Category Archives: Raises

2 ways to get more vacation at your current job

Posted on February 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

Why doesn’t anyone ever get more vacation than they are scheduled for in their current job?  Yet some folks come in their first day with more vacation than folks who were there 8 years.

One reason is that very few people ask.  Even fewer ask it in the right way. Here are 2 ways to ask for more vacation that might actually get it for you.

The easy way

Ask your boss a month before you are due to get your next raise. Let your boss know that you are willing to give up part or all of your raise to get another week vacation.  A week’s vacation is the equivalent of a 2-3% raise.  If you are pretty sure you are not going to get a raise anyway, this is a great way to do it.

The hard way

A month before your next performance review, put together a great performance review package about yourself.  Put down all the ways and times you exceeded expectations, saved money, saved a customer, came in under budget, got done early, stayed late, trained someone, etc..  I assure you that he forgot more than half of what you did, so remind him.

Then call a recruiter and ask if there are any companies in the area that give someone like you an extra week vacation.  He will probably say, “Some do, do you want a job?”  Tell him, “Not now, but thank you.”

Then talk to your boss and say exactly this, “A recruiter was talking to me. He said that some companies in this area are offering more vacation than I am getting.  You have the performance review materials I gave you.  In addition to a raise, I would like another week of vacation.”

Notice that you do not say YOU called the recruiter.  That doesn’t matter. So if your boss asks if you called a recruiter say, “A recruiter was talking to ME.”  If he pushes it, sure you can tell him you called.  That isn’t real important, but I would avoid it if possible.

Now go see if you can get that vacation.

Something to do today

Find out from your HR department what your full benefits package is worth.  You need to know vacation days, personal days, sick days, pension contributions, 401K matching, their healthcare costs and what exactly is your contribution to healthcare.  You can add your salary, bonuses and expense allowances to the list.  You may be surprised at the cost of your benefits, and it will be a great thing to know when asking for more vacation.

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Later:                         Moth traps

                                    Slitting your throat with your own teeth

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Posted in Promotions, Raises

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Are you passively employed ?

Posted on February 5, 2013 | Leave a comment

Thinking of yourself passively — as being employed and, therefore, subject to the dictates of someone else — can be fatal to your long-term success. In reality, you’re the president of your own personal-services corporation. You’re completely in charge of production, quality control, training and development, marketing, finance, and promotion.

Seeing yourself as self-employed forces you to recognize that you are also self-responsible and self-determining. That everything that happens to you happens because of your conduct and your behavior. You’re in the driver’s seat. You’re behind the steering wheel of your life. It’s up to you to decide how to utilize your talents and abilities in such a way as to bring you the very highest return on the investment of your time and energy.  (Brian Tracy)

read the whole thing here.

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Posted in Attitude, Focus, Raises, Time management, Training

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Use these 4 guerilla tactics to get promoted or a raise

Posted on January 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

Getting a raise or getting promoted is hard if no one notices what you do.  Guerilla tactics for quick advancements have to get you noticed in a nice way.  First a story, then the tactics.

Bill was one of the original guerilla advertisers.  Two decades ago he had a product that no one had in a PC.  Now every PC has one.  His company went from obscurity to a major buyout.  A lot of that happened because Bill and his partner figured out how to take the spotlight and become the talk of the town.  They also had very good technology.

We have been in contact for 4 or 5 years now.  His fortunes changed dramatically.  The buyout is over.  The money went into investments that didn’t work out. He spent the last couple few years learning new skills.  He started over at entry level and rose to team lead quickly.  Now he has broken into the big time. Again. When he was broke.  Again.

It is easy to break into the big time if you have a lot of money.  People come to you.  Bill wasn’t in that position. So what could he do?

We ended up talking about his original guerilla marketing.  At that time they had no budget for marketing.  He had to get the spotlight to shine on their product without paying for it.  So they did talk shows, magazine articles, press releases, trade association presentations and keynote addresses.  They even put together almost complete reviews of their products so that magazine writers wouldn’t have to work hard.

Bill did that same type of thing again.  He is attracte the change he wanted to see in his life.   He isn’t chasing change, he puts on pheromones and lets change chase him.

All successful employers are stalking men who will do the unusual, men who think, men who attract attention by performing more than is expected of them. (Charles M. Schwab)

You can do the same type of guerilla self-promotion.  You can attract change.  Here’s how:

  1. Write your own reviews
  2. Become an expert
  3. Become KNOWN as an expert
  4. Get published

First off, be sure and write your own reviews for your boss.  On a weekly monthly, quarterly and annual basis you need to give your boss a glowing review.  A simple report stating the wonderful things you did each week will help him.  He can’t pay attention to everything you do.  That weekly report and more summaries will make sure that he knows how much you are worth.  Write your own reviews.

