Asking for a raise

devious93

devious93

devious93

Associate
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Evening all,

Was just after some opinions regarding the thread title.

I was originally taken on as a trainee with limited experience in December last year on 14k with a note to raise it to 16k in April if I fulfilled a certain criteria which I did. Now it's coming up to being there a year and the average pay for a 1st line support job pays 18-22k+ and I do 1st/2nd line aswell as other duties and am fairly competent now compared to when I started/my previous review in April.

I've worked through 80 percent or more of my lunch breaks all year (not like that means anything), completed many hours of unpaid overtime and saved us from losing big accounts by doing so (our biggest earning ones) which my boss did not appreciate nor thank me on yet the people below him did.

Now the question is when do I approach him. Do I approach him this December when I've been there a year or do I hold out til April for the yearly appraisal meetings?
 
Hold out and ensure you have a very compelling list of reasons. Also found out how much you are worth in the market and use this as a benchmark.
 
Managers rarely support staff when it comes to salaries and view 99% of them as expendable. If they ever regret a decision, it will be afterwards, and then they'll just deal with it then.

In the current employment climate, my honest advice is to consider other jobs and get a job offer. Approach your current manager/director at that point, and see if they are interested in keeping you (you are then desirable to others, so the standard reaction is to retain what others desire).
 
RedvGreen said:
Managers rarely support staff when it comes to salaries and view 99% of them as expendable. If they ever regret a decision, it will be afterwards, and then they'll just deal with it then.

In the current employment climate, my honest advice is to consider other jobs and get a job offer. Approach your current manager/director at that point, and see if they are interested in keeping you (you are then desirable to others, so the standard reaction is to retain what others desire).
Click to expand...

Exactly this....
Don't just get an offer, get a job you would be willing to leave and go do!
 
Blast, had a feeling this would be the case and quite a few companies look for qualifications over experience to get through the interview stage, time to quickly get comptia A+ and Network+ under my belt between now and April then!
 
I don't agree with the above r.e lack of support. The right person is worth their weight in gold and if they're underpaid ( and clearly able to get the cash elsewhere) it would be a foolish/poor individual who would not at least try to resolve the situation.

This does come with the caveat of assuming a relatively skilled role though

Wait till appraisal time, make sure you are pro active in the meantime so you are viewed in the best possible light. You need to be open to an alternative view on how "good" you are though. You may well feel you are doing a more senior role but your line manager may not. Ultimately you need to be prepared to move if cash is driving you. Don't come out with any sort of ultimatum though - I would tell you to leave, even if they don't your card will be marked in future
 
If you can get a job for 10k more, leave.

That company isn't worth staying at if you're that undervalued IMO
 
Also, it has happened to everyone, but it is very easy to over-value your role/positions/skillset. We can only see from our eyes and it is easy to perceive others being inexperienced, lazy, or underachievers. The sad part is that it doesn't matter.

What matters is what your manager/director sees.
 
It's a small business with 10 employees so just my MD to report to really. Three members of staff are extremely lazy and one is a part timer who joins me on helpdesk who I originally learnt some basics from I now actually end up teaching him now who I also know is on 50 percent more than me per hour.

Other than the part timer every other member of staff in the IT department is out on the road 90 percent of the time and have a different skill set to me as they are mainly second/third line, I just pick up some of the slack from the second line stuff they have builiding up aswell as helpdesk/server issues that are all logged with myself which can be done remotely.
 
if you get another job offer leave. Don't play the game of "I got an offer in another company for x". If they retain you they won't forget you held them to ransom. SImply find a better job you would be willing to leave for and go.

If they see you as key talenmt and want to retain you then at the time you hand in your notice a few days alter they may come back to you with a counter offer. The its up to you to either stay or go. Don't however try to get leverage with another offer.

I have seen people attempt to do this at plenty of companies I have worked at in it never succeeds. Even if they get what they wanted they were retained and placed into the "leper" bin. Then when the next available opportunity came to off load them , either through staff shuffles or redundancies they were the first shown the door.

The key is to let them identify you as key talent rather than you try and take them to the bridge.
 
RedvGreen said:
What matters is what your manager/director sees.
Click to expand...

