Hi! As the title says, I asked for a raise (or at least what I could do professionally to prove my worth and get a raise after almost a year of being in this company), they denied it and didn't explain anything about what I could do to actually get it. A few weeks later, I got another job that gives me a 40% raise.
A bit of context: I work as a DevOps, not an entry level, not a senior either. I am currently trying to get a few AWS certifications in (you know, doing the exams and all).
The company I currently -still- work for couldn't care less about me having these certifications (though they exclusively use AWS products). I improved and learnt lot about AWS this year, to the point that I know way more than the other DevOps (who got in this company about a year before my arrival).
This guy, the other DevOps, is too used to working alone and can't trust anyone else but himself. He doesn't do team work, nor does his own work in a methodical way whatsoever (many, many distraction mistakes when editing yaml files and pushing them to the different repositories causing downtime even in production environments, doesn't respect commit conventions, serious copy-paste mistakes that jeopardise databases, and so on). Worst part is, this guy doesn't care about creating documentation or trying to keep me updated on what he modified or was working on, so that I know what to actually look for if something happens and he is not available / reachable. He would cut me out of all work and make it impossible to follow real-time what's being done to the infrastructure.
Back to the HR conversation and my resignation:
After the summer holidays, I talked to the HR lady about the wages and the possibility of a raise. She started on the “ladder” discourse saying that “they won't forget, but there's a ladder to respect and a growth path to follow”, but she failed to mention what it was exactly. She also went on talking about courses and exam money to get my certifications (that, as I said, do nothing regarding extra money with this company), to try and distract me from the topic.
A few weeks ago I talked to her again, after having signed a contract with a new company that gives me a 40% raise, and told her I was handing in my resignation with the corresponding 20-day notice.
She put on the surprised Pikachu face and asked me why. I told her it was about the money and that it also had to do with the other DevOps (which she knew, for months).
She also asked if there was anything the company could do to keep me, and I told her no… That I wasn't there for the counteroffer, and that they had made clear in August that more money was out of the question.
I already learnt the lesson from another company I worked for almost three years: If they start with the yadayada regarding a raise, it's because that day won't be arriving anytime soon.
Nothing personal, but seeing my pay slip every month and seeing that I am on an entry-level salary (less than what I was making in the other company actually, as here I don't have those extra hours of “required availability” for night-time emergencies) angers me big time.
Sorry, I just needed to vent. They even make you feel like a bad person or something. Soon after I ended the call, I sent the digital resignation and she wrote me on Slack saying: “Oh, so fast, I can see you couldn't wait to hand it”.
“Oh, sorry about not staying around to see if you would lose some golden rings from your hands to give me a 5k annual raise”.
F*ck them.