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what's the highest increase in salary you've had or seen? (programming.dev)
submitted 3 years ago* by to c/programming@programming.dev
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I'm an 8 year data center network engineer who recently broke 100k for the first time. When I got asked my salary requirements I actually only asked for 90k as my highest previous salary was 80k with lots of travel, then I found out they gave me 100k because it was the minimum they could pay someone in my position. I've read before about people making crazy salary increases (150%-300%) and am wondering if I played it incorrectly and how I could play it in the future. I plan to stay with my company for the next few years and upskilling heavily and am eyeing a promotion in my first year as I've already delivered big projects by contributing very early. I've progressed from call center/help desk/engineer etc (no degree, just certs) so my progression has been pretty linear, are people who are seeing massive jumps in pay just overselling their competency and failing forward? Or are there other fields in IT like programming/etc that are more likely to have higher progression scales?

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[–] 1 point 3 years ago (4 children)

Negotiating hard works fantastically well for people who work in information technology.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago* (3 children)

    It doesn't unless you're part of the absolute minority even in IT. You need to be really qualified for this.

    I also again want to emphasize that not giving your expectation is not the same as negotiating hard.

    Your run off the mill network guy or admin will not have success with this.

    Source: Work in IT and manage people

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago (2 children)

    I would argue that experienced quality - or even serviceable - IT is the absolute minority, to begin with.

    There are organizations that aren't one bad day in IT away from starting a company-ending death spiral, but they're not typical.

    Many CEOs and HR professionals underestimate that risk, but that underestimation is a self-correcting problem over time.

    IT professionals may lose the current opportunity by negotiating, but their next opportunity isn't (statistically) far in the future.

    As a bonus, employers who are averse to having IT employees negotiate tend to be lousy employers

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    I would argue that experienced quality - or even serviceable - IT is the absolute minority, to begin with.

    It is, but the point still stands that you need to be extremely sought after to make it work WITHIN IT.

    If you're applying for a CISO position and have 20 yrs experience it might work. That's the level we're talking about.

    If you're a sysadmin and are applying for management of 50 windows clients you'll be out the door with that kind of negotiation.

    IT professionals may lose the current opportunity by negotiating, but their next opportunity isn't (statistically) far in the future.

    In my opinion the vast majority of interviewers will not take shit like that unless you're extremely qualified and money probably wouldn't be an issue to begin with.

    I've conducted interviews in multiple countries in several continents.

    If it works for you keep going of course. I just don't see that to be realistic or viable advice for most people reading here.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 years ago

    If you're a sysadmin and are applying for management of 50 windows clients you'll be out the door with that kind of negotiation.

    Fair point. My experience is with cloud admins. With so much going to the cloud, there's so much unmet demand for cloud administration.

    Even so, most Windows sysadmins I've met have been able to land cloud jobs after a few attempts - and they tend to be great at it. The professional principles of a good senior sysadmins translate well to the new cloud bullshit stuff.

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