Reflections On A Promotion And A Increase

In the event you’re a long-time learn­er, you’ll have the ability to vouch that I don’t have a tendency to remain in a single place or one job for very lengthy. Since 2014, I’ve labored for 4 com­pa­nies, held 6 posi­tions, and moved 10 instances. I noticed a good friend this spring and she or he con­grat­u­lat­ed me on keep­ing with one job for over 2 years. Whereas slight­ly impolite, she was­n’t mistaken. This job is the longest I’ve stayed in a single job in my whole profession (for those who exclude the mil­i­tary, which I do since I was compelled to remain in for six years). When all is alleged and executed, I could have held this job for two years and 9 months.

A dif­fer­ent good friend sug­gest­ed the rea­son I stayed for therefore lengthy was on account of all of the upheaval and uncer­tain­ty within the oth­er sides of my life. Whereas that was cer­tain­ly a part of it, the peo­ple I labored with and the job duties had been a a lot huge­ger rea­son why I stayed. I gen­uine­ly take pleasure in being across the huge main­i­ty of my cowork­ers on a day-to-day foundation. The respon­si­bil­i­ties of the posi­tion performed properly to my strengths and the chal­lenges posed stored me engaged. 

There have been a few issues that each­ered me in regards to the job. And, now that I give it some thought, these issues weren’t even actual­ly in regards to the job itself. I begin­ed the job in Decem­ber of 2019 with a wage of $76,000. Cur­lease­ly, I make $80,400. An additional $4k in pay a 12 months is noth­ing to sneeze at, and I’m grate­ful I acquired rais­es, however my wage was not maintain­ing up with infla­tion. There was additionally absolute­ly zero room to nego­ti­ate for a excessive­er elevate, which led to a lit­tle resentment. 

In addi­tion to pal­attempt rais­es every year, there was additionally no imme­di­ate profession professional­gres­sion plan. I got here in on one rung of the lad­der and there I would keep except I took on a lot of labor and proved my wor­thi­ness to maneuver up prematurely.

I knew I did­n’t need to depart the com­pa­ny this time. I’m not vest­ed within the 401(ok) or pen­sion, and I assume my com­pa­ny is a nice make use of­er that’s doing very valu­in a position work within the US. I talked to a few dif­fer­ent peo­ple in my divi­sion about what I would possibly do. Most of them had been in a position to com­mis­er­ate with me however did­n’t actual­ly have any recommendation to supply. One of many man­agers not solely supplied me some recommendation however advised me about an upcom­ing open­ing on his crew and encour­aged me to use for it. 

So, I did. 

And I acquired the job! 

It was my first time inter­view­ing for an inter­nal posi­tion, so I did­n’t fairly know what to anticipate. One in every of my mates at work is a senior man­ag­er, in order that they gave me the listing of ques­tions com­mon­ly utilized in inter­nal inter­views, did a mock inter­view with me, and helped me hone my solutions. I don’t assume I would’ve been any­the place close to as pre­pared with­out that expe­ri­ence, so I’m incred­i­bly grate­ful they took day out of their busy sched­ule to assist me once they did­n’t should. I def­i­nite­ly owe them din­ner or drinks some­time to precise my appreciation. 

There are a ton of issues to search for­ward to with this new job! I’ll be going from the IT Sup­port world to the mys­te­ri­ous and com­pli­cat­ed world of IT Secu­ri­ty. My job might be to trav­el to purchasers in our dis­trict and eval­u­ate their IT envi­ron­ments for extra dangers. So, I’ll get to trav­el to new locations with­within the Mid­west, discuss to new peo­ple about IT, and write studies. All issues I love to do, and I’m good at doing all of these issues!

