel fairly compensated), you can discuss the raise again with the manager and how you feel it doesn't reflect your increased value. If this does not bring your salary to the lower end of your fair-compensation threshold, it's time to look for a new job. Otherwise, unless you're able to not let it bother you too much (I can't do this), resentment builds and it's best to look for an exit.
Explaining how your skill-set matchs with the paradigm currently in place to advance the corporate mission statement should net you a couple thousand while making a little piece of your soul die.
Not really. If you have a life and meaningful relationships and purpose, this is but a little hack to increase your long term earnings to make that life a bit more comfortable.
Usually an engineer in large company doesn’t need to prove their work had business impact, only that they did what was asked and did it well. But if you can identify the work that you’ve done that did have positive business impact, talk only about that.
I don’t ever recall asking for a raise except once where there was an agreement to raise me to market in 6 months if things worked out (or I would go).
You can bust your hump for a 3% bump or just go work for someone who does value you and get some multiple of that. I called it “giving myself a raise”.
As the sales guys like to say: “Your W2 is your review.”
I suppose if you wanted to be proactive, let your manger know that no raise or a very small one is sending the message that you have no future with the company. It’s not a threat, it’s just business.
The problem with asking for a raise is it usually needs to be approved by a separate HR/payroll department. I can't even really think of a time where someone that I know got a sizable raise without either taking on more responsibility (ie: promotion) or using an offer as leverage.
The sad reality is most companies would rather waste thousands of dollars recruiting, hiring, and training new employees instead of giving that money to the employee they are replacing.
before asking for a raise, always apply to other jobs and have something to leverage off of by looking around and applying to other companies. name your price higher than what you are getting now.
if they accept your offer, you can now go back to your company and name a price in a take it or leave it situation.
if they accept, great. if not, atleast you now have other alternatives to fall back on.
I recommend against getting job offers as a method of forcing your current employer to pay you more. If it works, then you just became a liability and at the next convenient opportunity you will be first out the door.
Go find a new job when you're ready to leave, then leave.
That is correct. I’ve recently had a chat with a friend who used to be a manager, and according to him managers are very well aware that people do that. You may end up getting flagged for it.
This is bad advice that gets repeated a lot. Employers will work to retain good people and they know that good people understand how a labor market works.
Managers aren’t going through the hassle of making a case to raise/promote you only to dump you later. That would make them look pretty bad to their managers.
Managers talk to each other. Your manager talks to his boss and says "really can't afford to lose this guy right now, so we need to give him enough to keep him." So he's making a case alright, but everyone in the chain knows why
Problem is, now they know you're thinking of leaving. Since most of the time people do not leave over a few dollars, they assume, most likely correctly, that something else is pushing you to leave and the money is just delaying the inevitable.
When you do that to your manager, it demonstrates to him that he has a business risk which needs mitigating. So he keeps you for now while he tries to get someone else in a position to take over for you should you go through with your original plan to leave.
I've spent decades in the corporate world and I can't recall a single time that a forced raise like this ended up with either side happy, and nearly 100% of the time one year later the employee is gone for one reason or another.
How would the manager or anyone else know that he is leaving?
He is just simply asking for a "raise". He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol.
As I said, you look around to leverage yourself so that you know how much you are worth in the market. Lot of devs out there, working at companies for over 5+ years tend to underestimate how much they are worth, and they become a bargain for the company. They are simply too shy to ask for just how much they are worth and companies usually don't give raises to employees (besides the annual small pct increase) unless asked upon.
> He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol.
I think you are misreading what we are talking about on this tangent. Forcing a raise by threatening to leave for a more lucrative job is exactly what we are talking about, and I suggested that it is not a great strategy.
You don't tell your current employer you have the offer, or tell them that you are leaving for another offer; You can use it as a way to learn and emphasize competitive forces.
Ie: "Based off of LinkedIn/GlassDoor/HackerNew/Friends In Industry/Networking events/Recruiters, I feel like my salary could be more competitive with the marketer"
Basically, you're threatening less so of leaving right now, but that you like your current job, but your mental attachment is already weakening because you are worried about a competitive salary (as opposed to not having to worry about it).
Blackmailing is probably not the best negotiation strategy...
However what I definitely can suggest is - know what your market value is. If you earn X however market value is much more than X then you definitely have room for negotiation.
