I'm just so happy, and I kinda need to tell someone about this, so here's my story.
I started working with my current company three years ago (to the day, march 15th 2014). The company is great, work from home, great colleagues, I'm good at what I do, conditions are nice, etc.
Three years ago, when I had my job interview, during the final process, they asked me what my expected salary would be, and I told them based on what I was able to see from other similar jobs, and past work experience. I told them, and it was approved as soon as I said it. I thought it strange that they would agree so quickly, and kinda wondered if I had just lowballed myself to this salary.
Then a full year and a half came by, and I got my yearly review. "You're doing great work, clients love you, how do you like it, etc. Listen, I'm gonna give you a 6% raise! Normally I would only give 3% or so to people, but you get double!" I was pretty happy with the raise, but still felt that this was them playing catch-up on my salary to match other people.
Next year, pretty much the same story. Big raise, lots more than others (or so they way), good job. Still, I'm happy.
Then, I see on glassdoor that someone posted that a project manager job at my job makes significantly more than I. Like 30% more. That kinda pissed me off. My title is not project manager, but I do manage projects, and clients, and I never really cared about my title. To me, I should make close to that. Then I found a former colleague who had that job, and asked him how much he is paid, and it was pretty much that amount. I was more angry I was making so little in comparison.
By looking around, I was able to access some contracts for some employees that were not protected, and I realized that I was making less than anybody else in my position (despite being the oldest employee, and also having more responsibilities with clients and projects). I chalked it up to me not having negotiated a good enough salary when I came in, and I had to fix that.
Talking to my former colleague, he told me that I had to get my ducks in a row, potentially find another job offer to gain leverage, and also realize that since I was not living near the big city (i relocated about three hours away to a smaller city), it could be difficult for me to leverage since I would have trouble finding a satisfactory job offer in a smaller market.
I took that into consideration and decided to simply go see my boss about this. We have a great relationship, and I could see his reaction and take it from there. So I went, told him I found other people's salaries and how I did it so they could fix that breach, and I plead my case. He took that to HR and the owner of the company (it's a small firm).
Took them a week, and then he came to me. He said they were a bit pissed I checked the salaries of other people, that I shouldn't have, and I told him yeah, sorry, but not that sorry actually. I kinda stumbled onto them, and I didn't tell anybody about it, but it certainly helped me to leverage. We argued over some details, and I had a feeling I was gonna be offered something small, but then they gave me a 20% increase effective april 1st, with an additional 7% effective august 1st!
I think I went against most advice here when I went to negotiate my salary (no plan, comparing myself to others, etc.), and I can't say I was happy doing it, but it paid off :)
Submitted March 15, 2017 at 03:21PM by mushnu http://ift.tt/2nFAgck
