My annual employee review is coming up, and I have been thinking that it might be a good time to negotiate a higher salary. Its my first time doing so, and so I'd like to get some advice and gain some perspective (from both sides of the table) on the best ways to go about it.
Some background info:
Company is a large corporate firm with 7 offices internationally. I have 3 years experience with the firm, I started as an entry-level designer after graduate school. I have worked on multiple projects during my time and have taken on alot of responsibility lately which has required longer hours. I am averaging about 50-60 hours per week, many nights I have to take a cab home and my firm does not pay overtime. I also have student loans which I am paying off. My current salary is $60k.
Does anyone have experience with salary negotiation? How much is appropriate? Do I bring it up in my review, or go directly to my manager?
Any advice and discussion would be enlightening!
SneakyPete
Sep 11, 15 4:00 pm
NYC is expensive. That's a decent entry salary, tho...
null pointer
Sep 11, 15 4:44 pm
My 2 cents.
If you are not licensed, working 50-60 hours a week involves a huge opportunity cost. $60k is the usual for three years in NYC. Be smart. Start cutting your hours. Start taking tests. Then ask for a raise or move elsewhere. Without a license 60k is pretty much what you'll get at 3 years.
Carrera
Sep 11, 15 6:30 pm
For me, when I wasn’t paying overtime, a person’s hours were a factor. I wouldn’t cut back just yet, but be mindful of the business side of architecture, if you ask me for more money lay out before me the facts, your value. A simple paper showing these equations is a good place to start:
$60,000/year ÷ 2,010 hours per year = $29.85/hour
$60,000/year ÷ 2,860 hours per year = $20.97/hour
Add to that an outline of bullet points of your year 1 responsibilities and the same for your year 3 responsibilities….side by side, and be prepared to put a number on your current value to the firm.
Never, ever mention your financial “needs”.
The least you will get is an $8.88/hour increase, if not I would spend the next year “looking”.
thearchitectsguide
Sep 11, 15 7:48 pm
Since you mentioned you work in a large corporate firm there will be a standard procedure for raises. Since every office is different, try to speak with others who have successfully asked for a raise and how they went about it.
As Carrera mentioned, don't discuss your personal finances, this is irrelevant to the firm. What is important to your employer is what value do your bring to the company? Why do you deserve a raise? Do you have three years of experience or one year of experience three times?
Clearly list what you have done over this period of time and how you have added value to projects, project teams and the office growth. You can lay this out in a small portfolio-type format to give you some visual references to help explain your case.
Do not bother getting into a calculation of number of hours worked versus salary. Minimum wage workers worry about their hourly rate. Are you just working slower or really producing? You need to be concerned with communitcating WHAT you are accomplishing in that time and HOW you are contributing.
A. What you have accomplished, how you have grown, how you have changed from your last review.
B. Discuss the hours that you work per week over your average salary.
C. Look at what the competitors pay
You have to be prepared with what they will do on your review. What if they knit pick you to death and you get lower points in areas you thought you would do well on, will you be prepared to discuss salary then? You have to think of all of these things. Take your friend out for beers and, get them to go through the lamest things a boss could say to you and get them to throw them at you. Find a way to respond so you can then practice spinning things around and talking about all of the hard projects you have worked on and how you have kicked ass at certain things, etc.
Then, when they get to the part about you will just be getting a 3% raise with pennies for a bonus part this year... irrespective of how the review went, ask them what things they really liked about the last year and then ask them where they see you growing over the next year. Tell them that you love the firm and what you love about them as a boss. Then hit them...
So, over the last year, these are the projects that I have worked on... Since I have started working here, these are the things that I have done and this is what I have accomplished. Thank them for their 3% raise and then say, I know you have to balance pay among staff, etc, however based off all that I have done over the past few years or year and based off the fact that I work X,Y,Z hours per week or month, I currently feel that we should look at my salary.
