New Job Edition

Yeah…I found a new job. And it’s great.

It’s panic time for my manager at my current company. They have been running around to get me a counter offer. It’s about time I got something better.

It was one of my goals to get a new job this year. I was expecting this to happen much earlier in the year. But it’s better late than never. To top it all, it’s in an industry that I want to work in. I can see my opportunities growing with moving to this new position. The only negative I have with this new found job is that they don’t have matching 401k contributions. But hey…right now I don’t have any benefits since I work as a contractor.

There are a few things that I learnt during these couple of days.

1) All along, people have been telling me that I should expect a lesser salary if I am employed as a full-time employee compared to being a contractor. The difference in pay attributed to the benefits that come with a full-time offer. I now know that it is just nonsense. This new offer got me a 33% raise with benefits compared to the existing contracting position. They have also offered me equity in the company. How about that for dessert?

2) I think one of the main reasons women get paid less is because they are too ashamed of making a counter offer. When I first got the initial offer, I was pretty excited and I just wanted to take it. Thankfully, BB was there to stop me and indeed write an email for me making a counter offer. And it didn’t even take 5 mins to get a reply accepting the counter offer. It all seemed too easy. A raise of about 10% for just asking.

3) Your managers are not here to take care of you. What I mean is they are not here to make sure you get what you deserve. It is up to the individual to market him/her self to obtain what is due. Until I told my current employer that I am leaving, I was pushed around everytime I asked for a full-time position. I was also not offered any raise when my contract was renewed. Once they knew I was leaving, they seem like they would do anything to keep me here. Well, I need to hold on before I make any judgements. Lets see what they will offer before I jump to any conclusions.

If things don’t change too much, I will be joining the new job in 2 weeks time. The best thing that I learnt out of this is that, now I know I am worth much more than what I get paid right now.