Chris Curry ⋅ Los Angeles, CA U.S. Army, Captain ⋅ 8 years served

As you gain industry experience your ability to negotiate your salary will increase. Coming out of the Army there was not much wiggle room to negotiate since I had no industry experience and there were ten other people behind me who wanted the job. Just three years later I was able to negotiate hard for my salary at a new job I was head hunted for and was rewarded for my effort.

If you're just coming into the work force at a new job, try and poll friends in the industry or do some web research on the position you're applying for to get a feel for salary ranges. If the job has been posted for several months you may have some room to negotiate as the company might be having trouble finding a suitable candidate. I've found if companies aren't willing to negotiate on salary, you can get them to pick up other items such as additional moving expenses, additional vacation days, etc... All of that can really add up. Bottom line: you'll never know what they're willing to give unless you're brave enough to just ask.

Christopher Ahlberg ⋅ Holtsville, NY Recorded Future, Inc. ⋅ 15 years experience

Good input above. I've ran decently big organizations (250 people) in software world, and we were very simple - we paid for performance, directly or indirectly. So my conclusion is simple - do hard work. Work hard, practice, learn more about your area, just be your best. Certainly you can try to figure out what your company values - but it's usually pretty simple - build great products (design/engienering), sell a whole lot of them (sales), tell great stories about them (marketing), etc. If you do that really well you will be recognized, in every way there is. Some people will put politics and networking before hard work, might work for them, but I doubt it.

What is worthwhile is to keep good track of what you're doing. Not to throw in the face of your boss to do self promotion, but work hard at figuring out "how it call connects". Not necessarily simple to do - but if you can go to your boss and say "hey I've worked on these 6 different projects, we've accomplished xyz, but I also think we can improve the following", etc. - in a way that genuinely is done to further your company and organization rather than yourself, it will reflect well on you.

Finally, silly but good tactic: spread praise on what others do. It will eventually come back to you.

Rob Blackburn ⋅ Knoxville, TN Hewlett Packard ⋅ 20 years experience

Focus on how your skills and accomplishments did or will make your organization better. Pay increases in the corporate world are no longer automatic as the pot of money that funds the raises gets tighter and tighter. You need to demonstrate and articulate why you deserve a piece of that pie.

Dali Rivera ⋅ Abingdon, MD U.S. Army, Staff Sergeant ⋅ 10 years served

I think that it would help if you would be able to point out any skills that only you have that others lack. If you are the only person that is in charge of a certain task and you do it really well, you can point that out too. If your employer would have to re-train someone for something you do, essentially, you are saving them money. Best of luck!