What's the best way to ask for salary increase with manager?

Question

I joined my company 1.5 years ago. When my recruiter asked for my salary expectations, I feel like I lowballed myself. I wanna talk to my manager and ask for a salary increase.

What's the best way of talking to manager? What should I ask? How should I frame it smoothly?

How to negotiate if the manager postpones or doesn't agree? At what cadence can I ask my manager again?

Does the approach vary between FAANG companies, other big tech companies, and startups?

Does the timing matter? Should I wait for performance reviews and ask my manager only if I get a good performance rating? Or should I ask after successfully launching some project? Or can I ask during any 1-1?

Do I need to interview and get an offer from another company before asking my manager? If I negotiate showing another offer, will my manager think bad about me?

When asking for a raise, should I aks for an explicit salary figure, or should I ask for a raise without citing any explicit value?

If my manager actually agrees for a raise, what percentage increase is it okay to ask for?

When my performance rating is good, will my company automatically increase my salary or do they increase only when I explicitly ask for it?

Rahul Pandey · Accepted Answer

Negotiating your current salary is generally harder than negotiating compensation for a new job, since you have less leverage.

Timing does matter. Larger tech cos will have specified windows when they can make salary adjustments. You should determine when this window is for your company and time it appropriately. You can also ask your manager on how/when compensation changes are made.
Your performance at the company does matter. Ideally, you need to be well-liked by your manager, performing well, and working in an area where you'd be hard to replace. If there's written documentation of this, and numerical data, you should present this when making your compensation increase request.

On the topic of interviewing and getting another offer, this could work, but it's also high risk. Do you know if anyone around you has successfully done this? Some companies like Meta have a policy to not match counter-offers for current employees, so this approach could backfire. Something like this could work as a middle-ground:

I have been enjoying the work and impact I'm having on this team, but a recruiter did reach out from company X, and they're offering significantly more salary. I do love this team, but compensation is also important to me

This is good because it frames you as someone who didn't actively try to leave, but your eyes were opened to the possibility of you being under-paid.

Meta point: You have a lot of questions in one question 😅 Feel free to break it up into more concise questions to get better answers. You want to make it easy for people to help you.

What's the best way to ask for salary increase with manager?

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