Hi r/personalfinance. I’d like to share my success story about recently asking for and receiving a raise.
I currently work in an account executive/outside sales position in a medium size, international company (1,500+ people). I was hired and trained straight out of college, which is extremely out of the ordinary for my type of position (most similar outside sales entry level positions are 5+ years experience). During my final interview, I was asked to name my salary expectations. I asked for 50k (which to 22 year old kid, sounded like a lot at the time) and they happily obliged. I received a 3k increase after successfully completing training and another 5k of the course of the next 3.5 years or so. I should also note that I get reimbursed fully on all gas receipts, cell phone, and a 6k per year taxable auto allowance. I also receive a yearly bonus that has usually been about 1 month of salary. My W2 showed 72k in taxable income last year.
I have been extremely successful and have worked very hard to build my own account base in my job the past 4 years. My company and direct managers are very pleased with my progress, they think I’m a hard worker, and I always get great reviews. The real problem is my salary or bonus is not based on commission. I’m salaried with a profit sharing bonus that is based on how well the company (not the individual salesperson) does.
This past year I did very well based on all measurable metrics. I knew that if I really wanted a raise, the time to strike was now. The past 1 or 2 years, I had been approach by several headhunters. I’m not really looking for a change of scenery as my current industry is consolidating, there are financial woes, and I’m well liked and really like my current work/life balance. However, I couldn’t ignore the numbers they were throwing out. The last recruiter to contact me told me the salary was up to 90k + benefits depending on experience (with a min of 3-5 years experience in my current role). 58k vs 90k is quite the discrepancy.
During my last review I mentioned to my direct manager that I was unhappy that our bonuses/salary is not based on how we do as individual sales people. I also mentioned the fact that I had been approached several times by headhunters. I reiterated that I really enjoy my job and want to stay but asked if there any way to have a review. He said that he would get the message over to HR but wouldn’t promise anything. All salary decision must be reported to HQ in Asia for their decision.
Less than a week later I was told that the president of the US would be in town for unrelated business and he would like to talk to me. We met and had an hour long discussion. I was able to really get him to relate to me, I shared with him the cost of living in Los Angeles, how I really enjoyed working with the company and would like to continue to grow there, and how I felt my number were incredible good. He just was put into his position about a year ago, so he had no idea how much we all made.
He told me that there should be no problem getting an increase for me. All my managers think I’m very hard working, I get very good result, and I always get very high marks on my appraisals. He asked me to name a range and I asked for a bump to the 70-75k range (12-17k) increase. He told me he would send a request ASAP to the global VP who could decide on these matters.
Less than a week later (!!) HR called and informed me that they had agreed to a 14k increase to 72k per year (25% of base!). In return, I gave them a commitment to stay for 3 years. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of turmoil and consolidation in the industry, so it’s a good time to stay put and ride this out. I felt great that my managers went up to bat so fast for me and my company likes me so much they gave me a huge increase and wants to tie me up for 3 years. I’m also eligible for all future scheduled raises and I’m in a higher bracket for the year profit sharing bonus.
All in all I went from 58k salary to 72k salary effective this month! On top of the other benefits and bonus, I’ll be making at least 90k per year which I’m so excited about! I was very hesitant and nervous to ask but I thought that I deserved it. I lurked this sub for good advice constantly so I wanted to share my story of good fortune! Thanks to everyone for reading, let me know if you have any questions!
Submitted July 03, 2017 at 11:05PM by raisesuccess69 http://ift.tt/2skS9QH
