In this post, I’ll show you 3 methods on how to get a raise. There’s 1 “hard” way to get a raise and 2 “easy” ways to do it.

Let’s start with the hardest way first.

Hardest Way To Get A Raise

This way of getting a raise is hard because it requires 2 things: time, and a lot of effort.

Here are the steps on how to get a raise, the hard way:

1. First, 6-12 months before you want your raise, have a 1-on-1 with your manager on the exact, concrete goals you need to hit to be an outstanding performer. Simply ask “what specific metrics do I need to hit to be an outstanding performer?” This step is hard because it requires you to plan 6-12 months in advance.
2. Then onto the second step. Once you have that discussion, get it in writing by sending a copy of the email summarizing what you and your manager talked about. This way, you’ll have a written doc of what’s discussed and what would constitute “outstanding performance.”
3. The third step is to actually hit those goals. No matter what. The reason is because if you only hit 90% of your goals, you give your manager an “out” or an “excuse” to say you’re not actually an outstanding performer. This means all your hard work to outperform will vanish into thin air and you’ll get a 0%, or below-inflation level raise. This step is extremely difficult especially if you work at my company, because it would require very long hours, tons of stress, and relentless execution.
4. Finally, when you hit your goals, schedule a meeting with your manager and basically say “I’ve hit these goals” and if it’s an in-person meeting, show them a printed version of the email/doc of what you guys discussed. If it’s a Zoom meeting, just screenshare the email detailing what you discussed and what you guys agreed to.

Two things can happen here: 1) you’ll get a raise, and 2) you don’t get a raise. If you do get a raise, but it’s a pathetic raise, then you’ll want to consider the 2 easier methods on how to get a raise. Likewise, if you don’t get a raise after doing all your hard work, definitely hit up those 2 other methods I’ll discuss below.

I wanted to outline this hard way on how to get a raise to discourage you from doing it. This is a more “conventional way” of getting a raise and I don’t recommend it for a few reasons.

• You have zero control of the outcome of whether your get the raise or not. You can work your ass off and only end up with a 3% raise. What will you do when you wasted half a year of your life executing for your company, only to have your manager say: “Frankly, this is all we can pay you even though you did well. But here’s a pat on the back!”
• Extremely high time risk. You can waste a lot of your life providing millions of dollars of value to your company and they can rip you off by not giving you a single dime more.
• Most corporations are not by meritocracy, and are by seniority. This means it doesn’t matter if you’re a 10X or an 100X performer. You get the same money and your effort is futile. It’s communism. If your corporation is known for being a meritocracy, then this method might be worth trying out since you might actually be able to get a huge raise. The main issue is: how will you know if your company’s a meritocracy? You can’t just ask because all managers will say it is a meritocracy to squeeze all the work they can out of you.

My personal experience with getting a raise this way: I’m known to outperform my colleagues. By a lot. Comparatively, I take on about 3-5X the responsibility of the 2^nd best worker in my team. And for any project, I’m responsible for driving 50% of the project’s results despite it being a 6-person team.

My reward?

“<Insert 2 minutes of bullshit of how great of a job I did>. Here’s your 2% raise.”

This is on-par with, if not less than inflation. You mean I worked my ass off to drive a billion dollar project so I can get paid less?!

To be fair, they did give me a bonus that’s almost 5% of my salary though – so in my case I did 9 months of max-effort work so I can get 1 week’s worth of extra paycheck. You don’t need a PhD in math to know that’s terrible ROI.

What pisses me off about these interactions with my shit manager is that they somehow think that a pat on the back will make me rich. I don’t care about approval. I care about making money, that’s why I work here. Frankly, a 2% raise is insulting because it’s almost like they think I’m dumb enough to think that I’d be satisfied with a pat on the back so they can continue ripping me off.

Anyway, rant over. My point is: if you want to know how to get a raise, don’t do it this way. It’s super high risk and you’ll waste a lot of your lifespan.

How I Get A 40% Raise With This Easy Method #1

I was paid around $135,000 in 2019 and paid around $190,000 2021 (that’s a raise of 40% or roughly 55K).

Try getting a 40% raise at your current job. I’ll wait. It’s impossible. The maximum raise I got via a promotion was 20%.

I’ve omitted the exact numbers here so I can remain anonymous since I still work for this company that I hate. But in reality, it’s more than 40% since the numbers are rounded and I’m not even counting the massive amounts of stock that I’m now receiving as a result of this “raise.”

How did I get this raise?

You might have guessed it: just find a new job.

