Salary negotiations, job review coming up!

[blahblah99]

Well its almost time for that yearly job performance review and I am in a pretty good position to ask for a HUGE raise considering the amount of work I've done and the amount of skills I've pick up in just ONE year.

What's the best way to negotiate for a salary increase of at least 20%?

In case you are all wondering here's what I've picked up in ONE YEAR (and I still have a few months to pick up even more skills before the review) :

Hardware design, testing debugging, which include:
Mixed signals PCB layout (digital & analog audio designs)
PCB EMI/EMC compliance
Timing analysis with timing software
Digital systems design, and logic realization.
VHDL programming, modelling, and behavioral simulations & placed and routed simulations.
Product support, test support, and some manufacturing support.

Those are just some of the skills I have picked up on working on my design over the last year. How much should I be getting paid for this knowledge and skillset?

 

[rh71]

Why don't you ask your peers who have been there ? 😀

 

[CrazyDe1]

Sounds similar to the skillset I've pickedup.

PCB design, hardware design, debug and testing, RF receiver and transmitter design, firmware design, debugging and coding, timing analysis. Invaluable business experience learned about funding, business plans, operations, finances, sales, proposals. We wear all hats at our company 🙂

I went from working for free to working for way below market value to getting a 20% raise. I didn't have to ask though...my pay check just got a lot bigger one day.

Good luck man

 

[Ameesh]

Originally posted by: blahblah99
Well its almost time for that yearly job performance review and I am in a pretty good position to ask for a HUGE raise considering the amount of work I've done and the amount of skills I've pick up in just ONE year.

What's the best way to negotiate for a salary increase of at least 20%?

In case you are all wondering here's what I've picked up in ONE YEAR (and I still have a few months to pick up even more skills before the review) :

Hardware design, testing debugging, which include:
Mixed signals PCB layout (digital & analog audio designs)
PCB EMI/EMC compliance
Timing analysis with timing software
Digital systems design, and logic realization.
VHDL programming, modelling, and behavioral simulations & placed and routed simulations.
Product support, test support, and some manufacturing support.

Those are just some of the skills I have picked up on working on my design over the last year. How much should I be getting paid for this knowledge and skillset?

it depends on how good you ar at it, but i wouldnt think that 55k-65k is out of line.

 

[z0mb13]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: blahblah99
Well its almost time for that yearly job performance review and I am in a pretty good position to ask for a HUGE raise considering the amount of work I've done and the amount of skills I've pick up in just ONE year.

What's the best way to negotiate for a salary increase of at least 20%?

In case you are all wondering here's what I've picked up in ONE YEAR (and I still have a few months to pick up even more skills before the review) :

Hardware design, testing debugging, which include:
Mixed signals PCB layout (digital & analog audio designs)
PCB EMI/EMC compliance
Timing analysis with timing software
Digital systems design, and logic realization.
VHDL programming, modelling, and behavioral simulations & placed and routed simulations.
Product support, test support, and some manufacturing support.

Those are just some of the skills I have picked up on working on my design over the last year. How much should I be getting paid for this knowledge and skillset?

it depends on how good you ar at it, but i wouldnt think that 55k-65k is out of line.

and he is also in CA...

ask for at least 60k IMO..

 

[cerebusPu]

just so you know...i picked up alot of skills this year too. only got 5% at the annual performance review. instead of giving me a raise, he hired another dude to work under me.

 

[blahblah99]

Originally posted by: Ameesh

Originally posted by: blahblah99
Well its almost time for that yearly job performance review and I am in a pretty good position to ask for a HUGE raise considering the amount of work I've done and the amount of skills I've pick up in just ONE year.

What's the best way to negotiate for a salary increase of at least 20%?

In case you are all wondering here's what I've picked up in ONE YEAR (and I still have a few months to pick up even more skills before the review) :

Hardware design, testing debugging, which include:
Mixed signals PCB layout (digital & analog audio designs)
PCB EMI/EMC compliance
Timing analysis with timing software
Digital systems design, and logic realization.
VHDL programming, modelling, and behavioral simulations & placed and routed simulations.
Product support, test support, and some manufacturing support.

Those are just some of the skills I have picked up on working on my design over the last year. How much should I be getting paid for this knowledge and skillset?

it depends on how good you ar at it, but i wouldnt think that 55k-65k is out of line.

Well, good is a relative term... I don't think I'm as good as an engineer who deals soley with EMI, but I do know how to trouble shoot emi problems or design with emi/emc in mind.

