how do you let your firm know that you are underpaid?
rule of thumb: you should be generating revenue (or saving costs) of at least 4 times the cost of employing you. Put together a business case quantifying the value you add or revenue you generate (or costs you save) and take it to your boss. Approach it as if you were putting a business case to him/her and you want to generate more value, be more efficient or whatever - and they will get the message. Don’t straight out tell them you are worth more - unless you have another job to go to the next day. Don’t use vague numbers or waffle - you need to demostrate in specific terms what value you add - directly or indirectly. If you can’t quantify how much value you generate - then you gotta problem… If you don’t do this exercise, your boss already has - and they have already formed a view of whether you’re worth keeping on or not - so you need to set out the facts for them. The mere fact that other people across town get paid more doesn’t prove anything - they will probably get fired next week. All that matters is what you cost and what you generate for your firm now. Starting thinking of it as a business and you’ll get ahead. If you approach it like a winging employee then you’re dead. just a thought…
GOOD POST. ^^^^^
null&nuller, that all sounds nice, but 90% of people out there cant reliably quantify how much value they create. how does anyone not in sales or an individual PM go about this??? even analysts making stock recommendations have all sorts of problems when it comes to measuring performance, so how are middle/back office, IT, and all sorts of other folks supposed to do this? your method sounds nice, but it’s totally unrealistic and is basically a load of #&^%. i recently had some guy i was interviewing try to justify his asking salary with some inane explanation based on all sorts of lame assumptions and i just laughed. right or wrong, the simple fact is that the easiest way to show you’re underpaid is to go out and interview at the guys across the street. why? because it’s real. people vote with their feet and wallets, not made-up, hypothetical talk.
Another way that takes more effort would be to go out and get an offer from another shop. If it’s more, tell your boss and maybe they’ll work with you. I agree with wegowayback that null’s approach sounds good but it will be hard to implement. Good luck man.
cfa_ind, what’s your job…what type of firm do you work at? why do you think you’re underpaid?
putting aside the fact that today the environment is tough to get and keep a job - look at the bigger picture: the lesson is that if you’re in a job that is not directly tied to profit then it’s always going to be tough to justify promoting you or paying you more. If you really want to get ahead and make money in your career it’s much easier if you head toward roles that are very measurable and very accountable. Higher risk of course for your careers, but that’s where the big rewards are. You’ll get promoted more and you’ll make more money in directly accountable roles, because the firm (or bank or fund whatever you’re in) will see you’re making money for them On the other hand some guys/girls are happy to drift around in back office or support roles for 30-40 years and that is fine - but I’m guessing most people on AF want a lot more than that… For ER roles, it is tougher to demonstrate whether you make money for the firm on the sell side than on the buy-side - do you bring in new fund flows? do you bring in new clients? Do clients buy your research? etc. Unless you show how you’re making money for the firm, you gotta problem…that fact will never go away ps I’ve hired hundreds of people over many years - Now I don’t HIRE people, I BACK people. Don’t bring me a CV - that tells me you want to be and think like an employee. Instead bring be a business plan and I’ll back you, and we’ll both make money But in the meantime if you can get a better offer from another firm, then that’s great - don’t forget that unless your uncle is hiring you (or unless you can show how you make them money) that LIFO rules in this game…ie. when the call comes from head office to lose 10 or 100 or 1,000 people, new hires are the first to go…
wegowayback Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cfa_ind, what’s your job…what type of firm do > you work at? why do you think you’re underpaid? ============================================== I am into ER and recently started derivatives desk at my firm two months back and for past 2 months have been generating RoI’s in excess of 20% per month. All my stock recommendations are giving an returns well above the broad market returns as well as outperforming their respective sectors. Plus the fact, that I am the only guy who has cleared all three levels of CFA ( my senior is still in L3 and most of my colleagues are in L1), I had an chat about this with one of my senior analyst he is a good friend ( though I do not report to him) and he had the same view that I should be paid more.
sounds like you should, if you are generating rtns like that in this tape. keep at it, someone should notice soon.