The job listing­ing stat­ed the posi­tion could be a lev­el 5 job, however can­di­dates with much less expe­ri­ence or who had been miss­ing qual­i­fi­ca­tions may very well be supplied a low­er lev­el posi­tion. Since I don’t have a lot IT Secu­ri­ty expe­ri­ence and I don’t have a CISA or CISSP cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, I did­n’t qual­i­fy for the lev­el 5 posi­tion. How­ev­er, I do have a decade of IT expe­ri­ence and a much less­er cer­ti­fi­ca­tion in order that they supplied the posi­tion to me as a lev­el 4. I’m cur­lease­ly a lev­el 3, so this can be a rung up the lad­der and pay scale for me. My cur­lease pay scale tops out at $113k whereas my new pay scale tops out at $152k. That’s a lot extra room to maneuver up! There may be an estab­lished profession professional­gres­sion path for this new job. If I move the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion examination for the CISA and/or CISSP cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, I will transfer up into the lev­el 5 posi­tion which suggests my pay ceil­ing might be even greater!

I used to be count on­ing to attempt to nego­ti­ate with HR for a 10–15% elevate for a wage over $90k. I was very pleas­ant­ly sur­prised to be supplied $106,500 as a substitute! I did­n’t count on to be earn­ing six fig­ures any­time quickly, so I performed it cool and imme­di­ate­ly gave my ver­bal accep­tance. I’ll have a few posts com­ing up on the brand new wage and the poten­tial for all of the issues I can do with an additional $26,500 a 12 months in earnings after I get a few pay­checks beneath my belt and may wrap my mind round my new earnings lev­el. If any­one has any recommendation for top­er-income earn­ers, I’m all ears! 

Since I’ll be trav­el­ing a part of the time, I’ll have a new sched­ule. Cur­lease­ly I’m within the workplace 2 days a week. My new job solely requires me to be onsite 4 days a month! And, if I’m trav­el­ing to a shopper, these days rely as onsite. It may very well be a whereas earlier than I’m want­ed on the workplace, which is pre­cise­ly why I’m additionally los­ing my desk. Con­sid­er­ing I don’t must maintain mis­cel­la­neous IT equip­ment available for peo­ple at my desk any­extra, I’m not too upset at los­ing a spot of my very own after I’m hardly ever going to be there. It does imply I must fig­ure out what to do with all my desk dec­o­ra­tions, although! After I’m on the highway, I’ll be get­ting per diem to cov­er my meals expens­es. It’s not going to be glam­orous busi­ness trav­el such as you see in some jobs. I’ll usu­al­ly be dri­ving within the com­pa­ny automobile with my cowork­ers to the location de jour, that are most of the time small­er cities. This implies we’re going to be keep­ing in fundamental resorts, not the 4 Sea­sons, so I’m undecided how a lot I can take advan­tage of the trav­el with cred­it playing cards and mem­ber­ships. I’m a tiny bit con­cerned about trav­el­ing whereas gluten intol­er­ant, so I count on to trav­el with some meals of my very own in case I can’t discover a secure restau­rant to eat at. Ultimate­ly, we’ll be on a ⁹⁄₈₀ sched­ule. This implies I’ll com­plete 80 hours of labor in 9 work days as a substitute of 10, so I’ll get each oth­er Fri­time off! I’m stoked at an additional 24 days off to do issues like run errands and sched­ule doc­tor appoint­ments dur­ing the work day. And, in fact, 3‑day week­ends are eas­i­er to get some trav­el in over the reg­u­lar brief weekends. 

I’m grate­ful I reside in such a received­der­ful construct­ing that has such a robust com­mu­ni­ty in it. I wouldn’t have the ability to tackle a job with trav­el require­ments and have a cat with­out hav­ing neigh­bors who usually are not solely will­ing to take care of Bartholomew, however are keen to take action. They love him simply as a lot as I do, so I really feel con­fi­dent about leav­ing my fur little one of their com­pe­tent fingers. 

There are such a lot of issues to search for­ward to with the brand new job! I’m stoked to get began! 

As all the time, thanks for learn­ing! Please drop any recommendation for me within the com­ments on being a high-income earn­er in case you have it! 

Associated