The time has come.... 5

[rpearson]

The time has come to rebuild and update my resume, and presentation package.After two plus years with this company,I feel the time is right to schedule a meeting with our Operations and Field manager to ask for more money.This has to be the worst part of my job.

Im employed with a Voice,and Data Cabling contractor in WI, with about 15 total employees: Lead techs,techs,installers,newbies,etc.The companies main focus is, of course,Structured cabling systems,and some repair work.

My position at the company seems alittle vague to me at times,as I cover pretty much all the above mentioned positions,and then some.I have a recognition,and trust here.Ive been in this field coming up on 10 years,and recently obtained some IT certifications to obtain a more technical background (A+,Net+,etc.),I really felt it would be good "step up the ladder"to get some IT experience,along with my extensive cabling experience to boot.Kind of a Uni-Tech at best.My employer is unaware of any additional training that Ive obtained ,as its fairly recent.

Currently I am responsible for 2 of 4 of the companies most prominent clients.Duties include material ordering,installs,scheduling (just me),MAC,customer contact,site surveys,project managment and implementation.And there's a few other things.This is one client spanning multiple sites,and I kind of bounce around between the two.I am also on call when these clients are idle to do MAC and installs for other clients.Thats my job in a nutshell,and im dedicated to say the least.My current salary is around 25 -30,000 per year.

Well,on a last note,I will be arming myself with an updated portfolio and my new skills to hopefully boost my numbers.

Any advice?Comments?

Thanks.

Panduit for President!

 

[LesleyW]

Have a look in

http://www.Salary.com

to get an idea of how much someone doing your job earns in your part of the world. I appreciate that it may not be possible to exactly match the job titles they give, but maybe look at several so you can say "The average Voice and Data technician in WI earns xxx after 10 years experience, and a Technical Customer Liason earns yyy. Therefore I think a salary of zzz would be fairer for me in light of my experience and recent training." So, I guess my first piece of advice is to know what is reasonable to ask for, and ask for it! Don't pitch too low, even if you feel the company can't afford it. if you make your expectations clear, even if you don't succeed in obtaining that rise now, at least you have set their expectations realisticly.

Secondly, go in armed with a list of your accomplishments. Make your acheivements specific - e.g if you received a call at 7pm at night and went to a customers's site to get them out of a hole on 22nd March 2004, state exactly that. Cover all achievements since your last review/raise, even if that means going back 2 years. Anything wonderful you did 18 months ago will not be remembered unless you remind them, and if you haven't received a raise since then (or only got a general rise the same % as everyone else), that achievement has not been acknowledged or rewarded.

Thirdly, remember the training itself won't mean anything unless you can state what it will allow you to do that you couldn't do when you started with the firm, or that you can now do better.

Finally, definitely let them know of your "Uni-Tech" aspirations. Your ambition and dedication will impress any right-minded company, and they may pay for further training.

Good luck, please let us know how it turns out.

 

[LaurelLee]

Any time I am tryng to do something for my own benefit, I re-read Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." If you have never heard of this book, I highly suggest you get it and read it twice. It has a lot of handy tips on how to make people do what you want, in essence. The main tip it emphasizes is how to make people do what you want by allowing them to think it was their idea. The book was published back in the Thirties and still has practical application today.

Good luck. I would give you a raise if I were your boss! You sound highly qualified and highly underpaid for your talent and dedication. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!



"With your thoughts you create the world"--Shakyamuni

 

[Terpsfan]

Of course some companies would like to think we would gladly do our jobs for free since we enjoy it so much, but still it's appalling that you are being paid that little for the responsibilities you have.

It's been my experience that you have to be direct and assertive about what value you add to the company, without stepping on any toes.

I think a salary search would be in order. But that in itself isn't going to get you more money. Your company probably knows full well what you should be making. It is possible that they don't know how much you should be making, so you may enlighten them.

Your best bet would be to provide instances of how you have benefitted the company, some of the measures you have implemented that have created efficiences, saved money, helped customers, any awards you may have won, etc. You may even want to refer your manager to some of your customers for their input.

