Open-Source Internship opportunity by OpenGenus for programmers. Apply now.
In this article, we have presented advice on how to increase your salary in the job market. It is a strategy to follow as working hard and being loyal only may not pay well for all. We present a sample plan for you.
Table of contents:
- Stress on starting salary
- Option 1: Stay at same Company
- Option 2: Switch jobs every 2 years
- Option 3: Long term strategy
- Plan
Stress on starting salary
Always focus on your first salary you get just after university.
Do your best to get as high salary as you can for your first salary. It is true that increments can be slow at a later point in career if salary becomes too high but it works well if you start well.
Go for off-campus jobs and keep using current offers to get even higher offer.
Option 1: Stay at same Company
- Increment on good performance but no promotion: 8%
- Increment on promotion: 16% (can be high as 25%)
- Increment on average performance: 4%
Despite good performance, promotion is given only at fixed years at big companies. Initial years, a Programmer will get promotion every 2 years and the time gap will increase to 3 year to 10 years and may even halt as you go up the levels.
The duration between promotions vary slightly across companies and maybe public to the employees as well. These information are ideally present to "Career Ladder" documents. The
If your performance is average or more towards poor level, then scheduled promotions will be skipped so it impacts your salary significantly.
Option 2: Switch jobs every 2 years
If you switch job in a competitive market provided you are in good standing in your current job, you can expect an increment of upto 30%. If you are in a field which does not have similar demand as Computer Science, increment can be upto 20%.
The exact increment depends on the demand of your skills.
Switching jobs frequently can have negative impact on your job profile but 2 years is ideal in initial years and should increase as you proceed in your career.
Always switch company just after you get a promotion to maximize increment.
Option 3: Long term strategy
Invest in expanding your education. Opt for part-time degree for Master degree (M. Tech) and PhD. Never leave job for education if your goal is to rise in the job market.
Most competitive companies sponsor their employees to continue with higher education but this can tie you up in the same company. You will have to sign a contract to serve the company throughout the degree duration + 2 to 4 years after it.
So, if you are going for PhD, you can get tie up in the company for upto 8 years.
Based on this, the company will reduce your increments as they know you cannot leave for a competitive offer.
Plan
Let us assume you start with salary of X in 2010. The recommended strategy is as follows:
- Stay at 1st company for 2 years and work hard
- First year: increment of 10%
- Second year: promotion + increment of 25%
- Join second company immediately with increment of 30%
- After 1st year in 2nd company (3rd year in your career)
- You get increment of 10%
- Go for Part-time PhD
- Assume you complete PhD in 4 years and stay in the company for next 2 years
- Increments: 8%, 8%, 16% (promotion), 7%, 4%, 4%
- Switch job with an increment of 25% (completed 9 years of career)
- 2nd year at 3rd company you get 14% increment
- You are at a competitive and high paying position as you are a PhD holder.
After 10 years of this plan, your initial salary of X will become 4.38 * X. If you start with 10LPA, your salary will become 43.8LPA which is good.
Make your own plan and follow it to succeed in your career.
