How to Increase Your Salary

Here's a comment left on my post titled How to Have a High Net Worth that's a response to a question about how to increase your salary. I think it's excellent advice and wanted to share it with you all:

For someone starting out, I'd say focus on delivering a strong multiple of your salary in measurable value to your company. This is so much easier to do in a high growth environment vs one where the industry is shrinking. The key to getting a nice salary increase in my experience is when you have the chance to change jobs. Generally you have the best negotiating power before you join a company so for this reason you should never find yourself desperate to change a job at all costs. If you are in that position you will leave money on the table.

The best strategy is when interviewing, you make sure that the company thinks you are the key person for the job and spend all time doing this before even mentioning salary. Once you know they really would like to have you then you should hold out for a much stronger offer. Hopefully you are valued in your current role and building a career for yourself there as well otherwise you are just bluffing. If you feel comfortable about your situation you won't leave until you get a much higher offer and that is why you will get big salary gains. If there is not a compelling offer, you stay where you are.

I like this comment for several reasons including:

• It offers a wide variety of useful tips.
• You can tell it's from someone who's been there, knows this will work from experience, and speaks with as an authority on the topic.
• It's similar to what I've said on many different occasions. :-)

If you want more details on what's being said above, you can get a bit more by checking out these posts:

• How to Demonstrate that You Deserve a Raise

• What I'd Do with a High-Paying, Unrewarding Job

• Which is More Important -- A High Starting Salary or Higher Average Salary Increases?

• A High Starting Salary is Worth Almost $1 Million

• Is It Standard Procedure to Ask for More If Offered a Job?

Comments

[Corporate Barbarian]

The commenter knows what he/she is talking about. The biggest increases come before you start working for a company. Try to get whatever you can when negotiating your starting salary, and get it in writing! Once you're in the door, nothing is guaranteed. I've noticed a disturbing trend throughout my career: other companies' employees appear more attractive than a companies' current employees. Apparently, familiarity breeds contempt!

[Dean]

I'm starting to think the same myself after stalling out at $180k base. And, something I learned only after joining the company, is that to get to the "Architect" title is essentially impossible for those already within the company. It requires sign-off by the CEO whereas a VP can approve someone being hired at that rank. Argh! I'm just below Architect and it looks like I'll have to switch companies to make the next move up. Which means sitting on my hands for a few years while my green card comes through.

[Mike Hunt]

Dean,

It sure gets more difficult when you get to the top end of the salary band as it looks like you've achieved. Congratulations on that, by the way.

The key will be look at the compensation and bonus structure of the top management of any company you look at. If they are public, this information will be in their annual report. If they are private it is harder but you can always ask directly only once they are certain you are the one for the job.

Remember it's like the law of the jungle. The CEO gets the lions share, and everyone else has a lower compensation with the exception of the lucky sales guy who can beat the CEO on commission but not year after year!

Keep in mind when times are tough (like now) it's not uncommon for the CEO and senior mgmt team to take salary freezes and even pay cuts. You have to stay positive through this period.

-Mike