Have you asked for a raise?

[thatsright]

I have a IT job here in the Northeast...sort of a Help Desk/Technician role. When I started at the company I did everything in my job description asked of, and pretty well too (a little biased of course). Since in the two years I joined I have taken on more responsibilities...I am now the administrator of the Microsoft SCCM 2007 infrastructure covering 10 sites. I have also run our company wide PC Upgrade project to upgrade over 600 PC's @ 7 sites in the last two years.

The two reasons above are a from a few of he activities, responsibilities I have taken on and done well since . When I started the salary I received was within the range of the market at the time, perhaps a bit low. I have been there for two years. But now I feel a raise is warranted given the increased contributions to the department.

I will do the research. Local market conditions, salaries for my type of work, etc. Present my case in a calm fashion. I am doing the research portion now...

How about YOU? How/what did you research for your raise request? How did you present your case? Did you get shot down, get your raise? Whats the biggest no-no?

Please share your experiences...it will help me make a list of do's and don't dont's. Thanks!!

 

[daggerr]

It's not uncommon for an employer to not give a substantial raise until you've proven with another offer that another employer is willing to pay you more.

That being said, what you're doing is what you should do. Make a good case. If that doesn't work, get another offer that you'd actually be willing to take. If you're good, then your current employer will likely counter that offer. Then, depending on how much you like your current employer, you can choose to take their counter-offer or go with the new offer.

Personally, I ended up switching jobs every couple years early in my career for two reasons:
1. For new and interesting experience
2. For a raise

So, I didn't switch just for the raise, I switched because I actually wanted something different.

One time I had a tempting counter-offer in which the money would have been much better than what I was going to, but I still left the company. More than anything, follow your passion and decent money will follow.

 

[PremiumG]

I had my first experience asking for a raise in my IT job not too long ago. It went very well, although I was super nervous.

This is what I did.
I made up my mind to ask for a raise. I decided to totally go for it now matter what. I scheduled a meeting with my boss about 1-2 weeks in advance. Then I made up a document, almost resume like, of my recent accomplishments, my skills, my extra curriculars, etc.
I had a decent amount of things to type in. Don't forget your extra curriculars. My boss was impressed with that. My extras were taking free courses at work, including toastmasters, presentation skills, etc. During the meeting I gave him a copy of my documentation and went down each item one by one describing what I've contributed and also what my future career track is. I then summarized with something along the lines of "because of my increasing responsibilities, and skills, I believe I am worth this much." Also, do some reseach on average salary for your job and experience level and have that as backup as well.

 

[drum]

Originally posted by: PremiumG
I had my first experience asking for a raise in my IT job not too long ago. It went very well, although I was super nervous.

This is what I did.
I made up my mind to ask for a raise. I decided to totally go for it now matter what. I scheduled a meeting with my boss about 1-2 weeks in advance. Then I made up a document, almost resume like, of my recent accomplishments, my skills, my extra curriculars, etc.
I had a decent amount of things to type in. Don't forget your extra curriculars. My boss was impressed with that. My extras were taking free courses at work, including toastmasters, presentation skills, etc. During the meeting I gave him a copy of my documentation and went down each item one by one describing what I've contributed and also what my future career track is. I then summarized with something along the lines of "because of my increasing responsibilities, and skills, I believe I am worth this much." Also, do some reseach on average salary for your job and experience level and have that as backup as well.

I would follow this advice.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: drum

Originally posted by: PremiumG
I had my first experience asking for a raise in my IT job not too long ago. It went very well, although I was super nervous.

This is what I did.
I made up my mind to ask for a raise. I decided to totally go for it now matter what. I scheduled a meeting with my boss about 1-2 weeks in advance. Then I made up a document, almost resume like, of my recent accomplishments, my skills, my extra curriculars, etc.
I had a decent amount of things to type in. Don't forget your extra curriculars. My boss was impressed with that. My extras were taking free courses at work, including toastmasters, presentation skills, etc. During the meeting I gave him a copy of my documentation and went down each item one by one describing what I've contributed and also what my future career track is. I then summarized with something along the lines of "because of my increasing responsibilities, and skills, I believe I am worth this much." Also, do some reseach on average salary for your job and experience level and have that as backup as well.

I would follow this advice.

Yup, this is the way to do it. I did more or less the same thing at my last performance review and my boss was very happy to have the "hard facts on paper," so to speak. He said it made his job easier. Unfortunately, he had a very limited range of raises to offer (set by HR, no getting around them). So I came out with a raise high in the range, but low by my personal standards. That said, he made it clear that with what I told him he would do what he could to help me get promoted. He gave me some extra tasks, alerted me to internal interviews, and 5 months later I got promoted, which gave me a salary bump that would have taken three years to match under the companies' raise structure. So even if you don't get the raise you were hoping for, it can't hurt to make sure your boss knows you kick ass.

 

[alkemyst]

From experience, do this one time and one time only...if you are constantly chasing raises, your time is better spent elsewhere. It would be alot different if pensions and retirement packages were still offered, but they are not yet people still have that company mentality.

 

[FoBoT]

you need to point out how you "add-value" to the company, not just that you do a good job

 

[darkxshade]

You don't ask for a raise... you demand one!!!

 

[HardcoreRobot]

i told them i was very disappointed in the raise I received, they didn't do anything to change my mind so i left and got paid what i am worth

 

[SSSnail]

One thing I find valuable are the people that have some sort of loyalty. That being said, you can find other opportunities within the company to advance; you can have the best of both worlds, change in your job and a comfortable known environment to work in (that is unless that environment is known to be crap). In the long run, it'll make you both more valuable to the company and to the market, ergo bigger paycheck.

 

[Foxery]

At my company, we request "reviews." It sounds less presumptuous, and doesn't put anyone on guard or make it feel confrontational. However, I work in a small office where the boss tends to know already what we're doing, so I haven't had to make a speech, either.

 

[freegeeks]

1)yes
2)they said no
3)I left

In my experience, you can only get a substiantial raise by getting another job

YMMV

 

[Fritzo]

I've never asked for a raise. i just get them every year (sometimes twice a year) at my review. I have a talent for showing off to management though