Off Topic - Career Advice

[Virtuous]

I’m 31, so still a baby compared to some of y’all, and I’d love some career advice if y’all wouldn’t mind.

I work in technology consulting/sales. Moderately well paid white collar nerd, basically.

With the current job market, it’s a prime time to ask for a raise/retention bonus or bounce and get a new job.

As a baseline here, I am very good at my job. It’s sales, quota based, and I have never missed my yearly number in 5 years (300% to plan this year). My employer has me on a “retain at all costs” list. I have leverage.

I have a mentor that left my current company over the summer. He knows my current pay, and has extended a job offer doubling my pay and giving me a bit of a bigger role than I currently have in my corporation. His new company is far larger than the one I work for now.

My current job haven’t offered me a raise proactively, but they’ve been bleeding talent and they consider me crucial to their revenue creation over then next several years.

If I take the new gig, I’ll be a small fish in a big pond, but have a lot more room for growth and obviously enjoy a fat raise. In this role I would need mentors and people to help me. The C-Suite won’t know I exist.

If I stay, I can probably negotiate a pay match, but no real promotion and I’ll be a big fish in a small pond. In this role I am a mentor and help everyone else. The CEO hugs me and texts me and asks about mh family. I’ve been here 5 years.

I have a month to decide.

 

[qbkilla]

Probably hard to give you advise if say balance stress, money, work life balance and make a choice. Keep the worst case scenario in mind for each option ( you may hate your new co-workers etc).

Keep in mind time is money. Less time dealing with work stress and work issues has value.

 

[Flex500]

Man that's a tough call. I see it from many different views to be honest. On one hand when you ask your current employer to "match" another job offer that can get weird. The reason is that may work this time but what happens when another company offers you even more money next year? Or the year after? Even if it is a "who is the highest bidder" situation you don't want your employer to feel it's positioned that way.

Now that doesn't mean I would not ask for more money...it means I'd make the base of my rationale about your job performance and what you bring to the company and less about comparing it to other offers or the needs in your personal life. I'd also communicate all the great things you said here in that you don't want to leave and you love a lot about the company you work for now. That means a lot and your intent to stay will support the discussion...if you intend to stay.

On the other hand you may want to weigh out if it is good for your career to leave...and maybe it is.

Like I said I look at this from a lot of different angles. I manage ~215 people that work across the country in healthcare. They are professional jobs (physical therapists, athletic trainers, etc) and 18 of the people are management or support manager/supervisor type of roles. For me, I do actually budget each year to "level" people. Meaning, people that may have been here a while and are under where they should be compared to peers, qualifications, etc. I have one of my managers a solid 10K raise last year and my boss game me around an 18K raise. I work for a $1.6B company so quite large but not freaky large like some $15B+ company. I bring that up because I have quite a bit of influence on HR and folks that can help me make things happen.

When my manager, who kicks ass, was given the $10K additional pay it was someone who is/was a top performer and they lightly brought it up to me asking where they sit in scale and that they were hoping to move up. I had already been working on it but had HR take a look at they were way under midpoint for their role. I'm also a manger that fights tooth and nail for pay for my team so I try to be proactive with where people are in scale etc.

I'm rambling now but just a few off the cuff thoughts.

 

[Virtuous]

I love both of y’all’s advice. You’re both basically spot on with my dilemma. It’s comfort vs unknown. I don’t want to hold my employer hostage my any means, and if I do leave I want to leave gracefully. I don’t want to leave them in a bind.

I also can’t stare at the possibility of a life-changing pay raise and say “nah.” I know my employer would match, but I don’t know if they SHOULD match, because it’s sort of break their HR pay band.

For size comparison, current company does $4B. New company is leave for does $100B.

 

[Reno911]

There are some companies that develop talent but are not known growth within. Essentially they are excellent places to "come from". This sounds like your situation. The 1 thing and only thing I like about Millenials is that they are much more aggressive in getting paid more that Generation X an older. The Baby Boomers were the worst at staying at jobs out of loyalty for 30+ years and never really climbing too high on the pay scale.

The only thing I'd say is if the new job responsibilities are going to cause you a huge amount of stress then no amount of pay is worth it.

 

[Virtuous]

There are some companies that develop talent but are not known growth within. Essentially they are excellent places to "come from". This sounds like your situation. The 1 thing and only thing I like about Millenials is that they are much more aggressive in getting paid more that Generation X an older. The Baby Boomers were the worst at staying at jobs out of loyalty for 30+ years and never really climbing too high on the pay scale.

The only thing I'd say is if the new job responsibilities are going to cause you a huge amount of stress then no amount of pay is worth it.

Tbh it’ll be less stress, as in my current role I’m sort of the catch-all for all of our major new-logo pursuits.

I think you nailed it - my current company is a great place to come from. I did 5 years and have given far more to the company than they’ve given me (as it should be!).

I just hate knowing that they’ll be up a creek for a while until they backfill me. It’s not that I’m especially talented, they can buy better talent, I just have great tribal knowledge that’ll be a bit hard to replace.

 

[Flex500]

I love both of y’all’s advice. You’re both basically spot on with my dilemma. It’s comfort vs unknown. I don’t want to hold my employer hostage my any means, and if I do leave I want to leave gracefully. I don’t want to leave them in a bind.

I also can’t stare at the possibility of a life-changing pay raise and say “nah.” I know my employer would match, but I don’t know if they SHOULD match, because it’s sort of break their HR pay band.

For size comparison, current company does $4B. New company is leave for does $100B.

Wow yeah those are huge companies. I work for a top 5 orthopedic medical device company when it comes to revenue and as a comparison #1 on the list is Stryker at ~$15B. It's just sort of funny that I work for what is considered a "huge" company and your current company is like 2.5x as big as mine now!

You are for sure in a tough spot. I actually just had a manager of mine leave who it sucked but they were being offered over $25K more and it was just a cool opportunity they could not pass up. That sucked but it was the right decision for her.

 

[Virtuous]

Wow yeah those are huge companies. I work for a top 5 orthopedic medical device company when it comes to revenue and as a comparison #1 on the list is Stryker at ~$15B. It's just sort of funny that I work for what is considered a "huge" company and your current company is like 2.5x as big as mine now!

You are for sure in a tough spot. I actually just had a manager of mine leave who it sucked but they were being offered over $25K more and it was just a cool opportunity they could not pass up. That sucked but it was the right decision for her.

Yeah I’m lucky, man, technology sales is a really cool gig. Lots of cash floating around right now.