Regarding making a strong case, I of course know that this is a business, but how can someone go about negotiating an extremely large raise without damaging the relationship? How does an employee get around the anchoring of their current salary?
Come up with very very compelling reasons that you deserve said big raise by demonstrating what value your accomplishments for the company, and even if you have very very good justification, you could simply be told "Well we'd LIKE to, gee that'd be great, but sorry it's not in the budget."
... or ...
Move. Go somewhere else. Get a different job. If you feel like you're not being valued enough, there may not be a whole lot you can really do, and sometimes it simply isn't worth your trouble to wait for the next quarterly/semi-annual/annual review to talk about your accomplishments / compensation.
I'll share some of my personal experience-last year I was in the same position in which I was really growing to dislike my work. In the fall, I had started looking for new jobs, and by some stroke of luck, I pulled off a hat trick by having three job offers simultaneously. One was offering a 15% raise, the other a 25% raise, and the other a 47% raise. I didn't take the first one because the other two made me feel greedy, but I didn't take the other two because it would've meant too much time away from home with travel. At the end of the year, the company I stayed at only gave me a a 1% raise(yes, one percent)(I didn't have a good performance review, but even in past years with good reviews I only got 2.5% at best). I had gotten another offer in January 22% raise, but given a long commute and meager vacation time, I declined. Fast forward to late April, the company then laid off 20-something people, including myself. Luckily, I was just able to secure a new job that I'm starting on Monday, with a 19% raise(not including the 10% bonus, to boot), no change in commute, and 4 weeks off.
Be proactive and look out for yourself. Go out and interview, keep your options open. Never assume they have your best interest at heart.
This comment is spot on - I'd like to add that you have to be ready to potentially switch jobs if you are in this situation.
To add to this, I thought I would be at one company for years - I did interview around at one point to test the market, and found that I could easily make at least $50k more than I was. One day, I was all of the sudden fired for a mistake that was exposed from bad QA and bugfixing process. At that time, I had already started testing the waters again because I started to be dissatisfied with the processes and the lack of interest in fixing the fundamental problems.
The things I learned is to not get complacent and that employers truly are not loyal to their employees.
Agreed. I stayed at my first job for 6.5 years, and only saw my salary go from $54K fresh out of college to $67K. Granted, a few years of that were during the 2008 financial crisis, but this was at a major investment bank, which to me felt absolutely ridiculous. Also, agreed on the not getting complacent. Companies/recruiters love to tell you that they want someone who sticks around and doesn't job hop, but they tend not to provide you with incentives(i.e. steady growth in pay, extra vacation time, etc.) at a rate that could be gotten by switching companies.
Part of my belief now is that I have all of the work without the responsibility. If I was tasked next week with architecting code for the other teams, it would not be a huge shift.
How do employees usually transition up into roles such as architect, vp, etc etc?
You prove that you're capable of doing the job by simply doing the job without having the job title. Then when a position opens up (someone leaves or is promoted) you're sucked into the position because you're essentially already doing it and have proved yourself.
If you don't want to play the waiting game, you dust off your resume and find a place with the role that you desire.
Whatever the case, if your goal is to get a promotion, you should really be discussing strategy with your manager. Part of your manager's job is to ensure your success within the organization - they'll have the best insight into what's possible, what you need to do to optimally position yourself, and possible timelines.
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Regarding making a strong case, I of course know that this is a business, but how can someone go about negotiating an extremely large raise without damaging the relationship? How does an employee get around the anchoring of their current salary?