TLDR: Quit my job because I was being underpaid. Left to one of our top competitors for a 43% salary increase.
Apologies in advanced for my crappy grammar (I'm a numbers guy not a letters guy), but I wanted to share this story to hopefully inspire at least one person to take the steps in getting paid what they deserve. If the company you currently work for isn't paying what you deserve, then you need to leave. Here is my story of how I went from making $77k to $110k by quitting my job.
In 2018 I graduated from a large public university with a degree in finance. I went on to work for a well-known Fortune 500 company making $56k as a Junior Financial Analyst. I saw this as a great learning opportunity with lots of room for growth. In February of 2020 I was recognized as a high performer and given an early promotion to join the Corporate FP&A (financial planning and analysis) team. Because it was an early promotion, the best they could offer me was $65K (their words not mine) despite the standard salary for that position being closer to $75k. They said once I hit the three-year mark, I could renegotiate my salary.
Fast forward to May 2021. The day after my three-year anniversary with the company I set up a meeting with my manager to discuss compensation. I laid out my high-performance reviews and the huge accomplishments myself, our team and company had over the last year and a half. My manager agreed that I was due for a raise, but due to the pandemic (despite record revenues) the best they could give me was $70k. He agreed that my $85k ask was reasonable and at the end of the year I could come back
to him to discuss another increase.
Fast forward again now to January 2022. I set up another meeting with my manager asking for that $85k salary, and he said he would speak to HR and see what they could do. After a couple weeks he came back to me and said the company cannot give more than a 10% raise within the same position, and that
I'm still a year and a half away from being promoted to a senior analyst position, so the best they can offer me is $77k. At this point I realized that if I was going to be valued, I would need to go elsewhere.
In February 2022 I started casually applying to companies and speaking with recruiters to find out what a financial analyst with 3-4 years of experience should be making. After gathering some data, I felt that I should be making between $90k-$100k. After months of applying and interviewing (I could write a
whole post about this process as well), I finally got an offer! One of our top competitors, another well-known Fortune 500 company, is going to be paying me $110k and giving me the title of Senior Financial Analyst. That is a 43% increase over the $77k that I am currently making with a nice title increase on top.
Get out there and get paid what you're worth. At a minimum set up some calls with recruiters and find out what you could be making. Good luck!