Asking for a raise can get you more money, or damage your career. At times it can get you fired. Here are 9 things not to day when asking for a raise.
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Call or email? I have seen a job lost by a single email. Instead of picking up the phone, the candidate decided to ask a bunch of delicate questions by email. With email, they can’t see your smile or hear your voice. An email can’t respond to the question in the reader’s voice. An email isn’t a real personal contact. It is just a contact. Never leave an important contact to an email if you don’t have to. Instead of sending a long email, pick up the phone and call. You can document the conversation in an email afterwards, but make the initial contact more personal. Pick up the phone. Sure, you can ask, “Have you made a decision yet?” by email. But, if the reader is frustrated with his staff when he gets it, he thinks, “One more person on my back.” If you get him on the phone and hear his frustration you can say, “You sound in a hurry, how can I help you in this process? What else do you need me to do?” You can become the one sane voice he has heard today. Email is great, but personal contact is better. One trainer in our industry suggests that I make every third contact by phone. That way I remain in closer contact with the situation. I hear the voice, the attitude, the person. You and my clients in turn hear my voice. I continue being a real person in your mind. Be honest. A one page email often takes longer than a phone call. It just isn’t as scarey. You spend 20 minutes writing, editing and worrying. Then you send it. A five minute phone call is faster. For a lot of chores a computer is incredibly fast. It really can help. For keeping in contact with people who have to remember who you are, occasionally pick up the phone. Something to do today If you have a list of people you are waiting to hear from about jobs, start making at least every third contact a phone call. ————————– The smartest guy in the room Humility and job suicide, there is a difference What’s wrong with the box? How to wait for the next interview Tense because of work and your job search? The comments on this article list a lot of real ways people get to sleep. My most effective way to get to sleep is to count to 2. In my head I lie down and count 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2….. until I fall asleep. If I count any higher it takes enough mental energy that it keeps me awake. Counting clears my mind and lets me rest. This may be counter-intuitive, but when you try to leave your job, your boss looks at YOU as the cheating husband. Your boss sees YOU as the betrayer no matter how many times he has failed to follow up on his promises. He may have not given you any raises in 4 years, but he sees you as the person who is making his life miserable. Your boss sees himself as the righteous WIFE in this story when you quit. If you agree to stay due to his pleadings, pay raises, promotions, and cajoling, he absolutely loses his trust in you. Here is how he feels. Your boss thinks he is the wife in this example Your husband asked for a divorce last week. He quit. He has been dating another woman who is so much nicer than you. He is cheating. He told you about her looks, personality, family, and friendship. He was preparing to move out until last night. You begged him to stay for the kids’ sake. You agreed to change the way you treat him. You will start exercising, get a facelift and breast implants. He finally agreed to dump that floozy. It is so nice to have him in your arms again. He’s yours. (Remember, you are the husband, he is the wife who is getting surgery to get you to stay.) It’s two weeks later. He needs to “work late” for the second time this week. Can you keep yourself from calling his office? He’s gone on 3 overnight business trips this month. Are you going to check the credit card statements when they come? You called at 3 pm and the receptionist said he is out of the office. You really want to get an ankle bracelet to track him, don’t you? Your boss When you tell your boss you are quitting, and he sweet talks you into staying, he has already lost faith in you. The next time you have a dental appointment he is going to wonder. When a big opportunity comes up he’ll remember that you took an extra half hour at lunch one day last week. He’ll give the big project to someone else who he is sure will stay in the company and finish it. Once you give notice you are quitting, leave. Come back in 6 months if you were wrong. Then your boss will know that your commitment to your new employer was firm, but things didn’t work out. When you accept his pleas to stay, he knows you just screwed the other company. He’ll be wondering when you will screw him. That’s real life. Something to do today Prepare a resignation letter that only says: Thank you for the chance to work here. My last day of work will be xx/xx/xx. Now practice this phrase 20 times: “Let’s not talk about why I am leaving, let’s talk about how I can make the transition easier on you.” ————————– World destruction by accident The smartest guy in the room Humility and job suicide, there is a difference You turn your dishwasher into a snowplow with the same three steps that you rise to the next level in your career. Don’t worry, I will tell you how in a minute. First, you need the right equipment. Buy the hardware and get the training. Do you need a hammer or a computer? Buy it. Get training. Training can be at college, at home or on the job. You can read a book on entrepreneurship or on carpentry. It doesn’t matter. You need tools and skills. Second, you need to start moving around in your future work environment. Show people you are developing new skills. If you are a carpenter, start helping to lay out the framing. Start reading the blueprints. If you want to be in sales, volunteer to go on sales calls with