Good negotiator always knows when to stop negotiating. And at that point to know your market value is something that will help. You can exercise your CV and check its performance - you do not necessarily need to have new employer aligned to achieve that.
I had never seen Fakespot - that's... interesting. I appreciate you mentioning it. I need to see why it thinks those Amazon reviews are fake.
The good news is you don't have to buy it on Amazon to read it - there's a link to the online version of Fearless Salary Negotiation in another comment on this post - so you can read it for free and see what you think :)
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Another response to your comment says that salary negotiation is different than asking for a raise - I totally agree. I treat them as separate things that require unique processes.
Nothing. You have no bargaining power since you already work there and depend on your job for your livelihood. If you want more than your 0-2.5% raise then just go find another job.
This is 100% effective advice. You may not like it or want to leave a job you like, but is the only sure fire way to get paid your worth. Business “systems”[1] are desighed to keep you from getting paid market. These systems are so rigid that they would actually rather hire some else to replace you at great expense, than make an exception for the individual. The way to “hack” the system is to get a new job - the new place has no choice but to pay market rate if they want to hire you.
[1] examples
“Sorry, 5% is the max raise per year.”
“I’m sorry, you should feel good getting 6%, most everyone got less but we really value you.”
“Make the project successful and you’ll be rewarded.” (Hint, somebody will be rewarded for the late nights and weekends, but it won’t be you.)
You're getting some silly advice here that will make you seem a bit cocky at best, delusional at worst (do not produce a promotional packet for yourself). This is what happens: the company defines a budget, the budget is allocated across teams based on risks/prior success. The budget defines the pool of salary adjustments and that is the anchor. You can influence your share of that pool in this conversation, at best.
If you want to get your manager to the right frame of mind, have this structure of conversation: first, if you are dissatisfied with your salary, say it. This is not a bluff, you have to be dissatisfied and have options elsewhere. Know what the pay at those options are, and be prepared to get bad news (either they don't think you are worth that, or cannot match it). If you are looking for incremental adjustments, know that COLAs are usually 2-3%, promotions are usually 5-10%, and merit is somewhere in the middle. Think about what you've done in the past year that has a lot of business value (if you did analytics that saved money or increased sales, or did important work on a product that won/retained customers). If you've shown professional development (leading a project, mentoring new team members) or improved the efficiency of an existing process (lower cloud costs, shorter duration) mention it and try to get a read if your manager remembers them and/or agrees. Since this is a form of negotiation be prepared to talk about how you want to build on last year's achievements/progress next year, and ask what you can work on that would help you achieve your salary/growth goals and help the team (what return your manager can expect from the increased investment in you).
2. Make a sort of mental script that goes over the data points from item 1 and why all those make you worth what you are seeking. Practice it. Not only will it help you articulate your ideas more clearly, it will also help calm you down a bit. Salary discussions and negotiations can be intimidating.
3. Have a vision for what you can continue to add to the company, after you have received the raise/promotion you are seeking. Is there a specific project you can lead, team members you can mentor, etc. Demonstrate that you have a vision for yourself in the future at the company, to go with (hopefully) a strong list of achievements that have already added value.
I have a script that grabs my commits that week and throws them into a templated document. Each week I edit that document by grouping the commits in a logical way, adding things that wouldn't necessarily be captured in my commits, and then cleaning it up to make a reasonable and concise report of what I did that week. Then, at the end of the year, when it is time to discuss adjusting your compensation, gathering all of the data points is as simple as condensing your weekly reports into a single document.
How you do value things in the following cases 1) are opinion (eg Fixed a bug, or 300) or 2) things that have no direct value (wrote a microservice that supports a microservice that alerts users if a microservice is neither micro or servicing) or 3) You delivered exactly what was asked of you, FeatureX say, but FeatureX was poorly researched/designed and received no traction?
Nonetheless I will try to do as you've suggested, I see a lot of value in being able to deliver what you're pointing at.
1. If you fixed a bug, what problem did it solve? Was it costing the company money or time? Your customers? Be a partner to the business, not a code-monkey.
2. Fixing a line of code has no value (gasp!) in a vacuum. What happens if that microservice uptime alert doesn't go out? How did your work prevent THAT from happening?
