$30,000 Millionaire said:

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Are you a new grad in their first job?

With these conversations, it is important not to come across in the wrong way. At 7 months in, it would be considered early to ask for additional comp. The general "standard" is around a year. I do think you should have a conversation with your management, just don't lead with comp. Ask for time to meet to review your performance. Discuss your accomplishments, talk about growth areas, and highlight that you like what you're doing and are interested in knowing what you should be focused on to ultimately advance with your company. They'll get the hint, trust me, and if it naturally comes up in the conversation, great. Do it again 6 months from now and then you can bring up comp. it is important for you to gauge that they feel the same way about your performance as you do. If they do and a year goes by with no prospect of wage growth, then you know the situation you're in. Compensation is always a balance between what you're learning vs what you're earning. I've stayed at places a longer time than I ordinarily would have based on what I was learning, working on, and building a resume with even though I was underpaid. Eventually the scale will tip and you'll move on. It's worked out really well for me in the long run.

To add another point, it has been my experience that companies generally don't wait long to reward great employees. I gave an employee a big raise recently and they'd worked on my team for less than a year. They absolutely earned and deserved it by making my life a lot easier. It was my pleasure to do it. That said, I would have been annoyed if they'd asked me for it, though.

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This is great advice.

I think the OP needs to calm down and settle in for the long game. You're setting yourself up for a humbling fall with your current attitude.

If you're really worth what you think you're worth, then find another job that pays that. The market never lies. Odds are that you're NOT worth to the open market what you think you're worth to your current company, hence you are getting paid through experience.

Don't be entitled. Be humble and work your ass off. They'll notice and reward you or you'll leave and the market will reward you.

Gaining responsibilities, exposure and success stories are FAR more valuable to you right now than $10,000-$20,000/year. Don't sacrifice the former just because you want the latter as well or you'll be cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Be careful about demanding a seat at the table. It might be the kids table while the adults eat peacefully without the noise.

If you have to ask, ya are doing it wrong!

LRHF said:

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If you have to ask, ya are doing it wrong!

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My first company had an 18 month no raises, no bonus policy... just work!

I think OP has found some hard-to-face advice and the ugly truths of corporate America through posts on this thread. I also think it's admirable you want to work and strive to be a VP at such an early point in your career within the company, but I do agree it may be time to take a step back and look at this through a different lens before running into your boss' office and asking for a raise.

There's a reason why young grads aren't automatically placed into senior management or VP roles out of college. It's because we (I graduated in 2014) don't possess the maturity necessary for the position. Does that mean you are immature? No. You might work really hard, which management will appreciate, but there's a certain demeanor and attitude that successful VP's possess that you likely don't have at this point.

This might be tough for you to hear, but when the company feels you are ready for a VP position - they will come to you. I think a great way to put the bug in their ear you are interested in a very organic way is during your annual review; bring up that desire during questions like "Where do you want to go in the company, what do you want to accomplish, etc."

You seem ambitious. However, I recommend to again take a step back, take a breath, and enjoy the ride. When your time comes you'll know it. Good luck in your endeavors. I hope it all works out for you one day!

RangerRick9211 said:

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FancyKetchup14 said:

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There's a reason why young grads aren't automatically placed into senior management or VP roles out of college. It's because we (I graduated in 2014) don't possess the maturity necessary for the position. Does that mean you are immature? No. You might work really hard, which management will appreciate, but there's a certain demeanor and attitude that successful VP's possess that you likely don't have at this point.

This might be tough for you to hear, but when the company feels you are ready for a VP position - they will come to you. I think a great way to put the bug in their ear you are interested in a very organic way is during your annual review; bring up that desire during questions like "Where do you want to go in the company, what do you want to accomplish, etc."

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Maturity. Executives. Lol.

Executive roles are like any other position. You either possess the skill set and abilities to execute the position or not. Most likely the OP is not qualified. But there's no way to sweep him/her into your generalization solely because of age.

And this might be more tough to hear, but it's critical: companies, businesses, corporations - they exist to profit. They invest in you for the sole outcome of making money.

