How Would You Discuss/Negotiate A Raise?

If you are asking us this question, it is very unlikely you will succeed at getting a significant raise from your same current employer.

Why? I'll tell you from my own experience, starting at 90k base salary in May 2014 and now at 134k base as of June 2017, all with the same company. I knew when I started this job, I was underpaid at least 10% or so, but I accepted the job because I was coming off a 2 year stint playing poker semi-pro and only doing software dev for hobby projects.

I aggressively pursued a promotion after 12 months, by setting expectations with my manager where we both knew that I was under-leveled and thus underpaid coming in, and that he would put me up for promo as long as I delivered and exceeded expectations with the projects I was given. Now the funny thing with exceeding expectations is, 9 times out of 10, no one can tell you HOW to exceed them, because if they knew then they'd probably build those higher expectations in as well... So you really have to think for yourself and solve problems a bit more deeply or more generally than what you might be handed on paper.

At the time of the first promo, I also got a nice 5% "adjustment" in base salary, after which they then did a 10% bump on top of that adjusted number. This brought me basically in-line with what I would have expected had I not done the poker hiatus thing. I also had some nicely appreciating RSU stock vests that added a hefty chunk to my total comp.

After that it was essentially rinse and repeat for this 2nd promo that I just secured. I had the good fortune to have a supportive and decent manager, who communicated openly with me about expectations and what he needed from me in order for him to go into a room and fight for my promo in front of other VPs and directors (he even had me draft my own supporting documentation for him to use).

My lessons were: - you should always know what is expected of you at your current level, AND what would be expected of you at the next level - work with your manager to guide you while you strive for the expectations of the next higher level - do good work and make sure you are recognized for it - if company fails to recognize your good work or doesn't give you clear expectations, then simply LEAVE

You should already know what good projects you've done, that can be used to lever a raise or promotion. We couldn't tell you because we don't know what kind of value you bring. If you're racking your brains trying to figure it out now, and your manager doesn't know either or hasn't told you, then your chances for success at this employer are very low.

Without a strong case built on a track record of successful projects (that exceeded expectations for your current level), then the only other argument you can make is basically just the plain "industry competitive/average" one, but they might not think you are worth the industry average either.

/r/financialindependence Thread