3. You delivered exactly what you asked for. Full stop. You executed (well, presumably) and worked with the business to build to address an opportunity. Not all opportunities pan out but all opportunities go to waste if not acted upon.
For example, for something like fixing bugs, if its difficult to peg it to a financial or resource benefit, measure how quickly you closed your issues, point out that all of your fixes had no further issues, etc.
If you delivered FeatureX but FeautureX received no traction, use this as a starting point to have a discussion about your expanded role in the company. Perhaps after you've received the promotion/raise you could take a more active role in the design/research phase, and have some ideas available offhand.
Also, never let people who pay you tell you what is fair. You only talk about what you think you're worth, and what they are willing to pay -- if there's overlap then great, otherwise no cigar.
And final point to OP of thread
> How can I come up with what is a fair raise?
You search inside your soul and find a number that below which you'll feel bad (resentful/undervalued/cheated/etc) and above which you'll feel good (well-compensated/proud/valued/etc). That is the number you aim for
But yeah you should also consider both party's BATNA when deciding how hard to push.
At the end of the week, look through the previous week's entries and conduct a review [1]. Create a separate entry in a weekly log detailing the accomplishments, things to improve, things that went well, etc.
You can keep rolling these up if you prefer (monthly, quarterly, etc.), but I've found ~50 weekly logs pretty skimmable in the time leading up to a review. Keep in mind that the more rollups you do, the more work it will be, and the more likely you will be to stop logging altogether.
While you may be able to capture some big accomplishments with an end-of-year brain dump, your weekly logs will expose the more subtle things: conflicts encountered, how you moved obstacles out of your way, the people you worked closely with, etc. Addressing these things in your review alongside your "hard" accomplishments will make for a stronger argument in your manager's eyes.
[1] Cal Newport, in "Deep Work" (http://calnewport.com/books/deep-work/), has a good section on doing a weekly review as a means to increase the amount of deep work in your working day.
If none of those things are in place then like other posts suggest, perhaps get a backstop and negotiate with other companies. Just remember the difference in salary might not make up for all other benefits. Just be honest with yourself about what you want / need.
Find jobs that are similar to what you actually do (not necessarily the same title or description) and get salary information about them. Pick a number that's in the range of what you can find and go with that.
The conversation from there is simple: this is what I'm actually doing, and this is what the market pays for it. That number will either be in your boss's budget or it won't. If it is, the conversation shouldn't be difficult for either one of you. If it isn't, you can negotiate for things that might be available but not counted towards budget. Extra paid vacation, ability to expense some things, etc.
If it's just not in the budget, though, you've accomplished a couple of things by keeping it a business transaction. 1. You've put your boss on notice that you know what the market value is for your skills and you've done it without having to play any mind games or go get some other offer to try and negotiate that. And 2. You've just done some of your boss's job for him/her. You've just given data they can use at the next budget meeting so say, "Yeah, this position is getting x amount from everywhere else. We need to match." 3. You've proven that you have an adult understanding of how these things work, which will be very much appreciated.
If you let the conversation go personal based on what you feel like you want or need, this is a risky move, whether it's an initial salary negotiation or an incremental. If you say you need this or were hoping for that and the company can't match, you're a flight risk. You have very probably just priced yourself out of a job.
Keep it business, appeal to market data, and play your personal feeling close to your vest and you can negotiate for as much as you want without painting yourself into a corner.
(Thanks for the pointer @f_allwein, I appreciate it!)
Agreed. Quit and go into sales. Good luck spinning how edits on a bootstrap theme made money.
Seriously?
really ?!
Being direct and firm is really the only way. The threat of quitting is probably better implied than made directly. It feels less like a harsh ultimatum which might trigger a defensive response. You want them to understand that you're not upset at anyone, you're just doing what's best for yourself and/or your family.
But it's important to realize that it's usually hard to get a significant raise without changing jobs. Most companies have a very hard time doing this even when it's entirely warranted.
You need to have a clue about how decisions are made and where discretion lies. In some places, you’ll be assigned numerical ratings and HR pukes out a number. In other cases, a manager/director has discretion, in others you get a 2% raise for breathing for another year.
In all scenarios, you need to be able to confidently talk about the value you bring today and tomorrow. The hardest part is knowing who to tell the story too.
Although I agree with jaequery, if you really want a raise the sure fire way is to get another job offer and have your current company match or take the other offer. The biggest raise I've gotten at a company without that is $10k, but changing jobs can gain you much more.
