During The Interview My Boss To Be Told Me I Was Undervaluing Myself With The Salary I Was Asking For.
By Flabo the UnAuthordox
About some month ago I was cleaning out my old stuff from my previous place as I was moving to my new house. I’m a recovering semi hoarder – so there had been piles of boxes in my closet. In the mist of sorting stuff I was to throw away – I found this balled up piece of paper with writings on it, with a closer inspection I realised that this was the piece of paper I had used to tick off Graduate programmes I had applied for back in 2011 when I was still in University. I counted 72 posts that I applied for!! SEVENTY-GAWD-DAMN-TWO!! And to be honest, I was in a good position to get a job as I was in my honours year, with good grades and had a bursary I had gotten in my first year. But given the rife unemployment environment I wasn’t taking any chances.
My initial employment lasted for about a month and a half as I felt I was doing more filing than what I was promised; there were no proper orientation plan for my department and my manager was never around. Needless to say I resigned and left the same day after securing a position in a graduate position that had far more better prospects than the one I was in.
Anyway my point is, if you not happy about your job, do something about it. Apply for other positions internally or externally, if your boss is open for a dialogue, then go ahead and engage with him or her. It does not help staying in the same environment and complaining. Aim higher by any means – if you know what you deserve and have an idea of what it is, then shoot ahead for it.
My other point is: we all know unemployment is rife, if you are to say you are seeking for employment given our current climate, be sure to really immerse yourself in the process, for every open post you see potential in, by all means apply, do some research, get a LinkedIn account, go to university graduate programme open days and collect all of those graduate prospectus printouts and apply for every single posts you see. If you are to do something, do it to the fullest.
Let’s continue with my story shall we…
So fast forward to 2016. I was working for a big corporate in the Finance department. I was the group analyst in the Finance Department, a role I elevated to due to my ridiculous work ethic, prior to that I was an analyst for one of the Group’s subsidiaries, a role I had been promoted to after my graduate programme. The company had really been good to me and my growth as I had escalated to the position I was in within a short period of time.
My only problem?? I was still seen as a graduate candidate, which is what I feel most companies are doing, they get an incentive from the government for employing graduates – some companies systematically work the system so as to keep graduates in the same position for years so as to keep getting this benefit, or they let go of the graduates they kept for a year or two so they can get more new graduates. Sometimes you do not even end up learning much as you get caught in an environment where people are only keeping you for compliance purposes – really sad, but we shall prevail.
I was lucky to find a company that cared about their graduates. Fast-forward to the position I was in, I felt I had learned a lot, but could feel that I wasn’t learning some more or leaning at a rate that was acceptable to me, I was preparing reports that get presented to management in the country and abroad… Only problem? I wasn’t presenting this, I wasn’t seeing where the reports I did went and how they impacted the company, as such I did not have much of an appreciation for the work I was doing. I remember Jack Ma, co-founder and Chairman of Alibaba said once that, when you are young, you need to find a small company to work for before you move onto those big corporates. In a small company you learn a lot! As there isn’t a lot of departments, one person does multiple roles and with that they get to learn a lot. I was working for a big company that had multiple departments. I felt I needed to learn some more as I got into the employment space at a time where I was doing high level stuff and with that I missed the basics, plus as I explained I was still seen as a graduate and because of that, I wasn’t getting compensated accordingly. “it’s a very good opportunity for you to learn and grow Flabo” they would say when moving me to a higher up position knowing well that I was qualified and able to take on the position; but the salary did not escalate as much – just enough to say we’ve adjusted it to keep the peace.
I felt I needed to grow further and expand my reach onto a different industry so as to become more, grow and do more, plus I was looking for an entity that was going to pay me accordingly.
As fate had it, I was in a Skype interview with my to be boss who was totally impressed with my resume. She mentioned that the agent who head-hunted me had given her the Total Annual Package I was asking for. The salary I had requested was significantly higher than what I was earning at that time. You godda aim higher you know.
To my surprise, my to be boss told me that I was undervaluing myself with what I had thought was a way high up salary. The sad fact is that, the environment I was in, had made me feel as if I wasn’t worth much, I allowed the environment to define me – I can imagine this happens to a lot of us and it’s really sad, we end up measuring our worth based on a benchmark that the internal environment you are in gives.
“I THINK YOU ARE UNDERVALUING YOURSELF” –
At that point you can imagine I’m all sorts of confused!!!! Undervaluing myself??? Did I maybe make an error on the salary request I had submitted to the recruitment agent??? Most companies are more than comfortable with telling you that they have constraints on their overheads/expenses and as such can only offer you the same compensation as your current employer or an adjustment of 2 to 5%. This was a serious mind boggle, how could I be undervaluing myself as the salary request I had put down was more than a 30% increase from what I was currently earning at the time.
I had allowed my environment to define me, I allowed myself to sway with the average that’s defined by the market meanwhile I wasn’t average – I was exceptional and still am at what I do and my employer to be could see it, I had forgotten about my superpowers which i would have lost had i not taken a step to search for another role.
One should never be shy to ask for their worth, if you are willing to go an extra mile for your employer – the same aught to be reciprocated. Do not be afraid to charge for your hard earned skills accordingly – the same can be said about business, be it you are selling goods or services, do not be afraid to price your offerings accordingly, the universe always conspires to help you reach your goals, but first you need to believe that they are attainable.
Article By Flabo the UnAuthordox
#MotivationMonday
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