How to Negotiate a Higher Salary After Obtaining Your PE License
Disclaimer
You can find many articles around the internet discussing how to ask for a higher salary. Although this article is geared towards individuals who have earned their Professional Engineering (PE) license, the spirit of this article applies to anyone looking to increase their pay/position at a company.
Introduction
We all took on the challenge of becoming Professional Engineers for different reasons, but for the majority of us, it was as a personal challenge. Most of us did not do it for the money, nor for advancement; however, your hard work and newly bestowed credentials should not go unnoticed, especially if you work in a licensure exempt field like I do (electrical engineer in the aerospace industry). This article will discuss tips to help you achieve a promotion and/or higher salary after obtaining your PE license.
Things to Consider
There are many things to consider when asking for a promotion or raise, but since you now have the PE license under your belt, and hopefully in your title/signature, it should actually make things a bit easier. To claim the reward, you will need to have a discussion with your manager. Prior to doing this, consider the following dos and don’ts.
| DOS | DON’TS |
|---|---|
| Do be prepared to provide your manager with enough justification for your raise/promotion, such that he/she will be able to vouch for you as your request gets pushed along the chain of command. | Do not ask for a promotion/raise without solid reason behind it. Just saying, “I passed the PE exam, hence I should be promoted or given a raise,” does not provide enough justification for either benefit. Your manager may need convincing that you deserve these rewards, and then his/her manager may even need to be convinced. |
| Do consider an appropriate time to have a one on one discussion with your manager regarding this subject matter. | Do not drop in on your manager unannounced. Send an email to your manager requesting to have a career development discussion. |
| Do your research, document your justifications, and update your resume. Use your tenure at the company, time in current position, and your years of experience to your advantage. Most corporations have a promotion matrix based on these very figures, and you may be very close to a promotion based on this alone. The PE license could decrease the number of years required to hit the milestone. | Do not show up empty handed to the meeting with your manager. Again, do not let the PE license be your only justification. Further discussion on selling your research and PE license to your manager is detailed later in the article. |
| Do be prepared to receive criticism and face jealousy. | Do not allow yourself to become discouraged. Refer to my extended article for ways to deal with pessimism and negativity, here. |
Do Your Research
Prove you deserve a promotion and/or higher salary like a true engineer would, with facts and figures from credible sources.
A great way to begin your research is by looking for average salaries of professional engineers by industry and location. A great tool for this type of research is glassdoor.com. Even better resources are the major engineering societies, e.g., NSPE, IEEE, AIChE, ASME, ASCE. Although you will need to pay for the latest information, older research is available for free, and these sources have already done the hard work for you by conducting the research. Use the information they provide to your full advantage.
Selling Points
Once your research is complete, tailor your findings and format them into easy to interpret deliverables for your manager, and as props for the discussion with your manager. Prepare for the discussion using your results, and practice until you have nailed the key pointers. Below are some extra pointers to remember and practice for why you should be separated from your peers in terms of pay and rank.
| POINTERS | REMARKS |
|---|---|
| Although your managers and peers may only see you as passing an exam, many engineers, and companies, see you as hitting a tremendous milestone in terms of your career and professional development. You are now part of an elite group of engineers. | Many engineers have graduate level degrees, but few have their PE license. The license brings prestige to your company and team. Back this up by finding out how many PEs work for your company. |
| The cost of study materials or even a PE refresher course is incomparable to the expense companies spend on reimbursing employees for taking graduate level courses. | I spent less than $2000, in total, on the following items: PE refresher course, extra practice problems and practice exams, textbooks and reference books. Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars on reimbursing their employees for graduate classes. |
| You are now legally recognized as an expert in your field. | Besides being able to legally sign off on engineering designs on the behalf of the safety of the public, with some experience, you can also serve as an expert witness in a court of law. |
Post-meeting
After the meeting is done, thank your manager for his/her time, and then wait for a decision, right?
Wrong!
| POST MEETING ACTION ITEM | REMARKS |
|---|---|
| Follow up with your manager on a regular basis (bi-weekly recommended). | Raises/promotions can take a long time to become approved. It is not unheard of for approval processes to take months to go through due to the number of approvals and signoffs from multiple departments. Not only does engineering sign off, but Human Resources usually has a stake in the matter, and at times, executive leadership does too. |
| Get your name out there! Speak with other managers, internally and externally, to see what other opportunities await you. | A common misconception is that companies do not compete internally; however, they definitely do. If you get an offer from another company, or even internally, you can use this as leverage to get what you want (possibly even sooner) in your current position. |
| The last thing to always remember is to stay vigilant, and to not allow yourself to become discouraged. | The worst thing that can happen is that your management says no…and that is when the negotiation really begins! |
Good luck!
An extended article, focused on improving your chances of earning that raise or promotion, is available for purchase, here.
Nice job of providing the tips.I thought the employee reimbursement program (graduate school) was a good point.
Tell your manager you have passed the PE and are therefore qualified to design, sign off on docs, and potentially lead projects and should be compensated reflecting experience, skill and credentials. If they dont pay a raise, find a better job. Do not accept a counter offer.