Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with salary and jobs

How do I best arm myself for an upcoming salary/bonus review in this economic climate?

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 10:46:18 -0800

How do I best arm myself for an upcoming salary/bonus review in this economic climate? I guess I'm what you might call "upper-management" at a small tech company. Like many others, our company is looking to cut costs and we will likely have a few layoffs later this month. I, and others, have already been informed that any raise in our base salary is off the table for now. However it has also been noted that pre-existing bonus clauses (such as the one I have) are still available.

So the thing is, for the last year I have been as busy as ever (actually more so), mainly because I have a skillset that only a few others have, and as a result I've been extremely busy and IMO was a huge part of helping to land a contract with a Fortune 10 company that was worth a lot of money for the company.

So, my bonus isn't particularly huge by any standards, it's capped at $5k. However, I know from past experience that my bosses treat all of these situations as bargaining sessions. So last year I walked out of the review with a $3k bonus. However, this year, based on the revenue I feel I helped bring in, plus other criteria such as hitting or beating project deadlines, I feel I deserve the entire bonus.(Especially since there will be no change in my base salary).

So I need strategies for this upcoming session. There have already been comments such as "Well, we're all lucky we even have jobs" and other signs that this will not go my way. In addition to this not quite being rooted in reality, I have realized my bonus structure is not based on objective facts, but is incredibly subjective. This was a mistake on my part when I arranged the terms of my employment, however this is my situation.

Best way to negotiate a large raise?

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:23:37 -0800

How can I smartly/safely negotiate a substantial promotion and raise? I signed onto my current position at a salary in the mid-50s. I definitely undersold myself, but I came from a technical position in a non-technical field and didn't have a very high base to negotiate from. After some staff turnover in the last year, I've informally taken on a much more senior position running the team I was hired into.

Now I would like to renegotiate and make that position official. I spoke with several past employees who held this senior position and their salaries were $40k to $60k higher than what I am making. I've got the chops to be in that range: 8 years of experience, some fairly significant contributions to this company, and a hell of a lot of hours spent in the office. But I am worried that they'll balk at such a sudden increase, even if it's part of a promotion.

Any strategies or advice? Is it wiser to start high and negotiate down, or should I be wary of asking for too much initially and sounding like I'm just fishing?

You hang up first. No you hang up first. No you hang up first...

boots — Fri, 02 May 2008 19:02:12 -0800

At what point in the job interview process is it appropriate to inquire what the salary might look like? I've been doing the job interview thing for far too long now, and I'm getting pretty damn good at it, if I do say so myself. However, there's one point that I'm still unsure about. I was led to understand (from where, I don't rightly recall) that one waited until after a job was offered before even mentioning salary, benefits, etc., let alone negotiating them. My parents think this is absurd. They think that I should inquire what the salary range might look like during first interviews, because "you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you." That part I understand, but for some reason salary seems like the exception to that rule.

So, who's right? Do I ask about potential salary before they offer me a job (or bring it up on their own) or do I bide my time and wait until they've made an offer to negotiate like hell?

NYC if it makes a difference.

Job negotation tactics

holympus — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:14:46 -0800

I recently moved to Los Angeles, and I've been in the job hunt for a couple of weeks now. I'm relatively qualified in my field, and I just received an offer. Should I lie to them about other offers if I feel that they've low-balled me? My friend is in the following situation:

"Just before I left, I had a pretty lucrative offer in DC. Needing an income to pay rent, I am forced to get a job pretty quickly. Luckily, I recently got a job offer at a nearby firm. The qualifications for the job are pretty much the exact same as those needed for my declined DC offer. The problem, however, is that the newly offered salary is drastically lower -- under two thirds that of the previous offer.

I really need a job and I think this place would be perfect for me. I've already told them that I had a previous offer in DC that was drastically higher. I stated that with my qualifications, it's still a low offer. After discussing the salary over the phone, the LA company has already raised the offer a little bit -- but is still pretty insignificant.

I need to respond to the company very soon and am wondering what to do next. My question is, would it be OK for me to tell the company that I currently have another offer which they should attempt to match -- even if that is not the case? Is that wrong?"

