7 Guaranteed Ways to Get a Raise
Here are my top 7 tips to help you get a raise, promotion, more money as a programmer and make progress in your career.
Chances are you will be tempted to look at these points and ‘knock it before you try it’… Don’t. Try them first, before deciding they work or not. Be open-minded. It’s good for all of us.
If you’re too lazy to read, I made a video with pretty much the same content:
My friends, I understand the value of money. I won’t lie to you by sitting here and pretending that I don’t care about money. But if you are doing what you are doing with the hopes of a little money at the end of the road, you need to rethink your system. You need to go back to the core of what you do and ask yourself a few questions. If you don’t physically get excited about work, a little raise at the end of the year won’t change anything. You’ll spend it all. It’s like you never had it to begin with.
So while I support going after money and asking for more, to me that is only acceptable if it’s combined with serious, painful passion for your craft. If that’s you, then you are unstoppable.
And with that said, you need to know how to go get your money.
Let’s begin…
Pleaaaaaase don’t just show up and ask for more money. Do these 7 things and you are a lot more likely to get what you want.
By the way, these apply to everyone, even non programmers.
1. Master Your Craft
The only guaranteed way to make progress in your career, no matter what you do for a living, is to continually get better. There’s no way around it. Don’t just show up and ask for more money. Become the go to guy or girl, for your thing. I don’t care if you write code, fly helicopters, pick cucumber out of the ground, or whatever. Whatever your work is, you need to get really damn good.
I saw this picture many years ago. It changed my life overnight:
So master your craft, goddamnit! Spend any extra time you have, on the way to the gym, on a Sunday morning before everyone else is up, right before dinner, I don’t care if you have an extra 5 minutes, go deeper and deeper within your domain. Instead of checking facebook one more time. Stop watching every episode of every TV show. Practice your thing just a little more.
A huge part of being an expert is being a practitioner. I love that word. It means you practice your art instead of just talking about it. There are a lotta talkers out there. Don’t be one of them. Invest in yourself and in your craft. It’s the best thing you can do for yourself. It’s a lot easier to ask for a raise when you’re good, and consistently good, and people know you for it.
2. Specialize
This one is absolutely HUGE. I have a whole other video about why specialization is critical here.
You can make OK money if you do several things but you do them all with average quality. But let’s take a page from the book of industrial revolution, that specialization is important, and necessary — And rewarded. It taught us that we need experts in the world, especially in today’s world where experts are rewarded greatly because most jobs, particularly in tech are highly specialized.
Look at it this way: it’s the difference between LeBron who is an extreme example of a specialized expert. He does 1 thing/sport incredibly well, better than anyone in the world — and your friend Steve, who plays every goddamn sport out there, but he sucks at everything. Nobody cares about Steve.
Now, I’m not suggesting you should become the number 1 in the world, not everybody could do that (although if you can, you should). But you should be in the top 10% if you dare to ask for more money than the other 90%.
So where do you start? You need to pick a lane, and go deep. It has to be something you like. Otherwise you’re not gonna do it. You’ll give up. It’s too hard.
You’re really good at CSS? Become the best CSS guy in your company. Hate manual work? Love writing automation scripts? Do it like your life depends on it. You have experience with memory leaks and you’re always thinking about slow apps? Learn everything there is to know about performance.
P.S. If you don’t know what your thing is then you haven’t tried enough things. Shoot me a message and I can help you. Expose yourself to more choices within your domain. Don’t over think it. Pick one that you like and bank on it. Even if it’s the wrong choice you’ll learn something. Trust me. Nothing beats skills. Just do it. And go deep.
3. Know your worth (and speak up)
This one is completely in your control and fairly easy to do. Do your research. Know how much others are making doing the same thing. If you’re below that, well, then ask for that (while providing data). That’s fair. It’s hard to argue with that. If you’re already above it, then maybe you shouldn’t get paid more. If you really do want more money then go back to points 1 and 2. You gotta add to your arsenal. It’s the easiest way.
4. Be Patient
Be patient. Play the long term game. Sometimes it takes a little longer to get that raise while your job is giving you valuable things other than money. Don’t let a little bit more money distract you from other good things like working with super star programmers who could mentor you, or working on a high visibility project that’ll get you long term recognition in your industry.
Sometimes it’s a lot better to get $5,000 less a year and do great work with great people than to make the extra 5k and be miserable with a bunch of assholes doing something you hate.
…Love it.
Which brings me to #5…
5. Surround yourself with talent
You gotta surround yourself with really good people. You never want to be the best guy at the company. You’re a chameleon. You know, the lizard that changes color to fit its environment? Your surroundings will change you. Make sure they change you for the better, not worse. The moment you’re the most senior guy, it’s time to move on.
6. Combine skills (DO IT)
I love this one. Bring your personality to work, and other skills that have nothing to with your work.
Being a really good programmer with awesome presentation skills who can write really good tech documentation, in most cases is more valuable to companies than being the absolute number 1 programmer in the world.
I know this is contradicting what I was saying before about specialization. But the point I’m trying to make is that you might be good at other things in life that could complement your work and make you more valuable. There is always a way to combine skills and use them together to go up. I have personally played this card to death. But it’s not just me, I see it done all the time (Derek Sivers on Tools of Titans).
7. Be nice, dick
Be nice to people. Don’t get cocky. You are never too good. This happens to senior guys, and sometimes even worse, to junior guys. Build relationships. It’s not just about you and the raise that you are after. Focus on giving back too. And I don’t mean in a woo-woo-kumbaya way. I mean be helpful and useful to others and maybe you won’t have to fight very hard for your raise anymore. Continue to add value and sooner or later the reward will inevitably come.
My friends, the idea is to improve yourself given these 7 tips and instead of having to go fight for your rights, you make people, force people, almost guilt people, into coming to YOU instead.
Let’s go get it. Good luck…
“Money is a pour indicator of success” - Sir Richard Branson