2. Determine what would make you feel good (i.e., a what salary increase would make you feel short changed and resentful, and what would make you feel good and valued and fairly compensated). Take that number and use that as your baseline.
If what comes in is under that threshold (at which you feel fairly compensated), you can discuss the raise again with the manager and how you feel it doesn't reflect your increased value. If this does not bring your salary to the lower end of your fair-compensation threshold, it's time to look for a new job. Otherwise, unless you're able to not let it bother you too much (I can't do this), resentment builds and it's best to look for an exit.
I suppose this is good advice, but boy oh boy does it make me want to live in a cabin in the woods as far away from the corporate world as possible.
You can bust your hump for a 3% bump or just go work for someone who does value you and get some multiple of that. I called it “giving myself a raise”.
As the sales guys like to say: “Your W2 is your review.”
I suppose if you wanted to be proactive, let your manger know that no raise or a very small one is sending the message that you have no future with the company. It’s not a threat, it’s just business.
Lots of good posts here but I find a good relationship with your boss and co-workers can be big factors.
before asking for a raise, always apply to other jobs and have something to leverage off of by looking around and applying to other companies. name your price higher than what you are getting now.
if they accept your offer, you can now go back to your company and name a price in a take it or leave it situation.
if they accept, great. if not, atleast you now have other alternatives to fall back on.
Go find a new job when you're ready to leave, then leave.
Managers aren’t going through the hassle of making a case to raise/promote you only to dump you later. That would make them look pretty bad to their managers.
Problem is, now they know you're thinking of leaving. Since most of the time people do not leave over a few dollars, they assume, most likely correctly, that something else is pushing you to leave and the money is just delaying the inevitable.
When you do that to your manager, it demonstrates to him that he has a business risk which needs mitigating. So he keeps you for now while he tries to get someone else in a position to take over for you should you go through with your original plan to leave.
I've spent decades in the corporate world and I can't recall a single time that a forced raise like this ended up with either side happy, and nearly 100% of the time one year later the employee is gone for one reason or another.
It’s 2018. Everyone is always thinking of leaving. This kind of thinking just doesn’t apply anymore.
How would the manager or anyone else know that he is leaving?
He is just simply asking for a "raise". He is not going around telling everyone, hey "i am leaving, give me a raise or i am gone". Now that would be plain silly, lol.
As I said, you look around to leverage yourself so that you know how much you are worth in the market. Lot of devs out there, working at companies for over 5+ years tend to underestimate how much they are worth, and they become a bargain for the company. They are simply too shy to ask for just how much they are worth and companies usually don't give raises to employees (besides the annual small pct increase) unless asked upon.
I think you are misreading what we are talking about on this tangent. Forcing a raise by threatening to leave for a more lucrative job is exactly what we are talking about, and I suggested that it is not a great strategy.
Ie: "Based off of LinkedIn/GlassDoor/HackerNew/Friends In Industry/Networking events/Recruiters, I feel like my salary could be more competitive with the marketer"
Basically, you're threatening less so of leaving right now, but that you like your current job, but your mental attachment is already weakening because you are worried about a competitive salary (as opposed to not having to worry about it).
However what I definitely can suggest is - know what your market value is. If you earn X however market value is much more than X then you definitely have room for negotiation.
Good negotiator always knows when to stop negotiating. And at that point to know your market value is something that will help. You can exercise your CV and check its performance - you do not necessarily need to have new employer aligned to achieve that.
Try Negotiating Your Salary by Jack Chapman.
Fakespot says that Fearless Salary Negotiation by Doody is loaded with fake amazon reviews, so I might give that one a miss.
And, read "Never Split the Difference" by Voss.
The good news is you don't have to buy it on Amazon to read it - there's a link to the online version of Fearless Salary Negotiation in another comment on this post - so you can read it for free and see what you think :)
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Another response to your comment says that salary negotiation is different than asking for a raise - I totally agree. I treat them as separate things that require unique processes.
[1] examples
“Sorry, 5% is the max raise per year.”
“I’m sorry, you should feel good getting 6%, most everyone got less but we really value you.”
“Make the project successful and you’ll be rewarded.” (Hint, somebody will be rewarded for the late nights and weekends, but it won’t be you.)