Yeah, I'd get free cookies and cakes, but is that enough?

FlyByDay — Wed, 30 May 2007 08:36:54 -0800

How do I negotiate (tomorrow!) a decent salary for working part-time as a creative services manager for a successful bakery where the company wants to leverage the coolness factor of the environment and I want to leverage my years of varied experience? I recently interviewed for a creative services manager position for a small-ish but successful bakery (they sell through Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma, online, specialty stores, etc). This job covers creating/overseeing all their packaging, their print collateral, web design, some writing, working with everyone in the company from the president to the food scientists to marketing. I have a strong background in both web and print design, as well as writing and editorial. I am 41, which is important, as this company has a very specific company culture in which the older, more experienced people are expected to be in active teaching positions to the just-out-of-school people. You should also know that this job is an hour + drive from me, and on the way in (though not out), there’s a $3 toll bridge. This job is in Boston proper.

I was originally offered (via email) a full time position at $50,000, though when the president mentioned this “guess” in the interview, I said that was lower than I’d like. For the scope of the job, this sounds very low to me. We’ve been phoning and missing each other (me and various people at the company), and yesterday, I got an email from their HR person saying they’d actually like to split the job between two people, and could we talk on Thurs (tomorrow)? She did not mention a salary.

I would actually prefer to work part-time, as it would enable me to continue to work freelance (I’m also a professional musician), not have to make that commute every day, but have some steady work. So how do I negotiate a higher rate, and what’s reasonable for what is a fairly big job in scope? I know they’re leveraging the coolness factor of working at a bakery vs. an ad agency or something less “fun”, but I want to leverage my years of varied experience. All advice is appreciated.

Programming Careers: Java vs C++

bangitliketmac — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:02:00 -0800

What is the market like for Java programmers vs C++ programmers? Is there a difference in salary to start? How about with 5 years of experience in one language? Is there a growing trend in Java (SE/EE/ME) vs C++? I'm trying to do some research on careers programming in primarily Java vs primarly in C++. While C++ certainly isn't going away anytime soon, I get the feeling that Java is becoming the "hotter" language in terms of job oportunities and market trends. I'm interested in the financial implications of each language, not debates over which language is better (real programmers all use C anyway, right? lol)

Am I being duely compensated?

youthenrage — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 09:19:58 -0800

Am I making enough money? According to salary.com my pay should range between $50k and $70k, but I make $40k. Are online salary comparison tools to be trusted? Am I getting ripped off? Some details - I'm a relatively recent college graduate with a bachelors in CS. I graduated cum laude, have about a year of work experience and am currently employed by relatively small, but growing super quickly, consulting company. My job title right now could be best described as J2EE/Java Developer.

We have good health benefits, and get a bonus at the end of the year as well as accruing 1.25 vacation days a month (these are lost at the end of the year, no reimbursement or carrying over). This sounds pretty generous on its face, but most people never have enough time to take vacation because we're kept so busy. The company expects you to put in whatever hours are necessary to complete projects on time, including lots of extra hours. I've worked 60 hour in weeks, including one 21 hour day. We're told that these sacrifices will be taken into account when our bonuses are distributed, but there's nothing in writing or any guidelines.

We have a couple of offices on the mid atlantic coast, and most on site locations are relatively close to our offices, but there's no guarantee of this. If we pick up a client 2 hours away, and are assigned to the project, travel is mandatory. You're reimbursed for the expenses, and sometimes given a per diem - but sometimes the client site can be as far away as New Mexico.

I've been working here since the summer, and because I was desperate and my credit cards were rapidly becoming maxxed out, I accepted an offer to work here for $40k a year. According to salary.com's salary comparison tool, I'm in the bottom %1 percentile for this job category, with the average salary ranging from $53k - $67k. Is this accurate? Am I being taken advantage of? Should I ask for a raise?

I feel like there's a huge disparity, but can't prove that I'm not just inflating my own worth in my brain.

