3 recent success stories from readers

Here are three recent success stories submitted by readers.

1. A successful raise request

I wanted to share that I used your advice for asking for a raise to successfully increase my salary. I presented salary surveys from nonprofit industry groups and local job postings for similar positions that showed my old salary was low compared to current listings in my metro area. In the end, I received a 9% raise, which I feel pretty good about. It isn’t as much as I hoped, but my supervisor did acknowledge it was the most they could give me at this time and that at first the proposed raise from HR was 6%.

2. A successful salary negotiation

This is not me but my Gen Z daughter. She works in a field that is renown for contract work — and she just recently was able to secure a full-time, benefitted position in a field she loves. They offered her $X, which she was over the moon for, having been considerably underpaid in a prior teaching job. Figuring she might be able to eke out a bit more, she called her cousin (who worked in the field) and a career coach who has been wonderful at providing some pro bono assistance, and then called the hiring manager. She asked if there was any wiggle room in the salary. The hiring manager asked her what she was thinking and so she provided a range. The hiring manager replied with, “How about $Y?” This was higher than the range she had named and 12% higher than what she was initially offered. Now she’s really over the moon. It makes one wonder if there was even more wiggle room in that number, but that’s okay. She is going to be doing something she loves and is also now not afraid of asking for what she wants. It confirms the saying that you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

3. A successful skip-level meeting

I changed roles in my organization in October. In December, the CIO sent a divisional all-hands email inviting all new joiners to a morning tea for welcome and networking.

I wasn’t able to attend due to a preexisting health appointment. I emailed the CIO’s PA to apologize for missing it, and I channelled my inner-AAM hard: “I’d hoped to introduce myself to [CIO] as I know they were tracking a major incident two weeks ago that I was the technical lead for resolving.”

The PA replied that the CIO would like to meet with me and offered a 15-minute slot in January.

Because I’m in a large international organization, the CIO is my skip-level’s skip-level. In preparation, I read everything you’ve ever advised your readers about making the most of a skip-level meeting.

I had a good — and fast! 90 seconds! — answer ready to “Tell me about what you do here and what you did before.”

I asked them if they were curious about a ground-level view of the incident. They said no, in a friendly way, so I instantly pivoted to, “What’s front of mind for you for this quarter and this year?”

They spent 10 minutes on five major initiatives and paused each time to invite comment. I correctly read the room and gave one or at most two sentences for each. I hit the jackpot with one, where the CIO paused and said, “Interesting that you saw that right away. Most of my team didn’t.”

We finished in 13 minutes, and they congratulated me for “knowing how to speak with a CIO”. :) They also gave me two names of people who report to them that they wanted me to meet.

Will anything come of it? Who knows? I don’t even really care — it was great practice, and I couldn’t have done it without your excellent advice. Thank you!

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