You can become an expert.  Start studying the area you want to be an expert in.  One hour a day will make you a reference source in a month.  In 3 months you will be an expert.

Find out how you can become known as the expert.  Offer to teach a class, write a memo or attend a planning meeting.  Brief the managers above you in your area of expertise.  You can do it informally.  Talk to them before a meeting starts. The others coming to the meeting will hear some of it.  Catch him in the hall and give him a one minute tidbit.

You can also write articles about what you have learned.  Offer them to the office newsletter editor.  Don’t be afraid, offer them to the local newspaper, online magazines and trade magazines.  Publishers desperately need interesting articles.  When you get published make sure and give all your bosses a copy of the article.

My son was published in online programming magazines before he left for college.  They needed good articles and didn’t care about his youth and lack of experience.

Figure out how to become an expert and you will be surprised how quickly your prospects change.  You can become a technical consultant or a manager.

Put on the pheromones of knowledge and the aura of expertise. Attract change in your career.

Something to do today

Figure out what is worth becoming an expert about.  Ask your bosses and other experts in your field where they see it going.  You’ll be surprised how many people you are in awe of will talk with you about where they see the brightest future.

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Later:               Google to disaster

That loud sucking sound

How to tell who is great

55 gallon oil drums on the horizon

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Posted in Accomplishments, Promotions, Raises

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3 ways to find out if you are underpaid

Posted on January 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

I got a call from three business analysts from one international company in the same month.  Each of them wanted to leave.  The first thing cited was their low salary.  When I said, “You can get a different job, but you will have to take at least a $10,000 per year pay cut,” they backed off.  It was the awful truth. Each one of them had golden handcuffs.  They were earning at least 15% more than any other local business would pay them. Of course the problem wasn’t their low pay, the problem was the unpaid overtime they were putting in.  At least they thought it was unpaid until they found out the pay cut they would have to take to move elsewhere.

Contract employees often tell me, “I want a salaried job, but I’m not going to accept less than I’m earning now.”  They want to stop traveling, have health insurance, a generous training allowance, and get into a secure job with a future in one company.  Yet, they want to be paid the same as when they had none of those things.  Contract employees often earn twice what a salaried employee earns.  It is for the simple fact that contractors have to take care of themselves.

Certainly some are vastly underpaid.  I had one friend, Joe, who went from $35,000 per year to $50,000 per year in one salary jump because he was underpaid.  Yes, it happens.  More often employees are within 5% of the market rate for their job.  If an employer pays less, they start losing people.  Either they raise salaries or I come in and steal all of their best people.  Then they are left with a bunch really poor employees and maybe one great person who hasn’t found out yet.  When that great employee leaves, the company may go out of business.

To find out if you are really underpaid, first look at your performance. Only superstars get superstar salaries. If you are just average, you should expect average wages.  If you are below average, your wages will be lower.

Now do what Joe did, ask your coworkers how much they are paid, if you can.  Joe didn’t do it for 5 years.  When he finally asked, he asked workers he knew were lower rated than he was.  When he found they were all earning more than he was, he had a right to get mad and get it fixed.

You can also look in the employment ads.  Just remember that ads lie.  A range of $50,000 to $60,000 does not mean you magically qualify for the high end.  It means if you are a superstar you may hit the high end.  It means an average worker will get the bottom number.  A poor worker will not get hired.

Next, put together your resume and send it to a recruiter who specializes in placing folks like you.  Ask for an honest opinion, “Can I expect a raise going to my next job?”  Follow that up with, “How is my current pay compared to others doing the same job?”  If the recruiter gasps and says, “I will have you three interviews tomorrow,” you are drastically underpaid.  If he says, “It will take a while, but I may be able to find you a job,” your pay is within 5% of the norm or possibly high.

The ways to find out if you REALLY are underpaid are:

  1. Ask coworkers rated lower than you are, “What do they pay you?”
  2. Look at job ads.
  3. Get a great resume to a recruiter and see how he reacts.

Find out where you stand, but be prepared for the “bad news” that you are paid about what you should be paid.  If you get the “bad news”, fix it.  Do the better work that will get you a raise, or get a job with a brighter future.

Folks who never do any more than they are paid for, never get paid more than they do.  (Elbert Hubbard)

Something to do today

Do you have the guts to find out if you are being paid fairly?  Then do it.

