I am not sure if I am completely underpaid or what. But the pass two months, I’ve received some job offers and interview speaking of job that pays approximately 40%-50% more. These job offers are from smaller firms, so the offer was not in writing, the owner just asked me to join, then lay out the price…
Who doesn’t like the money, but I want to see if my current company can make a salary raise to compete ( I do not want to move around too much), is there any good suggestion on how I should approach to my current firm?
I would ask for it in writing from firm #2 before doing anything.
Are you happy at your current job? You may wind up having more opportunities moving to a new role at a different firm. You can go to your boss and say “I’ve received an offer for $XX,000 and I believe it’s in my best interest to go where I’m most valued”. I would avoid saying things like “I want to stay here but want more money” - if you imply that you want to stay in your current role it’s less incentive for them.
Another thing that I would consider is if you do this, you may get them to raise or meet the other salary, but you’ll most likely be sent to the back of the line next time promotions or raises come around. You also may harbor some bad blood from your boss who knows you’ve been sneaking around and interviewing at other companies. That can be viewed as you not really wanting to be there and again adds to that bad blood.
Moving around a lot is never good, but if you’ve been at your current position a while and don’t see as much opportunity there it may be time to move on.
One of the best tips I feel like I’ve gotten from one of the IDSA old timers was “When you feel like you’ve stopped learning it’s time to move on”.
If you do go to your boss asking for a raise, state it this way; “I’m very happy here, blah blah blah but was recently approached by a firm that is presenting me with a significant amount more in compensation.” That way, you won’t be seen as going out looking for the next best thing. I’d then ask if there was any way to step up in pay-grade by having additional responsibilities, etc. Don’t make it like you just want more money for the same work. Show them that you want to provide the company with more of what you have to offer, and that you’re valuable having been courted by other companies without you searching for it.
Great advice here. I"m in a similar place and have been wondering whether it’s better to ask for an, above normal, salary increase at review time or not?
About a year ago my position got really boring because there it was very routine there was little left to learn to do my regular work. I offered to take on some other responsibilities that had no ownership and have been doing that successfully for the past few months. My plan was to ask for an increase in compensation justified in part because I have taken on more work. I was going to wait for review time in the spring but I’ve begun to wonder whether that will help or hinder my case.
The way I went about this was by putting “earn a promotion” in my yearly performance goals. That included areas where I wanted to expand my role and how I was going to do it, and it worked.
Just saying “I think I should be getting paid more” is a tough pill to swallow. But if you ask for more responsibility and show you can handle it, then it should put you on the right path. It certainly took all year (or longer) to accomplish but eventually it went through.
If you’re already doing things that weren’t necessarily part of your job description then you should flag this as well.
I’ve dine what 6ix recommends in the past… It worked. Key is to be very polite and utterly honest. And be prepared for them to wish you luck in your new job… Just in case
I walked into my bosses office last Nov. and asked for a pay rise. I was polite and negotiated. Basically my side of the discussion was that I wasn’t very happy with my salary and the cost of living etc and was worrying about money while at work.
I walked away with an 11% pay rise and a friday off every fortnight, but I might have got the pay rise anyway. Who knows. There’s a lot of inequality around if you look. Some people get company cars, notebooks, phones etc. I think sometimes you just need to ask nicely and give a good reason for the extra benefit.
My boss made a good point by saying that I am 1 year out of Uni and if I was 50 with 25 years experience he would pay 20 - 30K more but he would be less forgiving of any mistakes I made.
These job offers are from smaller firms, so the offer was not in writing, the owner just asked me to join, then lay out the price…
Truly appreciated!