Five steps for getting a raise

Five steps for getting a raise More money is good, right? Youre going to be doing your job anyway, so you might as well ask to get paid more for doing it. But you actually have to do a lot of preparation in order to ask for a raise effectively. The most obvious preparation is to find out what everyone else is getting paid for what you do. A recent New York Times story gives a good overview of online resources for salary comparisons. Here are five other things you can do to get a salary increase: 1. Understand your bosss perspective. This is not a moment of truth, its a moment of negotiation. You convince your boss youre worth more and your boss convinces you he or she is fair, and you reach some sort of compromise that makes everyone happy. So be reasonable in your approach. You dont deserve a raise just because youve been doing your job well for x number of months. Its your job to do your job well thats why you were hired. You need to show that youre doing more than you were hired to do, or that youre doing different work thats typically paid at a higher rate. Gather as much information about your bosss perspective as possible in order to form your strongest negotiating position. Consider this list of 10 things bosses hate most about employees. 2. Expand your job duties. Get really good at your job immediately so that you can take on more responsibility in another job, in another capacity. Look around for something more to do, and figure out how to do it. Then tell your boss youre doing more than one job and you want to be paid extra for doing the other job youve already been doing. If you think your boss will balk at the idea of you taking on more responsibility, start looking like your current job is under control. One way to do this is to have a completely clean desk. A clean desk says, Im totally on top of my workload. Please give me more. A cluttered desk says, Help. Im drowning. (Im not making this stuff up researchers actually study offices. Heres a summary of why you should have a clean desk.) 3. Consistently over-deliver. Even during a salary freeze theres always more money for superstars, because losing a superstar costs a company a lot of money. So getting a raise is about conveying to the office that youre a superstar. This could be in the form of taking on more areas of responsibility, but it could also be in the form of exceeding expectations in a very obvious way. Exceeding expectations is something that must be announced. If you finish your project, thats what people will understand. If you finish your project with incredible results, you need to remind everyone what the expectations were and what you delivered. If you dont toot your horn, no one else will. A hallmark of a superstar is they know how to toot their horn with out being annoying. Superstars arent overnight sensations they work at it. So start performing like a superstar six months before you want to ask for a raise. 4. Get a mentor. Employees who have mentors are twice as likely to be promoted as those who dont, according to Ellen Fagenson Eland, a professor at George Mason University. A mentor can help you position yourself, time and again, to receive a raise. An effective mentor helps you see your path in a way that maximizes your talents and stays consistent with your goals for life. This isnt small task, and almost all successful people say they have more than one mentor. But start with one, because that will significantly increase the likelihood that youll get the raise youre going to ask for. Unfortunately, for some people finding a mentor is almost as difficult as asking for a raise. So here are seven ways to find and keep a mentor. 5. Think in non-financial terms. If more money isnt happening for you, try asking for something else. Telecommuting, a job for your spouse, extra vacation time, training, even relocation to a company branch in a city with a lower cost of living these are all things that are worth a lot of money to you, but look a lot less expensive than a salary increase in a companys budget. So non-financial rewards are a good place to compromise in salary negotiations. Also, you can turn these benefits to cash next time you change jobs. When you negotiate salary at your next company and they ask you how much you made in your last job, add up all the benefits and include them in the number you give. Some peoples benefits total up to 30 percent of their salary. If the shy ones among you are thinking this isnt a fair negotiating tactic, get that thought out of your head. Even CareerHub, a group blog of career coaches, recommends that you include benefits in the total calculation of your salary next time you negotiate. If none of these steps work, try not to be so obsessed with getting a raise. Think about it most raises amount to about 4 percent of your salary. Thats nothing. Even if you earn six figures, 4 percent isnt going to be life-altering. There are so many more things you can ask for that will actually improve your life, like training in a skill area youre interested in, or the ability to telecommute a few days a week. Try focusing on the things that really matter to you instead of the dollar amount attached to your title. You may find that your salary will increase as a natural offshoot of the passion you develop for your work.