Same goes with VHDL and FPGAs/CPLDs. I don't know every little detail of VHDL and FPGAs/CPLDs, but I do know how to design combinatorial & sequential systems and implement it, how to interface peripherals to a processor using the fpga as the interface, how to manipulate data in/out the fpga, how to design it to meet timing requirements, how to design memory mapped i/o, etc etc

and, most importantly, to do it in a reasonable amount of time. In my last design I created a 40,000 gate module in 6 weeks, which isn't too bad considering it was my first time. I will probably have to re-write a good portion of an existing FPGA code in the near future because of faults in the original design causing glitches. Looking furthur down the line, I will be getting involved in doing some embedded programming, specifically, writing drivers for the hardware.

I just want to gather a range of salary for someone with this skillset so I have something to work with when it comes time for the performance review.

 

[StageLeft]

You're worth about $25k/year tops.

J/k 🙂 Bust their balls!!

 

[cerebusPu]

$10 an hour?

how mnuch your worth doesnt mean how much you are gonna get.

 

[sillymofo]

Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Demand what you believe you are worth and threaten to quit if they don't give it to you. It works every time for me.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

 

[Zombie]

Originally posted by: blahblah99
Well its almost time for that yearly job performance review and I am in a pretty good position to ask for a HUGE raise considering the amount of work I've done and the amount of skills I've pick up in just ONE year.

What's the best way to negotiate for a salary increase of at least 20%?

In case you are all wondering here's what I've picked up in ONE YEAR (and I still have a few months to pick up even more skills before the review) :

Hardware design, testing debugging, which include:
Mixed signals PCB layout (digital & analog audio designs)
PCB EMI/EMC compliance
Timing analysis with timing software
Digital systems design, and logic realization.
VHDL programming, modelling, and behavioral simulations & placed and routed simulations.
Product support, test support, and some manufacturing support.

Those are just some of the skills I have picked up on working on my design over the last year. How much should I be getting paid for this knowledge and skillset?

bahahahah, dream on. 20% increase for a EE ? Well I guess it depends on what you getting now.

 

[Ness]

Well, the way I see it, you claim to know those skills, but I haven't heard diddly squat that proves you know if better than the next guy. What incentive do your employers have to not can you and hire someone who knows the same stuff?

Show what you are worth by saying what you have done for the company, what you can do, and more.

They don't give a crap about what you know so long as your are doing your job. They care that you are making money for them. If you can't prove that you will help them make more money, then they aren't going to let YOU have more money either.

Money makes the world go round, whether people like it or not, it's true.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

 

[poopaskoopa]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

It's a healthy raise for sure. 🙂 If you want it, you gotta ask for it!

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

It's a healthy raise for sure. 🙂 If you want it, you gotta ask for it!

Lets look at this another way yeah? Since he's been there for a whole long year, and wanted a 20% raise, I'm sure with his expertise and experience in the matter, he won't have problems finding another job (and yup, they're abundance). That's why after they deny his raise, they'll be looking for a cheaper replacement, since they know what he wants. How do you think his working atmosphere will be after that?

But look on the bright side, he might get the raise.

 

[BooGiMaN]

what are you getting now?

20% in this economy....thats rough..have you asked the otheres gusy what the typical raises have been so far?

is it a big or small company...i work for a huge company and we have been profitable yet i dont expect a big raise anytime soon.

 

[poopaskoopa]

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

It's a healthy raise for sure. 🙂 If you want it, you gotta ask for it!

Lets look at this another way yeah? Since he's been there for a whole long year, and wanted a 20% raise, I'm sure with his expertise and experience in the matter, he won't have problems finding another job (and yup, they're abundance). That's why after they deny his raise, they'll be looking for a cheaper replacement, since they know what he wants. How do you think his working atmosphere will be after that?

But look on the bright side, he might get the raise.

I think you're making an odd assumption about what "might" happen if he does so much as ask for more money. It sounds as though you think his manager will get pissed off at him for having nerve to ask for a raise after "a whole long year", and immediately start taking resumes from monster.com. If his employer's in position to look to save money on technical labor, they'd be looking to move not just him but his group to India or some other place where people can live on half of what he's making now. Or they'll cut the group, hire contractors at lower rates. I've seen both situations happen at work. He's not gonna dodge either of those situations by not asking for more money. And if he works for a company/manager who'll look to replace a skilled engineer for ASKING(not paying, but ASKING) for more money, then his working atmosphere is bad to begin with.

 

[sillymofo]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

It's a healthy raise for sure. 🙂 If you want it, you gotta ask for it!

Lets look at this another way yeah? Since he's been there for a whole long year, and wanted a 20% raise, I'm sure with his expertise and experience in the matter, he won't have problems finding another job (and yup, they're abundance). That's why after they deny his raise, they'll be looking for a cheaper replacement, since they know what he wants. How do you think his working atmosphere will be after that?