Here’s why I like this method:

• Low time risk. You just apply to jobs and interview. All you need to do to get a massive raise is to bullshit through a bunch of questions for a few hours. And even if you’re in the technical field like me, you only need to study and memorize a bunch of problems that can be solved within the scope of 1 hour. That’s way easier than tackling 6-12 months of hard technical problems.
• High ROI. Just think about the ROI here: 2 months of studying and interviewing for a 40% raise vs. 6-12 months of brutal work to get likely a 2-4% raise.
• Absolute control over your outcome. I’ll be more specific over the next few paragraphs, but just know this: you can control everything when switching jobs. You can apply to whatever company you want, and you can negotiate your salary however you want. What you end up with and your massive pay raise is up to you. Obviously, the more aggressive you go, the less likely you’ll get that raise – but you are in control of all these variables, not your shitty manager.

OK, so how do you get a new job and how do you maximize your pay raise?

How to get a new job: Generally speaking, your network is your best bet. Any industry has a ton of people competing for the same positions. So even if you use tools to optimize your keywords…it’s unlikely that you’ll even land an interview. How I landed my current job is through a friend referring me to his manager. He put in a good word for me so the interview process was very easy and it was much more likely that I’d get accepted. And I did.

If you don’t have a network to reach out to for referrals, then you’ll need to optimize your resume’s keywords. This is so that the automatic resume screeners will put you on top of the pile. And keep in mind most recruiters don’t know anything about the job, so they’re just dumb monkeys trying to match keywords most of the time. With enough buzzwords, you should be on top of the pile to get an interview.

I normally use my network from past coworkers I’ve built up a good reputation with in order to job hop. As a result, I can’t recommend any tools that’ll help you with optimizing your keywords; however, Google is your best friend.

You’ve passed your interview, so how do you get the maximum raise? The negotiation phase is where most of your money and future net worth will come in. Before you negotiate or talk to a recruiter, do your research on state laws to see if the company you’re applying to can check your income history.

If they can check your income history, then by absolutely no circumstances will you tell them your income. Just go with the conventional wisdom and say you’re flexible and you’ll be sure you’ll figure something out. And then whatever price they give you, you’ll counter with why you should receive a higher pay and then just do the whole Never Split The Difference negotiation tactic where you give them some weird, specific range, like: $192K-$217K.

If you did well in the interview, and they can afford you, they’ll generally give you the low end of the range. If they can’t afford you, even on your low range then: 1) your range was way too high in which case you should lower your expectations for your revenue jump, or 2) they simply cannot afford you since they are a suck ass company and you should apply to the next one.

If you’re interviewing, you’re shopping around. If a rate isn’t what you want, feel free to keep shopping. You hold all the power. A company that’s hiring is like a body without food: it’s desperate for resources. Use this to your advantage.

If they can’t check your income history: lie. Lie through your teeth and definitely throw out a number for them.

You’re making 50K/yr? Great, you make 80K/yr now.

You’re making 135K/yr? Congratulations! You tell recruiters you make $170K/yr.

Set the expectation that you’re the prize and that to win you as a new-hire, they need to meet certain income expectations.

After all, recruiters and managers that you interview with will lie to you to try and rip you off. It’s only fair that you lie right back and play the game.

It’s pretty dark and I wish the job market was just a “put your best foot forward” game. But you can either play the game and inflate your income, or get paid less.

Have fun with this and don’t be shy. Companies shouldn’t be making their decisions on how much to pay you based on how much you were paid. How is it fair to you that if you are currently underpaid that the next company can use that excuse to continue underpaying you? Screw that. You deserve better. Lie through your teeth until you get that 40-100% raise you want.

I know this is controversial but for me it’s real simple: you either adapt to reality and earn more money, OR you live in a fantasy world and get underpaid forever.

Side note: you might consider staying at your job long enough to get the next promotion. Reason being you can update your resume with the new job title, which will allow you to negotiate for a higher salary. But if you think that isn’t going to be a likely scenario in a short timeframe then there’s no need to wait.

How To Get A Pay Raise, Easy Method #2

Just work less. In fact, work the minimum possible to establish a good reputation while not being fired.

This will increase your hourly rate. For example, if you were working 40 hours a week and your new, lazy self is working 10 hours a week, you’ve 4X’d your hourly income.

Save your ambition and your hard work for your side hustle, or for finding another job (refer to the “Easy Method #1” section above).

Summary

There’s 3 ways on how to get a pay raise. There’s the hard (conventional) way, where you have no control and your outcomes don’t look too great. And there’s 2 easy ways: 1) work less for an effective higher hourly income, and 2) just job hop to get a big increase in your pay.

Personally, my recommendation is to combine the 2 easy methods: work less while using the extra time you get back to interview for a new job. Your worst-case scenario is you’re getting better at interviews and building up a professional network while working less. Your best-case scenario is you leverage the extra time you’ve created for yourself and get a massive pay raise. You can’t lose here.

Other Note: I mentioned I was paid around $135K in 2019 and $190K in 2020. I switched jobs at the end of 2019 and beginning of 2020, so the 135K / 190K does not need to be pro-rated (whereas if I had quit in September, then I need to do some math to get an accurate understanding of my raise). The revenue comparison is based on my W-2 from my previous job and the W-2 from my current job.

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