Then go into, I have been doing research, and I am aware that the market currently pays Y. Based of the fact that with my new raise which I received today, I am only getting paid X, and because I don't get overtime, that currently comes to $X an hour versus the market standard rate of $Y dollars, I was wondering if we could discuss how we can make up that disparity.....
You have to get good at this. Practice makes perfect. If they aren't willing to come up at all in salary, then I would consider leaving your job. It does come down to your hourly rate! Those are hours you can spending doing things you love to do outside of work and work is not your life!
If they aren't willing to budge on salary, try to get creative. Maybe you want for them to pay for a course that you really want to do. Maybe you want to be able to expense the taxi. Maybe you want more vacation. Maybe you want to go on a sabbatical and go travel for 3 months to Indonesia?
At the end of the day, no one likes to get pinned against the wall and reviews can be awkward. You have to strip away the fear/emotion and find a way to make it a casual yet serious discussion.
What are you going to do when you have to go back to the developer/owner and ask for more fee and they fight you for it. This is an important part of your job and you need to be good at it.
If you are respectful and show what you bring, you will earn more respect from your employer. The way that we develop as professionals, is we face our challenges head on and we tackle them. Don't be a coward and leave. Try to make it work.
Just remember, you can't leave/quit a client that doesn't pay you well, you have to find a way to make it work once you are committed to a contract. Of course, we can all leave employers that exploit us or are abusive, but you get the point.
Be prepared if they say that they are going to go back and talk to the partners, etc. Ask them when you will be able to meet again and schedule a time or find a definite time that they will get back to you by. You don't want this lingering, or you will start to feel weird around the office.
Believe that you are worth it and go out there and ask for it!
Here's another thought: You can speak to your clients the next time you are with them(strategically, a few weeks to 2 months before your review) and you can tell them, that this is the part of the year where your firm looks back at the last year. If there is something you really enjoy that we do as firm, please feel free to let me know or let my boss know. Then pass those comments along during your check in sessions casually, so your boss has them in mind when they are filling out your review.
**Note, in many companies, the review forms are filled out and salary increases are approved weeks prior to your review normally because they have to review how those increases work in the overall picture.
Hello out there,
My annual employee review is coming up, and I have been thinking that it might be a good time to negotiate a higher salary. Its my first time doing so, and so I'd like to get some advice and gain some perspective (from both sides of the table) on the best ways to go about it.
Some background info:
Company is a large corporate firm with 7 offices internationally. I have 3 years experience with the firm, I started as an entry-level designer after graduate school. I have worked on multiple projects during my time and have taken on alot of responsibility lately which has required longer hours. I am averaging about 50-60 hours per week, many nights I have to take a cab home and my firm does not pay overtime. I also have student loans which I am paying off. My current salary is $60k.
Does anyone have experience with salary negotiation? How much is appropriate? Do I bring it up in my review, or go directly to my manager?
Any advice and discussion would be enlightening!
NYC is expensive. That's a decent entry salary, tho...
My 2 cents.
If you are not licensed, working 50-60 hours a week involves a huge opportunity cost. $60k is the usual for three years in NYC. Be smart. Start cutting your hours. Start taking tests. Then ask for a raise or move elsewhere. Without a license 60k is pretty much what you'll get at 3 years.
For me, when I wasn’t paying overtime, a person’s hours were a factor. I wouldn’t cut back just yet, but be mindful of the business side of architecture, if you ask me for more money lay out before me the facts, your value. A simple paper showing these equations is a good place to start:
$60,000/year ÷ 2,010 hours per year = $29.85/hour
$60,000/year ÷ 2,860 hours per year = $20.97/hour
Add to that an outline of bullet points of your year 1 responsibilities and the same for your year 3 responsibilities….side by side, and be prepared to put a number on your current value to the firm.
Never, ever mention your financial “needs”.
The least you will get is an $8.88/hour increase, if not I would spend the next year “looking”.
Since you mentioned you work in a large corporate firm there will be a standard procedure for raises. Since every office is different, try to speak with others who have successfully asked for a raise and how they went about it.
