Getting Ahead

After an interesting day yesterday I’m left with an interesting question:  Is screwing the system the only way to get ahead?

I started my career at my current employer when I was 20, fresh out of college with a degree in Computer Engineering (that I obtained in only 3 years).  I was attractive to many firms due to my obvious self-starting nature but I was risky due to a lack of workplace experience via co-ops or internships.  My current employer was more interested in my upside than downside, so they gave me a chance and I was hired in May 2005.  Due to my downside, I was brought in at a lowish salary in comparison to my peers that might have had more workplace experience.  I’ve since found out that this is where I made my most grave mistake (more on that later).

I was hired in to a project in the firm that was on the cutting edge of new tech (yay for me!) but had a low budget and few experienced employees (woe for the company).  This afforded me certain opportunities to shine with my abilities/intelligence since there weren’t a lot of veterans taking up the more interesting work.  Fast forward a couple years to 2007 and by then I will have filed 3 patents, published 2 papers, and given 2 talks at major industry trade shows for the tech on which I was working.  The company for which I work was already an industry powerhouse in many areas but was unheard of in this new area… it was now considered a leader in this new area after 2 years (most companies in this business had been in for at least 10).

Fast track to career success, right? WRONG.

After my second year at the company I got my first promotion.  It was title-0nly (didn’t include any pay adjustment) and barely even reflected the work I was doing.  FF again to 2008.  In the summer of 2008, I get torn from my position on the new tech team and put into a position on the most important project to the company money-wise.  Some might see this as a good thing… but it was certainly the opposite.  On the big important project, based on my title, I was relegated to peon-like work since this project was full of higher titled people with little room to poach interesting work unless you had 10 years entrenched in the company.  I don’t blame anyone on that project for the situation, but given the work I was doing (regardless of the title I had) on the previous project I had hoped it was recognized that I could/should do more.  I’ve now been on this same project for almost two years.  I’ve sort of gotten used to being more of a peon with the token raises and lack of promotion and lack of interesting work… not that I’m in love with it, but it’s a steady job and in the current economic landscape a steady job is a fairly worthwhile one.

This feeling was until yesterday.  Yesterday I saw a new requisition the company put out to fill a position left by someone on the team on which I work that was moved elsewhere in the company.  This req spelled out desired requirements that almost exactly fit my experience and expertise… and it is for a job level and pay grade higher than mine.  In my short career I have accomplished more than most of the applicants will have accomplished and yet they are likely to be brought in at not only a higher title than me but in the order of $10k+ my current salary!  After speaking with many people around the office it became clear that because of the salary at which I was hired, I was forever on the “low track” with our firm.  Apparently our firm rarely to never does market adjustments when conditions change (I was brought in low because I lacked experience, but I quickly proved I was worth far more).  My wife was brought in low at her job, but received 16% and 11% raises her first two years once she proved herself to be the employee she said she could be.  I’ve proven myself, made plenty of money for the firm, pulled in outside recognition for the firm….. and I’m still stuck on the low track.

So back to the title of this post: screwing the system.  The more consulting I receive from friends/colleagues longer in this career the more I realize that if salary increase is my goal I have two options:  1, get a competing offer and threaten to leave; 2, leave for more money elsewhere, then come back and get it matched later in my career.  Considering I want to stay at the firm for which I already work, these options suck and yet they’re pretty much all that’s open to me for salary concerns.  I’m most likely not going to take either of those options for fear of losing the “steady job”… which is exactly why they can continue to pay me less than I’m worth.  In the end, what’s the whole point of airing this out?  So that I can advise other people to squeeze every last dime out of your initial offer if you go to a tech firm, because that’s going to set you on your salary path for the remainder of your career if you stay with a single firm.