How Did You Get Your First Raise Or Promotion?
I’ve been on both sides of the table for this one -- I’ve asked for a raise several times and I’ve had people ask me for a raise.
In my experience, the best way to actually get a raise is to do the following:
- Do what no one asked you to do.
- Do it well and have some metrics to back it up.
- Go ask for a raise / promotion.
If you’re already shown you can do the work of some other / higher up position, then you’ve shown your value and it’s going to be hard for them to say no.
Here are two examples from my experience:
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I was originally hired to be a customer service manager.
During the training, I would stay late two hours and work on my passion, data analytics. After the one month of training was over, my boss proactively moved me from customer service to a new position as a business analyst.
I got to skip step 3 :)
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Fast forward three years later. I’m a product manager, but spend an extra 2-3 hours per day leading the marketing effort. The results of the marketing effort are a big boost in traffic and sales at the company.
After 2-3 months of sustained success, I go to my boss and ask for a title change -- I’m doing marketing after all.
The result? I not only get a title change to Director of Marketing, I get a nice boost in salary too.
So the moral of the story is -- be your own advocate and demonstrate that you have the ability to do the next job ahead of you before you go ask for it.