Salary Negotiation After Raise 6 Months Ago [duplicate]

Question

I am wondering how to go about asking for an increased salary during the non-standard review time after already receiving a pretty good raise at the beginning of the year.

I've been working for a company for two years and I'm a software engineer. I took a 10k pay cut when I came over from 70k to 60k and lost 5 sick days, and I was okay with it at the time because my ex wanted to move there and I do like the company. The first year I received a 3k pay increase and then this December received a 7k raise (putting me back where I started). Now I am starting to think that I want to move because I'm single again and there aren't many young people in my city. The problem is that I feel my team really needs me: They are understaffed as is. They are looking to hire more people (and are having difficulty finding people) and even if they found people it would take time to train them and get them caught up (and things would slow down with somebody having to teach them), the project is pretty crucial to the company and just restarted after some pretty painful delays (due to a third party). It already is probably going to be behind schedule since it's understaffed. It is an important and cool project that will likely continue for years (and my manager once told me that this is the best project he's ever worked on in 30 years and i'm insanely lucky that this is one of my projects so early in my career).

I feel very grateful to the company, it's pretty small and they have shown that they care a lot about their employees. The loyalty in me really wants to stay and help out, but I know that it's probably better for starting a family if I move. If I received a pretty big raise I would feel better about staying for a little while longer (maybe a half a year to a year) and if in that time I found somebody I liked I would definitely stay. Will asking for a raise (maybe 5k-10k) now likely be a problem, and since we always get raises in December does that throw everything off for December? Perhaps I should I negotiate like "7.5k now and 7.5k in December" to ensure the raise that I will almost definitely get in December?

Answer 1

If I received a pretty big raise I would feel better about staying for a little while longer (maybe a half a year to a year) and if in that time I found somebody I liked I would definitely stay.

Don't conflate financial incentives with personal incentives. One won't solve the other. If you want to move away for personal reasons, more money won't magically solve it - it'll just leave you feeling more miserable a month or two down the line when the novelty of more money has worn off.

The problem is that I feel my team really needs me: They are understaffed as is.

That's not your concern, and shouldn't factor into your decision. If they're struggling to hire then they're likely being too picky, not offering enough money, or a combination of both. (The fact you had to take a pay cut to work for them signals they're probably paying less than the going rate.)

and my manager once told me that this is the best project he's ever worked on in 30 years and i'm insanely lucky that this is one of my projects so early in my career

That's just sales talk. There's plenty of good projects, unless you're working on some type of revolutionary software to put a man on mars or similar, this won't be unique.