And one such opportunity at making money is having an employee performing a role at market discount. This is important: what the "company feels" is driven by profit. There is little incentive to promote someone performing an elevated role at a discount if the employee is content being the good-good corporate lap dog thinking, "Hey, I don't deserve this because I'm not mature/old/ready/[insert whatever]".

Again, I'm firmly in the camp that the OP is most likely under-qualified and just naive. But appealing to age, not value, and some sort of earned dues based on the whims of corporate feelings is dangerous. Your value is what someone is willing to pay you. You can derive that value a thousand different ways and a thousand businesses will realize your value differently. That's the market.

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Even still, nothing wrong with having aspirations and working towards achieving high goals, just know that in terms of getting a seat at the table, most corps will want to see dues paid and a successful track record of success much longer than 8 months at your first gig.

OulSoul can you share more about the type of work/size of company? I think the only bit shared so far is there are 6 VPs total in the company.

Alright so I've really enjoyed reading each of the different opinions and perspectives that have been posted. I think one thing I've realized is that regardless, of whether or not I get "a seat at the table" or even get prepared to potentially fill one of those positions down the road. I need to be concise of what my skill sets market value is, and how to develop those so that I'm in a better position long term.


Its a small business with less than 50 employees. A lot of the current employees have been there between 15-30 years. Aside, from the few individuals in the front office management it's mostly a blue collar, high school educated workforce that have more of a manual labor role. There are less than a hand full of college educated employees. The company is moving in a more technical data driven direction the next few years, which will put me in a good position.

Thanks for sharing. When the time is right (probably around the 1 year mark if there isn't a defined performance management year), articulate your value proposition. May be good to focus your expectations more on what you want from a responsibility and $ perspective versus any particular title.

carter4133 said:

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A junior person's near term financial success at such a small company will have more to do with the company's performance than their own.

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That's true for everyone's future at a small company. Then again a small company's success is often has more to do with everyone's performance instead of just senior people. If they weren't essential, a small company isn't going to be able to pay them.

So I'm going to bump this thread up because I received a lot of good advice previously and come seeking it again.

Around Christmas I received a Christmas bonus from the owner and he made it clear that I was the only one that received one. He also expressed how much he disliked giving "bonuses" because of the precedent and expectations that arise from doing so.

He had made a comment that raises come at a specific time each year, which is around the peak revenue period for the company. This statement is pretty much where the conversation ended, so what do I make of that?

OldSoully said:

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So I'm going to bump this thread up because I received a lot of good advice previously and come seeking it again.

Around Christmas I received a Christmas bonus from the owner and he made it clear that I was the only one that received one. He also expressed how much he disliked giving "bonuses" because of the precedent and expectations that arise from doing so.

He had made a comment that raises come at a specific time each year, which is around the peak revenue period for the company. This statement is pretty much where the conversation ended, so what do I make of that?

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You got a bonus, appreciate it.

I'd say he's also indicating that you'll get a raise at that specific time of the year.

In my opinion it says your work has been recognized and is appreciated. It also says you will get an increase when the time comes. In your situation, I would make certain my focus is on point and my work is top notch.

I guess I'm different than most, but I see no problem with asking for a raise after that time period if you truly and honestly feel like you have gone above and beyond your job description. I received a promotion and ~25% raise after being at my company for 9 months-ish, so I'll at least speak from experience.

To give some background, I joined my company after working for another company for 1.5 years right out of school. The position I took required 2 years experience and had nothing to do with my previous experience so in a ways I was starting from scratch. Anyways, at the time each position at my company had a clear and detailed roles and responsibilities description. When I started, I took a lot of initiative to gain experience, work with other groups and in general just bust my ass in every way possible to not only fulfill the tasks laid out in my role description but as well as the role above me. I'd request to be responsible for larger tasks and projects and for the most part succeeded so my manager kept giving me more responsibilities.

