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Day Three: Schedule a Meeting

Okay – you’ve collected your thoughts, and hopefully convinced yourself that you are worth the money you are getting to ready to ask your company to give you.  Now it’s time to let your boss know you mean business.

The first thing to do is figure out who you need to talk to about this.  In some cases, your direct manager has a great deal of influence over your salary, sometimes not.  If you think it’s someone other than your direct manager, pop in on your manager, let them know that you are about to ask for a raise, and then ask for their help getting you in to see the right person.  More importantly, ask them for advice on how to get what you want.  More likely than not, your immediate boss will have some inside track on how to do this whatever the ‘right’ way is considered to be at your particular company.  You can also ask them for their support during the discussion, either by going to bat for you with the manager that can make salary decisions, or some other way.  They’ll also hopefully be able to tell you if it’s a bad time to ask, and what would be a better time.  Take their lead on this, particularly if they are sympathetic and you feel like they will support you in this discussion.

If your direct manager is the one who sets your salary, you’ve probably got an easier time getting a raise than someone else might.  The best way to broach the topic with your manager will probably depend on the person, but I generally go with a short email like this.

Hi John,

Do you have 15 minutes later this week to do a quick review of my performance and perhaps discuss a salary bump?  I checked your calendar and it looks like you are available Wednesday at 3 and Thursday at 2:15.  Which time is better for you?

Thanks,

Keith

Yeah, that’s it.  I wouldn’t get into the nitty gritty over email, but I feel like it would be a really bad idea to catch your boss by surprise.  But you also want to add two possible times to add that extra bit of seriousness and give you a bit of control.  You don’t want the conversation to be right as the boss is running out the door on Friday or whatever other free minute they might have to spare.

Sounds simple, right?  It is, but that doesn’t necessarily make it easy.  Remember, you’re asking your boss for a favor, and in turn will hopefully get them invested in you as a person and not just as a producer of work.  The worst thing you could do is make this a you vs. your boss issue, because then you’ll never get what you want.  While your boss might have control over your salary, they will still have to jump through some hoops to get you a raise in most cases.  And they will probably still have to talk their boss into it as well.

July 17, 2009 | Filed Under Career

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