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Later:               Attracting change

Google to disaster

That loud sucking sound

How to tell who is great

55 gallon oil drums on the horizon

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Posted in Negotiating, Promotions, Raises, Recruiters

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How to prepare your boss to promote you

Posted on January 4, 2013 | Leave a comment

Prepare yourself for the world, as the athletes used to do for their exercise, oil your mind and your manners, to give them the necessary suppleness and flexibility, strength alone will not do.  (Earl of Chesterfield)

Julie called my office.  She wants a promotion.  I’m a recruiter, it’s my job to help her find that promotion in a new company.  I hate to have someone turn down a job because their boss makes them a counter offer they can’t refuse. So, I asked her, “How often do you tell your boss you want a promotion?”

“I told him at my last performance review.”

“How long ago was that?”

“It has been over a year.  We’re so busy the managers just can’t find time to do them.”

She’s a superstar performer going nowhere.  When the office is jumping with activity for months at a time, no one counts her performance as exceptional.  They just know she isn’t any trouble.

So, I suggested she declare her candidacy in a way that makes her an obvious choice for that promotion. It will also make it easier to find a new job with a promotion.  First Julie needs to invite a few of her bosses out to lunch.  She needs to let them know she wants the promotion.  She needs to find a mentor.  Then she needs to get a plan put together with her mentor’s help.  She needs to prepare for promotion.

Deciding who to promote in an office of heads down hard workers is tough.  There is no standout leader.   No one has already taken the helm.  However, in an office with a bunch of hard workers, one of whom has been working with the boss to develop leadership skills for a year, which will get promoted?  Obviously the boss’s protégé.  The person who has declared themselves for the job.

Julie may need to take a bookkeeping course, sales training, management classes and take the lead in 5 or 10 projects.  What she needs can be determined with her mentor.  As she does these things, she will be seen as the obvious choice for a promotion.  Her bosses and her coworkers will both see she is the obvious choice for promotion.

If you want to be promoted ask one of your bosses to help you prepare now.  Find a mentor.

Something to do today

Invite your boss or his boss to lunch.  Ask him to mentor you and help you get ready for a promotion.

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Later:               You are underpaid, right?

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Posted in management, Promotions, Raises

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The quickest, surest way to become a superstar

Posted on November 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

An ex-NFL football player told me how he got to the big league.  He chose a player he wanted to be just like.  Then he learned to hold his hands just like him.  He placed his feet just like his hero.  He ran like his hero.  He exercised like his hero.  He did everything he could to play football just like his hero.  He started in 9th grade football and continued through college.  He made it into the NFL.

When I met him in Denver, he was a couple of years into a new career selling real estate.  He was doing the same thing.  He picked one of the best real estate salesmen in Denver and was doing exactly what the new hero did.  Once again he was becoming a superstar.

There’s a hint there.  Find someone who is successful at what you want to do.  Become like them.  If they do something, you do it.

One more thing.  Watch very carefully what your hero does NOT do.  What does he avoid?  What does he refuse to do?  Too many people try to become a success doing the things that a successful person refuses to do.

If you want to be a millionaire, I suggest you read one or two books by Thomas Stanley.  The Millionaire Next Door is a bunch of stories about how millionaires became millionaires.  The Millionaire Mind has some stories, but also takes a statistical approach.  It tells what first generation millionaires do, as a group, to get their money.

Better yet, find a millionaire to personally learn from.

Do you want to be a Partner, CEO, CFO, CIO, or Project Manager?  Find the best example you can, and do everything the way they do.  Invite them to lunch. Ask them what they would do in your shoes.  Become just like them at work.

Hero, mentor, example.  Find one so you can become one.

Something to do today

Find your mentor and example.  Learn to work just like they do.

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Later:              But this isn’t an interview

Whistle while you work

Hustle while you wait

The $5 call girl

Where to fish

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Posted in Promotions, Raises, talent, Time management, Training

Office politics – get past gatekeepers and roadblocks

Posted on October 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

Faster access to our computers from home made all the sense in the world.  One man was standing against my recommendation.  Everyone else loved it.  The big boss hid from the debate, citing Jim and the cost.  It seemed like spite, but we had been friends.  Why was Jim sabotaging me?  Why wouldn’t he listen to reason?

A year later, as technology advanced, a much cheaper and faster access method was installed.  I also gained some perspective.  Jim wasn’t an SOB, he was a guy with an opinion.  I watched him turn out to be right every single time he took an unpopular stand.  It might take a couple of years to be vindicated, but he was always right.  Management had learned to ignore Jim at their peril.

Jim was a gatekeeper.  He could be reasoned with.  He would accept proof.  He changed his mind when it made sense.  Jim only seemed like a roadblock when you were wrong.

The roadblocks are the folks who are mean and spiteful.  They can stop a project by getting in the way or going slow.  They literally may kill a plan just because they don’t like someone on the team.  They stay in place because they know enough of the right people that they can help advance or hinder careers.  They help their friends and shaft their enemies.

