hey guys, i have been in the market for about 7 months. work for an asset management in operations and would like to kno how long i should wait before asking for salary raise. for those who work in finance industry and have some years of experience, i would appreciate your comments. I already have some good points or reasons that I am planning to bring up to the table when negotiating with my boss. so i am really concern about the time i should wait thanks guys
To ask for a raise at 7 months in, you had better be able to quantify why you deserve a raise. Being in operations, you would need to show how you improved work flow to create efficiency, or created new cost saving procedures and put a dollar amount on it. If you can’t do that yet, then wait 5 months until your annual review. 7 months ain’t crap and you have no business asking for a raise unless you’ve done something pretty darned exceptional.
you should definitely make a push for it at your next review if you feel like you can substantiate it, but make sure you have very qualified reasons to ask for one. because first of all, as a new guy, the firm isn’t inclined to give you a raise so early, and if you work at a big company, chances are their compensation structure is pretty institutionalized with little flexibility. that being said, your biggest negotiating chip would be to get an offer from a competitor and leverage it that way, but other than that, you may find it to be a challenging case to make for yourself
Use the next five months to continue to build up your good points so that when you have your review you have plenty of quantifiable ammunition. Push to get some projects done, or pick up some new ones. As numi said, the compensation system could be pretty ridged in a large company. But, give yourself a chance at getting to the top of their pay scale for that position. This is s subtle point, but can give you a little extra at review time. When I was in operations, I had 3-4 projects to do for the 2nd ½ of the year. They didn’t need to be completed in any order, so I saved the one that I thought would help me the most until last. That way, the best, most successful project was fresh in my manager’s mind when we reviewed. When we did the review, the discussion ending up being centered a lot on that last, great project.
I’d do as the above posters mentioned - build up credibility over the next 3-5 months and cash in your chips at your annual review.
Thanks guys for your advise! I will wait 5 months for my annual review.