How Did You Get Your First Raise Or Promotion?

What made it possible to get a promtoion? How long did it take?
1 Answer. Share your story.

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:

  1. Do what no one asked you to do.
  2. Do it well and have some metrics to back it up.
  3. 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:

  1. 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 :)

  2. 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.

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