Against criticism a man can neither protest nor defend himself, he must act in spite of it, and then it will gradually yield to him.  (J. W. von Goethe)

Be careful who you define as a gatekeeper and as a roadblock. Ask around.  What do your coworkers think of the person in your way? I was wrong about Jim when I thought he was a roadblock.  He was a smart guy who was a very respected gatekeeper.

Something to do today

Is someone getting in your way.  Ask around.  Are they gatekeepers or roadblocks?

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Later:              Office politics – lunch or documentation

–     train your eyes

Your red herring

Their red herring

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Focus, Raises

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Salary changes by city – the best and the worst

Posted on October 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Being in the highest or lowest paying city is not related to how much money you keep after your expenses are paid.

Here is a list of the highest and lowest paying cities, and some things to consider before moving.

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Posted in Economy, Raises

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Texas Hold ‘em salary negotiations

Posted on October 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

Some people object to my open and honest style of negotiating.  They tell me that Texas Hold ’em is the ultimate negotiating style.

Last night I stayed up late playing poker with Tarot cards.  I got a full house and four people died. (Steven Wright)

In this salary poker game you have some cards only you can see. You share some more cards with all the players.  You put on a personality at the table.  You try to look as harmless or intimidating as possible. When you get your cards you do your best to give small signals of fear, lust, greed or anger.  You design your signals to stampede your competition into doing something foolish.  If you have a great hand you try to appear weak so others will bet stupidly high.  If your hand is weak you consider bluffing and making others think you are much stronger.  Or you fold and stop betting.  You wait for a better hand.

In poker there is only one winner.  You are out to defeat everyone else and amass all the chips.  It is a game for the proud, powerful, greedy, deceptive and analytical folks.  Sure, it can be played for penny ante with friends, but that is not how the game of legends is played.

Do you really want to start a job with those attributes pinned to your shirt?  My biggest objection to poker style negotiating is that someone starts out losing.  Someone starts out feeling like they pulled off a quick trick on the other guy.  What’s next?  Do you want to pull another trick?  Stick it to them again? Bluff them?  Intimidate them?

I don’t gamble.  I don’t like tricking the other guy.  I put all my cards on the table and try to figure out what will work best for everyone.

Remember, the way you negotiate is the way you will be perceived by your new boss.  Do you want to come in as a poker player who always hides his cards, bluffs when he can and goes for all the chips?  Or do you want to come in as a team player?

Place your bets and play your cards.

Something to do today

How about starting salary negotiations where you already work?   Time to write your accomplishments for the week and month in your job journal.  Make a report for your boss that gives him all the information he needs for his reports to his boss.

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Tomorrow:     A crippled ace

Later:              An ace who learned

My former boss is killing me

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Posted in Counteroffers, Negotiating, Raises

What if all I want is more money? Getting it.

Posted on October 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

The tooth fairy teaches children that they can sell body parts for money.  (David Richerby)

Getting more money.

Some people need a new job to get more money.  Others just need a new attitude. For more money, often you just have to ask.

I get calls from people with golden handcuffs occasionally.  They are paid so well or have such great bonuses that all they can get is a drop in pay if they switch jobs.  Often they don’t appreciate it.  I have to honestly tell them what the job market is like and ask them if they want to earn less at a new job.  Only one in twenty says, “Yes, I’ll take a drop in pay.” The others get a quick lesson on either growing where they are at or being content at being overpaid.

Others are underpaid or paid their market value and want to earn more.  Changing jobs for a 3% raise usually makes no sense.  You could easily get that in the next year just by being patient.  Often you could get a raise like that in a few weeks by presenting your case to your boss and his boss. So try that first.  Present your accomplishments and a list of things you have done in the last few years.  Prove you are worth more and give them 3 months to react.

If you really can get a 10% raise or more by leaving the job, the problem is different.  You still need to present your case to your bosses.  They may give you the raise and solve the problem.  Give them 3 months to work on it after you present an air tight case that includes your specific contributions, not just your responsibilities.

During those 3 months keep your eyes open for a new job.  Check out what the market really is like.  After 3 months go back to your bosses and ask if you are going to get a raise.  This is an important step so that they know you are serious.  If they say, “No,” then start looking for a new job.

Some people really do need a new job to get more money.

Something to do today

Thinking about getting a new job?  Call a recruiter who specializes in your field or in your geographical area.  Ask them what the going rates for someone like you are..

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Next:   Okay, here’s my reply: Texas Hold ‘em negotiating

Later:              A crippled ace

An ace who learned

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Posted in Negotiating, Raises