One thing I would approach the manager with,and perhaps it's not the politically correct thing to do, but to say "do you feel my job is important to the company?"...of course he/she will say yes. I wouldn't recommend this to most people, but I probably would do it, knowing there is a risk of a backlash. Then your rebuttal might be "Then shouldn't my pay be commensurate with that importance?" If he/she says your job isn't important, then it's obvious you need to look elsewhere. I think you can do this in a tactful manner.

All this being said, sometimes the best way to get your due salary wise is to build a better relationship with whomever has the power of the purse. Being friendly without butt kissing will go a long way.

By all means get more technical training/certifications. It will only add to your value and will make you even more marketable to your company as well as make you more appealing to prospective employers. Think of yourself as an asset.

 

[Golom]

Unfortunately in many companies, particularly the larger ones, you can get trapped in the salary administration bog. That is the situation where everyone agrees that, yes, you're definitely under-paid; deserve more money; are behind the industry; etc. ... but ya see Joe, we have a salary administration policy that says the maximum increase we can give anyone is 5%, or 2% or ??? The other variation on this is ... your job has an authorized salary range and the 15% you deserve would put you over the top.

The long and short of it is that raises based on merit, no matter how deserving, tend to have caps. If you are going to move onward and upward it needs to be by stepping to the next rung (i.e. getting a promotion to some other title.) Rarely can you get really big raises as long as you carry the same job title with the same job description. As long as you are stuck in that job you are probably limited to whatever the company decides represents "cost of living" increases (usually massively underestimated but that's a different topic.)

 

[rosieb]

cablepuller

Some ideas....

Do you have a formal job description?

If so have a good look at it, then rewrite it to cover your current duties. If not, create one.

Also think about a Person Specification, what kind of person is required to do this job, technical skills, education, interpersonal skills etc. Especially those skills you have gained recently.

Then, look at current job ads, see what fits and get a value for your job (ideally local).

Create a presentation, 15 mins (even if you don't actually use it, it will help focus your mind) which puts it all into a structure showing your benefit to the organisation, include your list of achievements.

Depending on your organisation, either give it as a presentation or use it as the basis of your meeting.



Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[SQLSister]

Golum is right, however, all is not lost. Often you are doing work well beyond your job title and can get a much larger raise by getting anew title. Strange but true. I got a 16% raise this way without changing my duties one iota and when the companywide cap was 5%.

 

[AnanthaP]

Can you delegate the assignments of the multi-site client to a newbie/junior whom you trust to follow your instructions while retaining overall control? If this is OK, you could write it up as man management and also possibly cost saving to the customer. Also, you can offer to "manage" one or two more clients in the same way.

Offer to delegate and move up the ladder.

Also, delegate only to a person in whose abilities you have complete faith and be prepared to spend time with them.

End

 

[SGTRawlins]

I know this feeling, read my post - 'Over worked & Under Paid' people have raised a few good points in there.

I will definatly be re-writting my job description and ammending my job title.

I am listed in the company as ICT Support. This to me insinuates desktop support! Small time stuff like showing users how to change thier font size and suchlike haha.

I relity and looking at y job descrition they take the term ICT Support and use it to reprisent Supporting ICT Projects! This means they can have me managing ICT projects and our systems and only spend 15k a year on my sallary! after looking in the clasified i am sure i sould be earning double what i am on and then some!

With the company directors and Accounts directors being so ICT illiterate it is hard for them to appreciate my real value.

 

[OhioBill]

One approach, similar to an item listed above, is to decide how much you'd like to make, or what benefits you'd like, then explain to your boss that this is what you want to make, how does he suggest you get there?

You have to build up to this point, and be prepared for an answer you don't like. That said, the idiot I work for told one employee, "I don't know, go open your own company!". Well, he did.

 

[jtb]

List stuff like "Reduced costs by $____ by [doing some stuff]" or "increased sales by ___% by [doing other stuff]" where you can... the bean-counters who hire people want to know you're more than an internet surfer!!

And it'll help build up your confidence when you start adding up all of the stuff you actually do that affects users who affect the company's "bottom line"...

You *are* more valuable than you think!!!

JTB
Have Certs, Will Travel
"A knight without armour in a [cyber] land."