7 Tips to Improve Your Earning Potential in The IT Industry

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Build pay rises right into your contract The easiest and best way to get a pay rise is to include it in your contract from the outset. What we mean by that is that you should negotiate a performance related pay rise to form part of your 12-month career plan (Yes you should also be asking for one of these, as per tip 2).

This technique is particularly powerful when you want the top end of a salary scale and your potential employer is hesitant to pay it until they can see that you are as good as you claim (and you should be claiming you are good!).

Be willing to take the lower pay rate during your probationary period, then on successfully completing your probation and demonstrating your value, request that it is built into your contract that you automatically get the agreed pay increment.

Insist on a career development plan from your line manager Once you have been hired, one of the first things you should do is to sit down with your line manager and formulate a career development plan.

This will be a plan that contains the goals that your manager would like you to achieve over the coming year, which should become the measurement criteria for a pay rise.

Try to insist that the goals have a quantifiable metric that is not subject to interpretation. For example, you would want to include something like “Maintain at least a 98% attendance record” instead of “Improve technical capability”. Obviously these are just examples to highlight that one is easy to measure and demonstrate, the other one is subjective and will be harder to measure.

The plan is a perfect opportunity to get relevant training approved and can form part of your promotion or pay rise structure.

Understand life in your Manager’s shoes One of the most common and fundamental mistakes that any IT professional makes when trying to achieve a pay rise is to approach it from their own perspective.

Most engineers will approach their manager and say something along these lines: “I have been working very hard, have certified in lots of exams and have been at the company 3 years, please can I have a pay rise” and then wonder why the manager doesn’t oblige them.

Unless you learn how the company you work for really functions and what the pain points of your manager are, then you are going to always struggle to get pay rises.

Try to align your pay rise or promotion with a company or management benefit and you will find that you progress in a company.

This can be difficult to get your head around if it is not something you have done before so here are a couple of examples: •

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Instead of talking about your certifications, talk about the new services that the company can now provide, or the new technology that they can now sell to their clients.

Management is difficult, do everything you can to make your manager’s life easier. Don’t just work hard, work smart and try to identify ways that you can improve the performance of your team.

Your manager is measured on how well your team performs so if you can make him / her look good then it will make it easier to pitch a pay rise / promotion.

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Be prepared to work beyond your remit The harsh reality of working for any length of time with an employer is that you can get ‘pigeon holed’. What we mean by this is that people assume they know your capabilities and will not usually proactively look to find your aptitudes in other areas.

One of the best ways to get a pay rise and promotion is to simply start doing the more senior or more challenging role. That doesn’t mean turn up tomorrow and start pretending to be the Manager; this will not have the desired effect! What it does mean though, is to try each day to demonstrate that you are capable of more by taking on more responsibility and volunteering for more challenging tasks. Once you have demonstrated that you can do more, people will view you differently and having the backing of your team is vital in achieving your goals.

Don’t focus on certifications You may be thinking that we have gone mad, after all the whole IT industry constantly bangs on about certifications as if they are the most important aspect.

We can categorically tell you that certifications and indeed your technical capability are only very small factors when hiring and promoting people within the IT industry.

Your soft skills are significantly more important and they are the primary determining factor when an employer is deciding whether to hire or promote you.

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Do focus on certifications Wait! didn’t we just say not to focus on certifications? Yes we did and it is important to highlight that the highest paid people in the industry are not the most technical.

Having said that, it is important to achieve a balance and be able to do the work and that will require studying technical courses.

Choosing the right qualification to pursue (when combined with strong soft skills) can have a significant impact on your earning potential. Ensure that you listen to people that have actually worked in the industry and not just recruitment agents or training company representatives that have not had real industry experience. Then do your own research, look on job boards and try to work out which certifications are in-demand based on the number of jobs and the salary being paid.

Don’t ask, don’t get!

Quite possibly the biggest mistake people make is that they simply do not ask for a pay rise or promotion or they give up after the first attempt.

You have to be bold to progress in life and keep trying if you don’t succeed on your first attempt. Try to get feedback as to why you cannot get a pay rise or promotion right now and then work on the identified issues as quickly as possible and then try again.

Being able to take positive criticism, work on it and then improve yourself in order to persist in your goals is incredibly positive and shows real character.

So the best of luck with your career and we are confident you’ll be finding these tips useful in the future, this is just the tip of the iceberg of how we can help you in the lucrative IT industry.

Stay updated and find out more with FireLily Academy or find out more about our career development packages via our website.

Handbook was written & supplied courtesy of the team at FireLily Academy for more tips about IT training visit us at

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