the salespeople. Engineers can volunteer to help in project reviews or requirements gathering. Start working with the people who can help you get your career where you want it to go. Third, make the move. In your current company you may have to tell your boss to hire someone to replace you. Tell him, “I’m doing so much now that I have to give something up. Why don’t you hire someone for my old job? I’m worth more to you as an (insert new job).” If you have to quit, find a new job first. It is almost always easier to find a new job when the hiring manager feels he is stealing a star player instead of hiring a quitter. Summary: To turn your dishwasher into a snowplow: give him a shovel, show him where you want the snow moved to, and push him out into the snow. Those are the 3 steps I just shared. Something to do today Decide which of those three steps is next for you. Get started on it. ————————– The cheating husband People call me and ask, “What is the hottest job in my field? What is the next BIG thing?” I tell them how to find out for themselves. The trouble with your career may be that you are stuck in a backwater position with no chance to see what is new. You might say:
An excellent way to know where you want to be is to read the job ads once a week. You’ll get a great feel for where the center, front edge and dying edge of your field is at. Think about it. Job ads tell you where people are hiring, not where they are just blue sky bragging. Job ads tell you how hot the employment market is by how many ads are out there. They also tell you who is doing well enough to hire or who is losing people right and left. Job ads are public business intelligence. Use them. Something to do today Set up an appointment with yourself to read the online or newspaper job ads each week. ————————– Free career intelligence How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow The cheating husband $80,000. No, $82,500 plus free healthcare. We’ll pay $85,400 plus healthcare plus 401k matching. Recruiters hate it. Job hunters love it. I’m insane for telling you about it. 2 or 3 simultaneous job offers can be exciting and pay well. How do you get people making offers to keep raising the salary and benefits? Luck is only part of it. Here are some other ways to make it happen:
WARNING A lot of companies refuse to play the bidding game. They make their best offer first. They also offer more than just more money. They offer a career cannon that will propel you where you want to go. Don’t get so caught up in a bidding war that you forget that a quality offer at a quality company is a better long term bet. Something to do today Make a list of 10 or 20 companies you want to go to work for. Make an action list so you can do a great job of applying to all of them in a week. ————————– Later: Top secret job hunting Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting Free career intelligence How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow 1/3 of all huge projects never get finished. 1/3 of all huge projects cost several times more than planned and are months or years late getting implemented. Here are 5 really important ideas.
I admit it. This is my biggest problem. I make a jokes in interviews. I’m irreverent. These jokes really have been used in interviews.
You need to establish a good relationship with your interviewer. You also need to figure out what is “sacred” to him and be reverent. Honesty and hard work are two good areas to be careful about. If you want to joke, taking hard work too far is a better joke than being a slacker.
Be human. Have some fun. Just do it in a way that benefits you and your interviewer. Something to do today Think about the negative jokes you tell. Can you turn them around and make them about doing too much that is good? ————————– Later: Start a salary bidding war Top secret job hunting Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting
Free career intelligence How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow There is nothing like being trapped in a small, poorly ventilated interview room with a noisome, pungent candidate (or interviewer). One guy I worked with….. smelled…. funny. Another always wore each white dress shirts for 4 days. A woman I worked with had a mouthwash she used at lunch with a bouquet like bourbon (hmmm). I lived with 3 elevator installers who showered once a week, used lots of cologne, and changed their bed sheets daily. No one wants to work with someone whose lack of cleanliness is distracting. Clean is a minimum for an interview. Clean and sharp looking is better. Consider these ideas for the 24 hours before a job interview: 1. Fill up your gas tank the day before so your hands don’t smell like gasoline at the interview. 2. No onions, garlic, beans, curries, pungent cheese, or other strong smelling foods. 3. Avoid perfumes, colognes, perfumed deodorants, strongly scented soaps, etc. Some people react allergically to the smells and their sinuses plug up. 4. Consider buying 2 or 3 shirts or blouses just for interviewing and take them to the professionals to have them cleaned and pressed before every interview. Buy new neckties so the knot is crisp and clean. 5. Polish those shoes. A few people still set a lot of store by how shoes shine. 6. Shave before an afternoon interview. 7. Put a TicTac in your mouth when you pull into the parking lot. A lot of people are hired despite being sweaty, having wrinkled clothes, and a 5 o’clock shadow. But, it is always at a lower salary than they could earn otherwise. Cleanliness will make a difference. Something to do today Put a box of TicTacs in your glove compartment just for job interviews. ————————– Later: Interview like an Eagle -Final Start a salary bidding war Top secret job hunting Read want ads even if you are NOT job hunting Free career intelligence How to turn your dishwasher into a snowplow |
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