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?
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.)