After about 9 months my performance review was coming up with my manager and I thought I might as well ask for a raise, the worse that could happen is they could tell me no. I didn't go in unprepared though. I took the roles and responsibilities description for my current role as well as the role above mine. I listed the specific projects that had fulfilled more or less every item in the description for my current role as well as the majority of the items in the role above mine. For the cases where I could assign specific $$$ values or tangible statistics I did so. When it came time to have my performance review I brought all of that with me. I sat down with my manager and showed him that not only had I been performing and excelling at all of the tasks of my current role, I was also fulfilling the tasks and responsibilities of the position above me. I think my manager was a bit surprised by all of it but he agreed with everything I laid out and although the position above me required a minimum of 5 years experience (I had less than 3), he put me up for promotion and I was given a raise and promotion the next month.

So I guess my advice, based on my experience is:
1.) Be specific with why you feel you should get a raise. I was lucky and each role had a roles and responsibilities description. You may not have this but surely, at the very minimum, when you got hired on your position had a job description. Be specific in how you have not only fulfilled your job description but excelled in it. Keep in mind this will probably only work if you have truly excelled and can prove it. If you're just doing the job as intended don't expect them to pay you more than intended.
2.) If you can give numerical values of how you've excelled this will probably help your case. People seem to generally like seeing numbers, specifically $$$ so if you're able to do that, it'd probably help build your case. Show how you have done things ahead of schedule and made the company more money by either being more profitable or saving.
3.) I think a lot of this will depend on the relationship you have with your manager. My manager at that time and I had very similar personalities. He was aggressive with his career growth and we both didn't wait for opportunities to come to us, we would go get them. He didn't directly oversee me but he had an open door policy and I'd often go in there to bounce ideas off him and get feedback. We butted heads at times but overall we had a good working relationship and I think at the end of the day this helped too.

OldSoully said:

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So I'm going to bump this thread up because I received a lot of good advice previously and come seeking it again.

Around Christmas I received a Christmas bonus from the owner and he made it clear that I was the only one that received one. He also expressed how much he disliked giving "bonuses" because of the precedent and expectations that arise from doing so.

He had made a comment that raises come at a specific time each year, which is around the peak revenue period for the company. This statement is pretty much where the conversation ended, so what do I make of that?

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I think he's blowing smoke up your ass and likely gave ~49 other people a Christmas bonus and told them to keep it hush too.

As for timing of raises, that's a load of ***** If I have someone that is performing above and beyond expectations, which your earlier comments lead me to assume you are, I'm not going to wait until a specific date to recognize the hard work. Last thing I would want is for a great employee to become complacent or aggravated and start nosing around for a new gig because of an arbitrary date I've got in my freaking head of when I can and can't do things.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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This might be tough for you to hear, but when the company feels you are ready for a VP position - they will come to you.

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I disagree with this. Many companies are far too disorganized for you to count on their powers of observation.

Never count on somebody else to be your advocate; you are responsible for making them aware of what you've got.

I just caught up on the thread and I'm glad the OP got recognized with a bonus, even if the owner is blowing smoke and multiple people got one. Still means the OP is doing something right.

However, I do think it's slightly humorous and ironic that someone hoping for a VP position is posting for advice on how to ask for a raise on Texags.

Status update...

I know I was a little premature from when I first made this post and when the opportunity actually presented itself.


I received word that the "VP" position I previously mentioned would be mine for the taking prior to the end of this year. I know a lot of you thought my ambitions for having a "seat at the table" was a laughable thought or just another entitled millennial mentality because of how young and new I was within the company.

OldSoully said:

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Status update...

I know I was a little premature from when I first made this post and when the opportunity actually presented itself.


I received word that the "VP" position I previously mentioned would be mine for the taking prior to the end of this year. I know a lot of you thought my ambitions for having a "seat at the table" was a laughable thought or just another entitled millennial mentality because of how young and new I was within the company.

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Your boss told you that so you won't leave. You ain't got **** yet...

So the exercise of putting your job responsibilities on a sheet of paper was positive?

What kinda raise comes with this well earned VP label? They gonna get you up to $70k?