But look on the bright side, he might get the raise.

I think you're making an odd assumption about what "might" happen if he does so much as ask for more money. It sounds as though you think his manager will get pissed off at him for having nerve to ask for a raise after "a whole long year", and immediately start taking resumes from monster.com. If his employer's in position to look to save money on technical labor, they'd be looking to move not just him but his group to India or some other place where people can live on half of what he's making now. Or they'll cut the group, hire contractors at lower rates. I've seen both situations happen at work. He's not gonna dodge either of those situations by not asking for more money. And if he works for a company/manager who'll look to replace a skilled engineer for ASKING(not paying, but ASKING) for more money, then his working atmosphere is bad to begin with.

 

[BooGiMaN]

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo

Originally posted by: poopaskoopa

Originally posted by: cr4zymofo
Did they pay you well BEFORE you acquired those skills? What did they pay you for? Did they train you to do those things that you "picked up"?

Give it another year you ungrateful bastage.

I'll never understand why some people will willfully take less money out of moral obligation. It's free to ask. If they don't want to/can't give it to you, they won't. I've come to the conclusion that your employer knows up to how much they want to pay you. It's your responsibility to find that limit. With that out of the way, I'll add that my friend who was a verification engineer made just above 70k in North Carolina. You can always get another job lined up and use that as a leverage as well(which, I realize, is easier said than done).

And you guys are wondering why jobs are leaving the country.

If you're gonna tell the guy to give up a year, let me ask you this: If he didn't ask for a raise for a year, do you think he'll keep his job a year longer? I'll dare say that the jobs that are leaving will keep on leaving even if he didn't get a raise.

Yeah, but 20%? :roll:

It's a healthy raise for sure. 🙂 If you want it, you gotta ask for it!

Lets look at this another way yeah? Since he's been there for a whole long year, and wanted a 20% raise, I'm sure with his expertise and experience in the matter, he won't have problems finding another job (and yup, they're abundance). That's why after they deny his raise, they'll be looking for a cheaper replacement, since they know what he wants. How do you think his working atmosphere will be after that?

But look on the bright side, he might get the raise.

I think you're making an odd assumption about what "might" happen if he does so much as ask for more money. It sounds as though you think his manager will get pissed off at him for having nerve to ask for a raise after "a whole long year", and immediately start taking resumes from monster.com. If his employer's in position to look to save money on technical labor, they'd be looking to move not just him but his group to India or some other place where people can live on half of what he's making now. Or they'll cut the group, hire contractors at lower rates. I've seen both situations happen at work. He's not gonna dodge either of those situations by not asking for more money. And if he works for a company/manager who'll look to replace a skilled engineer for ASKING(not paying, but ASKING) for more money, then his working atmosphere is bad to begin with.

asking for that high of a raise could potential make his employer feel that he is ot happy with the pay and is lookign to get out at the first oppurtunity, so the manager could potentially start looking for a replacement that is happy with the current pay. no manager wants and unhappy employee which translates into less productive employee

 

[blahblah99]

Let me elaborate more... there was a massive layoff a year back in my company (of less than 500 people), and in the engineering department alone, we lost about 20% of the engineers. Yet, they want FAST time to market designs, with multiple designs occuring simultaneously. Now that doesn't mean that I am doing all the design work - I'm working on one design, while the next engineer works on the other design. And in such a small company as this one, you get the priviledge of doing all the design work from architecting the design to prototyping it, to testing, qualifying, and supporting it. The downside is if there is a problem, you get the blame. Now, there are concurrent designs in progress, they want more with a smaller workforce. That means a) we all have to work harder, or b) we have to work smarter and more efficiently, or c) both of the above.

Four months from now, I hope to have my design near completion and ahead of schedule. That will be my leverage for asking for a huge raise at the end of the year. Even though I have those skills listed above.. what makes me better than the guy waiting to replace me?

Well, there are many factors. For one thing, if you're only 25 and you've known this much, how much more will you know when you're 30, 35, 40, 45? Also, intution is an acquired skill that occurs over an extremely long term. It's not something that you can learn in a month, or two, or even a year. Why hire a $15 guy to solve problems if it takes him two weeks while a $30 guy takes a day? Not only that, but project managers and test/manufacturing come to me for support quite often due to the complexity of our designs (which I had no part of, and had to spend time learning the architecture of it).

It's not like I demanded a huge raise first, then proved myself. I've PROVEN myself, and now I'm asking for a raise. And because engineering is such a broad field, you're not limited on what you can learn unlike other jobs in the same salary range.

 

[sillymofo]

hum·ble
Pronounciation (hum'-bel)
adj. hum·bler, hum·blest

Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful.