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How do you ask for a salary negotiation?

17 points by african_cheetah ↗ HN
I've been at the same level for 3 years. Its a big company(MSFT). Unfortunately due to org changes every couple of months, I am now on my 10th Manager. When management changes, its like a restart. New manager sees me as a under performer, while the previous one mentioned that I might be due for a promo. How do I bring the topic to my new manager of 1 month that the last 3 years should at least count for something. I have taken on a lot more responsibility since then and I deliver as much as my white peers on a much higher salary. I can't quit since I am on H1-B. I have a green card application that I don't want to jeopardise. I feel stuck.

5 comments

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_I-
write down 3 reasons why you deserve a promotion. think of the hardest problem you had to crack and write what you’ve learned from it and how it sets you up to take on more tough problems. Now do it from a business perspective. How have you impacted their bottom line the most? How does that sets you up to take on new challenges that will impact even more? What are this challenges/tasks? What were you doing 3 years ago, what’s your job today and how are you getting to where you want to be in 3-6 months? From your manager’s perspective, what is the one thing you can do that will most advance her career? Add that to the list of stuff you want to be working on in the next 3-6 months. If you helped anyone with anything, describe that, but be very technical and 100% take your ego out of the picture, give some idea that you work well with others. Then rewrite and condense until you can't loose an extra word, keep chopping words out and rewriting to make it shorter. You're talking a very short paragraph, no longer than what I’ve written until now, 200 words. Then send to your manager asking for a time. Check with hr for the official evaluation process, they might have 360 forms, whatever they have, use it to your advantage. Read everything and if it involves peer reviews, talk to your peers, don’t ask them to be nice, instead, ask them kindly if they would like to do your 360, judging by the lack of attention (3 years without a review) you might be able to pick the colleagues yourself as you take the initiative and no one really cares. Know how much $ you want (you want a lot, you want 3 years worth) and add 5 to 10% on top of that to give you something to wiggle with. Don’t ever go more than a year without a pay rise. Be friendly with your manager, and you may wanna warn her in person that you're sending this, a quick,'hey, I know you just landed but my review is up, is it ok, if I send you a quick note?'
african_cheetah
Thanks for the advice. Will give it a shot.

"Don't go year without pay raise". Lol! I've been stuck on same for 3 years.

taprun
There are only two reasons why people get big raises:

* They are friends with the person giving the raises.

* They are perceived as likely to produce significant value in the future for the person doling out the raises, but are in danger of leaving.

cosmie
There's a third as well:

The loss of them is perceived to open the person doling out the raises to significant risk in the future, and they're in danger of leaving.

Generally happens when someone is unexpectedly found to be in a mission critical role with little to no redundancy or contingency plans. Shortly after your big raise the company will start working in that redundancy and contingency planning, and once it's in place you risk being seen as an overpaid resource. Making it a somewhat risky avenue to get a big raise.

_I-
From my experience there's only one reason why people get big raises:

* They ask.