How do you determine your worth to a company?

GLaDOS11

I know this question is completely subjective but I'm just trying to get a feel for what people with more experience negotiating than me think.


I was VERY lucky in landing my first IT gig without really any certifications or formal training coming in. I always interview very well and this company just liked me and could see I learn quickly. I started at $26,000/year about a year and a half ago. Now, I have 18 months of experience, an A+, Net+ and soon to have MCSA:2008. I have a review coming up and I know salary is going to be an issue. I'm trying to determine a fair salary. How do you guys determine what to ask for? What resources do you use to find what's fair? I live in Florida if that helps. I gladly took 26K to start and I know that I still don't have a lot of experience, but I do feel that I am worth more to the company. How much more...that is what I'm trying to figure out.

Any advice?

Bryan0530

what's you position? check online to see what others make and decide based on that. never been in your shoes but heard if you want a large pay raise you either leave the company or you get an offer and ask the company to match it.

Akaricloud

That's great that you're learning and expanding your knowledge, but are you in a position to actually fully make use of it?

A helpdesk position is only worth so much no matter how experienced of a person you have to fill it. Have you changed positions since you've been there?

bryguy

I've used glassdoor as a resource to help determine average pay rate for various positions. That being said, when I started in IT about 10 years ago, I started on a help desk that was just getting started. I worked for $10 an hour, just so I could get my foot in the door. To be honest, they really couldn't afford to pay me more than that, and I understood why they couldn't. I worked there for two years, got some experience and certs under my belt, and then jumped ship. You're at that point where you need to jump ship... Right now, they're getting you at a bargain, and believe me, they know it.

LarryDaMan

If you're staying in the same position at the same company, you can't expect them to break the bank. Moving up or moving on will always earn you a bigger raise. In terms of assessing your value, you can the check websites and surveys for a general idea. But your real worth is whatever someone is willing to pay, so put your resume out there and shoot for the stars.

colemic

I wouldn't think you will get much more than a 10-15% boost, especially if you are staying in the same position. Many companies have policies that limit the % increase. Fair? Not really. Like others have said, your best bet may be to look somewhere else where you can get a bigger bump in salary.

blargoe

It is unlikely in any situatation, entry level or not, to get a substantial bump in pay without changing positions - either within the same company or moving to a new employer. It's just the way it usually works. You probably have enough experience to try for a position upgrade (or at least, a bump in pay), but it might not be at your current company. Experienced helpdesk should be worth more than $26K/yr, but it may not be worth more than that to your current company.

GLaD0S11

Thanks for all the insight everyone. It doesn't sound like anyone is too hopeful for anything but the smallest bump in pay. That is unfortunate because I do like this job. I'd probably classify it as help desk just because it's entry level but I feel I do much more than that now.

I don't think I technically changed positions but I spend a lot less time in help desk type scenarios than I did a year ago. It's a very small office, less than 20 users, and I am the only one that handles anything technical. If something is over my head (mostly advanced Exchange problems) I have to go right to my boss and he gets a 3rd party involved. I configure ASA firewalls, support Active Directory forests, administer probably 75 servers and travel around 25% of the time to different clients around the country for application configuration. Maybe I'm just crazy but it seems like this should be worth a bit more than $13 hour or so.

cknapp78

Forget help desk. Sounds more like a Jr. Network/Systems Admin role that is becoming a Senior more and more everyday. It may be hard to look elsewhere but sounds like they got a bargain when they hired you. Most companies that hire for that kind of role realize that they are going to lose people as they gain experience and want higher pay. Talk it over with your manager if you have that kind of relationship. If not, it's always best to find work when you are currently employed. Best of luck to you.

Corey

Akaricloud

I would agree that it's worth more than that, but without the title to back it up they'll think they could replace you with another entry level helpdesk tech for $13/hr.

If I were you during your review I would bring up that you feel your role is transitioning from a helpdesk position into more of a systems administration position. With this said you can ask what their thoughts on this are and if they would be willing to talk about a title change. If you can get an increased job title pay will almost always follow and if not then you're in a perfect position to move elsewhere for a lot more.

Flat out asking for more $$ will rarely get you anywhere, but bringing up your new responsibilities and possibility of advancing position will allow them to come up with and justify a much larger increase.