As Carrera mentioned, don't discuss your personal finances, this is irrelevant to the firm. What is important to your employer is what value do your bring to the company? Why do you deserve a raise? Do you have three years of experience or one year of experience three times?
Clearly list what you have done over this period of time and how you have added value to projects, project teams and the office growth. You can lay this out in a small portfolio-type format to give you some visual references to help explain your case.
Do not bother getting into a calculation of number of hours worked versus salary. Minimum wage workers worry about their hourly rate. Are you just working slower or really producing? You need to be concerned with communitcating WHAT you are accomplishing in that time and HOW you are contributing.
Good luck!
Brandon
www.thearchitectsguide.com
+++thearchitectsguide
I would use:
A. What you have accomplished, how you have grown, how you have changed from your last review.
B. Discuss the hours that you work per week over your average salary.
C. Look at what the competitors pay
You have to be prepared with what they will do on your review. What if they knit pick you to death and you get lower points in areas you thought you would do well on, will you be prepared to discuss salary then? You have to think of all of these things. Take your friend out for beers and, get them to go through the lamest things a boss could say to you and get them to throw them at you. Find a way to respond so you can then practice spinning things around and talking about all of the hard projects you have worked on and how you have kicked ass at certain things, etc.
Then, when they get to the part about you will just be getting a 3% raise with pennies for a bonus part this year... irrespective of how the review went, ask them what things they really liked about the last year and then ask them where they see you growing over the next year. Tell them that you love the firm and what you love about them as a boss. Then hit them...
So, over the last year, these are the projects that I have worked on... Since I have started working here, these are the things that I have done and this is what I have accomplished. Thank them for their 3% raise and then say, I know you have to balance pay among staff, etc, however based off all that I have done over the past few years or year and based off the fact that I work X,Y,Z hours per week or month, I currently feel that we should look at my salary.
Then go into, I have been doing research, and I am aware that the market currently pays Y. Based of the fact that with my new raise which I received today, I am only getting paid X, and because I don't get overtime, that currently comes to $X an hour versus the market standard rate of $Y dollars, I was wondering if we could discuss how we can make up that disparity.....
You have to get good at this. Practice makes perfect. If they aren't willing to come up at all in salary, then I would consider leaving your job. It does come down to your hourly rate! Those are hours you can spending doing things you love to do outside of work and work is not your life!
If they aren't willing to budge on salary, try to get creative. Maybe you want for them to pay for a course that you really want to do. Maybe you want to be able to expense the taxi. Maybe you want more vacation. Maybe you want to go on a sabbatical and go travel for 3 months to Indonesia?
At the end of the day, no one likes to get pinned against the wall and reviews can be awkward. You have to strip away the fear/emotion and find a way to make it a casual yet serious discussion.
What are you going to do when you have to go back to the developer/owner and ask for more fee and they fight you for it. This is an important part of your job and you need to be good at it.
If you are respectful and show what you bring, you will earn more respect from your employer. The way that we develop as professionals, is we face our challenges head on and we tackle them. Don't be a coward and leave. Try to make it work.
Just remember, you can't leave/quit a client that doesn't pay you well, you have to find a way to make it work once you are committed to a contract. Of course, we can all leave employers that exploit us or are abusive, but you get the point.
Be prepared if they say that they are going to go back and talk to the partners, etc. Ask them when you will be able to meet again and schedule a time or find a definite time that they will get back to you by. You don't want this lingering, or you will start to feel weird around the office.
Believe that you are worth it and go out there and ask for it!
Here's another thought: You can speak to your clients the next time you are with them(strategically, a few weeks to 2 months before your review) and you can tell them, that this is the part of the year where your firm looks back at the last year. If there is something you really enjoy that we do as firm, please feel free to let me know or let my boss know. Then pass those comments along during your check in sessions casually, so your boss has them in mind when they are filling out your review.
**Note, in many companies, the review forms are filled out and salary increases are approved weeks prior to your review normally because they have to review how those increases work in the overall picture.