+1

unfortunatly its a fact of working life that if your manager likes/dislikes you it has more sway in decisions then anything else will at a lot of places.

i was earning 10k less then others doing the same job as me in my previous company, i agree there should always be some sway for loyalty/time served/experience (whatever way you want to put it) but 10k when my salary was 22k was a bit of a joke tbh

i looked for a new job, got lucky, and now earn more then they do although working with BSc/MSc/PhD educated people i know my chances for progression are limited (i have an E is AS-Level Chemisty :() im on a salary im more then happy with for a good few years yet.
 
wildman said:
... The key is to let them identify you as key talent ...
Click to expand...

Indeed. I don't think ransom demands ever work in the long term. In my previous company, I was at a stage where I was unhappy, so I found myself a new job and told my boss that I was going to leave. The news filtered through the chain, eventually to the CTO, and a more senior boss got me a 33% pay rise (to match my new job offer, which was with a global insurance broker) and a much better position in a much better team. The thing is, sometimes companies do call your bluff so you have to be prepared to go whatever happens.
 
Go in armed and show him you are worth it (and not worth losing/re-hiring someone else for 24k + fees, training time etc.)

market rates, skills, experience. Don't make it sound like you will leave if you dont get exactly what you want but also don't make it sound like you would stay if you didn't.

I recently was in the same boat and more or less got what I wanted :)
 
I feel like my current role is a job and not a career and I end up getting the donkey work and never properly trained on how to do anything and I've had to self teach myself most things.

I've tolerated it for a year now and can see this will not be going much further after gentle reminders to my boss over the past 4 months how I'd like to learn more onsite only to be told that they may not be for 5 years + and depends on how the company grows in the future and there would be no guarantee that this would ever happen.

Being told it will be that long as well as lack of documentation for customers, not having sufficient software to do my job, work premises and computer setup that breach health and safety and lack of human interaction in a dark corner upstairs by myself most days had got the best of me and it would have to take a lot to keep me there long term unless a lot of these issues could be addressed which they wont. It took 2 years + to get a paid phone system here!

I just tested the waters today to one company only simply asking if they had anything coming up in the near future and what qualifications they look for in IT staff and within an hour I've been told they're looking for onsite network engineers and they want me to send my CV in. I wasn't expecting that at all.....this is the moment where the lack of qualifications bite me on the ass eh.
 
rodenal said:
I don't agree with the above r.e lack of support. The right person is worth their weight in gold and if they're underpaid ( and clearly able to get the cash elsewhere) it would be a foolish/poor individual who would not at least try to resolve the situation.

This does come with the caveat of assuming a relatively skilled role though

Wait till appraisal time, make sure you are pro active in the meantime so you are viewed in the best possible light. You need to be open to an alternative view on how "good" you are though. You may well feel you are doing a more senior role but your line manager may not. Ultimately you need to be prepared to move if cash is driving you. Don't come out with any sort of ultimatum though - I would tell you to leave, even if they don't your card will be marked in future
Click to expand...

Unfortunatly its far more common to run into managers who just don't care and will deal with the aftermath if and when it arises than it is to find ones who actually have some foresight and care about their staff.
 
Haggisman said:
That sounds quite high for a 1st/2nd line it support position unless it needs some specialist skills, or in the centre of London?

I'd would have thought the average would be more around £18k
Click to expand...

I'm in the south east Brighton area, wages tend to be higher here/in London

18k seems to be starting salary for 1st line who knows basic desktop troubleshooting.

I tend to cover: Windows XP-Windows 8, Office 2003-2012, Windows Server, Small Business Server 2003 (not very often)/2008 (constantly)/2012, Active Directory management, Exchange 2003/2007, Blackberry (basic BIS/BES), Backup products, Anti-Virus products, Firewall/email security configuration, general tcp/ip, port forwarding, general networking printers etc etc

I'm certainly not a specialist in any of the above but I do touch on all of it.
 
Haggisman said:
That sounds quite high for a 1st/2nd line it support position unless it needs some specialist skills, or in the centre of London?

I'd would have thought the average would be more around £18k
Click to expand...

Market rate (outside london) for 1st line is 22k. I know this because we (management) have recently recruited people for 1st line on slightly higher.

To be honest im not on much more and have a degree in computing, a citrix certification and know how to use a fair amout of tools
 
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