If a salary is listed in a job posting is that code for "non US citizens only"?

freshgroundpepper — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 23:21:34 -0800

If a salary is listed in a US job posting is that a hidden signal that the job is actually intended for a non-citizen and that I, as a US citizen, shouldn’t bother applying? Obviously this isn't true in all cases, but is it true in the majority of them? I’ve often thought it strange that the majority of jobs with a salary listed seemed be considerably below what I’d consider normal for that position. It could also be that they’re just starting the salary negotiations at a low point and that depending on experience (like most other companies) they’d be willing to move the value up for the right candidate.

Kirth Gerson mentions this in this old thread about jobs on AskMe, but he also says "newspaper", so it could only apply there an not to web postings.

Can anyone cite an employment law that requires companies to list a salary for a position before offering it to non-citizens?

Anyone have experience with an actual company doing this?

(I’ve seen this on Senior/Lead Software Engineering jobs recently, but it’s possible that it applies to other fields and positions as well)

I'm also comparing salaries based on my own experience as well as what I've seen in recent salary surveys (ex. here).

Show me the money!

Anonymous — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 08:49:04 -0800

What's the potential downside of claiming you have a job offer, when you don't, in order to renegotiate your current salary and position? And how bad would it look if they don't bite and I don't take the (non-existent) job?

Salary Requirements in Cover Letters

ao4047 — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 07:21:30 -0800

Sending in a resume today and they are asking for salary requirements. How do I word salary requirements in the cover letter? Is there any standard language used or convention to follow?

Help me write my own ticket!

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:01:09 -0800

I've been recruited to help start a company. Help me write my own ticket. A friend/former colleague of mine has been working for a biotech/pharma consultancy in Boston, and has been working with the CEO to spin off a NYC-based (where I live) software company serving that industry. This company has done custom development, and wants to start selling standardized products, which is where I come in. He's asked me to come abord and basically run the technology end (handle initial development personally and then build out infrastructure). I'm basically paid employee #1. He's also asked me to write my own ticket.

I'm very familiar with that market and we all see eye-to-eye on the opportunity, and this is something I have experience in. The CEO of the "parent" company has deep pockets and is basically angel-investing the new one until VC funding is secured. There's going to be some overlap with the parent company in terms of leveraging resources, but their priority is going to be fulfilling project-level obligations. The exit strategy is that we turn into the NYC arm of the parent company and keep doing gun-for-hire work. The preferred outcome is that the company/product portfolio gets bought.

I currently work in technology for a large non-software company, making a good (low six-figure) salary at a place where I'm respected, work closely with executive management on key decisions, and work on reasonably interesting, challenging projects. There's not much more advancement I can do here other than annual salary increases, but there are certainly enough projects to keep me busy for a long time, and I'm not currently feeling bored or boxed in. I figure that, even if I don't do this startup, I'm probably going to start exploring my options in another year.

Given that I have nothing to lose if this deal falls through, what should I ask for, within reason? My inclination is $current+30%, plus health benefits from the parent company. Am I being reasonable/not aggressive enough? What about equity? All things considered, I'm at a point in my life where cash-in-hand is much more preferable to potential windfalls, but I do expect a stake.

I realize that there's a certain amount of "you'll never get what you don't ask for" at work, and that everything requires negotiation, but I don't want to come across like a dipshit by asking for something reasonable.

Anything else I should be asking for? Also, any input on the current state of the VC world in NYC would be appreciated. Is it sane to start a software company these days?

Is There a Rule of Thumb for the Amount of Money Your Employer is Making Off Your Effort?

jeremias — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 04:01:25 -0800

Is there a rule of thumb for the amount of money your employer is making off your effort? (MI) In other words it's a general rule in retail that most items in a store are marked up at least 100%. Is there something similar for employees? In other words, let's say I'm offered a job for 20k a year. Does that mean my employer is making 40k from the work I'm doing? Or am I comparing apples and oranges?

Should I get a raise?

skryche — Thu, 27 May 2004 09:02:59 -0800

How much should an Advanced Excel (PivotTable, lookups, etc.) hombre in Manhattan be getting paid? I've been temping in this hole of an office for a few months and almost all spreadsheetery has become my responsibility. I think some sort of raise is in order, but I'm not sure what my target should be.