As some of you may know, my former manager left an opening for a salary negotiation as I was leaving the team. All previous managers shut me down, but, since I was moving on any way, this manager had nothing to lose. Thank goodness for that!
So I have been doing my homework. No, I mean, LITERALLY: I have been taking a Negotiations class this semester, and boy am I glad about that! I have been literally preparing for this negotiation all semester long! And now, the time has come to see what I’m truly made of.
Before actually having the meeting, which I scheduled for tomorrow, I was advised to put my request and merits in writing; so I did that today. Got it checked by my good friend Enrique Montoya, and sent it off. Probably the scariest moment ever of my professional life.
I’ll let you know how the conversation goes. Here are a couple of things that I need to make sure to anchor and drive home:
- I am only asking for EQUALITY in pay with others in the same band, performance rating, years of service and LOCATION as me.
- I freakin’ deserve it (in other words, list out my accomplishments for the past 7 years).
If I manage to successfully anchor the discussion on these two points, I’ll be half way there. The other half is not up to me. It’s up to the company and their willingness to reward top talent.
This has been one of the most painstaking ordeals of my professional life. I have been a nervous wreck ever since I set up the meeting last Thursday. My heart beats out of my chest just thinking about it. Maybe this is one of the reasons why women make less than men: we stress out and simply don’t ask for raises. That’s messed up, isn’t it?
I’ll give you more details when it ends, so maybe you can learn from my errors. But one thing is for sure: the worst that could happen is that they will say No.
ina