Worried about Pay - negotiation advice

redrabbit

So here's the deal:

My Background
I am 21 years old and have been a web developer for 3 months for a small company. There is me and one other guy programming, with 2 designers and the other 3 people in the company are sales (well and search engine optimization).

I have a degree and have started in my company on a 3 month probation period which is very nearly at an end. I knew within the first week that I would not be sacked.

My new Job Details
Here's what happened:
- I wanted £18'000 per year but the MD said I had no experience so no.
- He offered £15'000 per year and after 3 months if I was still there (which I will be) I will receive a bonus to make my pay £16'000 for the months just gone. Just to make up for it.

I am very worried now about my pay as I believe we will be negotiating it in the meeting. At first I wanted £18'000 per year but believe I should get more:

There are only 2 developers
We do a lot of the work and are the only ones who know HTML/PHP/MySQL - the designers use dreamweaver to create the html pages
I have to pay £97 (over £1000 per year) in train fares to get to work

My questions
1. How much should I ask for?
2. What should i do if I don't get it?
3. How should I word it without sounding like a knobber?

Thanks guys.

Shrike

Is your degree in comp sci or something similar? If so then your starting wage may be a little low, otherwise it's not a bad starting salary. When you apply for new jobs employers look for experience more than qualifications. Having a related degree grants you a higher initial starting wage but it's good experience of the industry which lets you demand higher pay.

Looking at your website you live in Reading (you don't work for Intercea do you? 😉). Outside of London the average wage for an middleweight PHP developer is £25-35k. Salaries are lower because there is not a great deal of demand for the language.

redrabbit

Shrike wrote:
Is your degree in comp sci or something similar? If so then your starting wage may be a little low, otherwise it's not a bad starting salary. When you apply for new jobs employers look for experience more than qualifications. Having a related degree grants you a higher initial starting wage but it's good experience of the industry which lets you demand higher pay.

Looking at your website you live in Reading (you don't work for Intercea do you? 😉). Outside of London the average wage for an middleweight PHP developer is £25-35k. Salaries are lower because there is not a great deal of demand for the language.

My degree is just a general IT degree. I know graduates start quite low, but I really feel hard done by. There are only two developers and we get a lot of work and any problems from other sites is all phoned through to us. I also believe my pay is crap compared to everyone elses (fair enough they have been there longer).

Just want advice on how to go about asking for more money. I'm sure there is a tactic.

I don't want to leave my job and if I tried to get another they would just say I haven't got much experience - very true.

I would be happy with around £20K, if not then £18K + train fares

Oh and btw, I don't work for that company.

Weedpacket

redrabbit wrote:
My degree is just a general IT degree.

But we are talking at least a bachelorate, right?

bpat1434

- There are only 2 developers
- We do a lot of the work and are the only ones who know HTML/PHP/MySQL - the designers use dreamweaver to create the html pages
- I have to pay £97 (over £1000 per year) in train fares to get to work

From every company I've ever worked for, big or small, they're theory is this:
"If you won't work for what we want to pay you, we'll find someone who will work for less!!"

But that's across the pond in the U.S.A. where we want more for less.... I'd ask them about a company car for your travel expenses, or at least 500 pounds? extra per year to help travel expenses (obviously a small company won't be able to provide your transportation). But helping out couldn't hurt to ask.

My degree is just a general IT degree.

Hmm.... that wont' help you in negotiations if you're workin in PHP or HTML. IT is more of computer systems and analysis and support right? A general kind of maintenance? Or am I misinterpreting it? But if you don't have experience, don't expect to get much. Especially if your degree doesn't emphasize your current work area 🙁

bubblenut

I may just be a lucky b*stard but I managed to land an £18k job with just an HND (3 years ago, so it may not be relevent now). I think the main thing which got me that job was having built a forum from scratch which my friends were using. So, a working site which shows some development skill might help in looking for other jobs if that's the way you want to go.

I know I seem to pimp this quite a bit but PHPLondon is a great group and it's a real good place to network, find out what's going on in the industry and, sometimes, land a job. I know of a few which have come from it. Check out www.phplondon.org and come down one time.

pohopo

In my experience it never hurts to ask for more. If they say no then accept what they offer and search for a higher paying job.