Passed, Pay Raise?

[jrf500]

I passed the October PE exam and have barely received a congratulations from my company. I sent this email to my boss this morning. Do you think I did the wrong thing? I work in the northeast in an average sized city with a company of about 100 (10-12 engineers in the company) and I am making in the low 50s. I feel I deserve mid 60's. Let me know what you think.
Approximately 6 months ago I passed my PE exam. This was a very exciting moment for me and my family, however, I did not receive the response in both responsibility and compensation I was hoping for from ____.

I understand that the economy is not what it was 5 years ago, however I hoped that my hard work, 6+ years of experience, and skill set has proven me to be an asset to the company. After passing my PE exam, I was hoping that there would be some opportunities in which I could take additional responsibilities and in turn an increase in my compensation. I am open to any opportunities that may exist within the company and I am willing to put in the time and effort to ensure their success. I am interested in doing whatever is possible to advance my career and expand my professional experience and in turn increase my value to the company. I do not feel that the opportunities that will benefit both me and ____ in the future are available in my current situation.

I was hoping that we could sit down and discuss these items and also discuss what opportunities might become available to me in the future. We could discuss this over lunch or after work sometime you have availability.

For what it's worth....I think it's very well written and very fair "argument" for you to bring up. He has the right to say "no", but that doesn't mean you don't have the right to bring it up in a professional manner just like you did. If nothing else, the company owes you some discussion as to why the PE won't be recognized in terms of responsibility or compensation. They obviously don't have to give you a raise or more responsibility/opportunities (I hope they do and think they should...but they don't have to)....but I think they do owe you an explanation. You presented it in a very professional manner, you also waited 6 months. You didn't send this to him the day after you got your PE which would have not been quite right.

Good job on your part to look out for yourself. FYI, I passed just yesterday and plan to present a similar "argument" to my supervisor in a few months if the company hasn't acknowledged my registration at all in the meantime.

Good luck to you!!!

 

[Peele1]

For what it's worth....I think it's very well written and very fair "argument" for you to bring up. He has the right to say "no", but that doesn't mean you don't have the right to bring it up in a professional manner just like you did. If nothing else, the company owes you some discussion as to why the PE won't be recognized in terms of responsibility or compensation. They obviously don't have to give you a raise or more responsibility/opportunities (I hope they do and think they should...but they don't have to)....but I think they do owe you an explanation. You presented it in a very professional manner, you also waited 6 months. You didn't send this to him the day after you got your PE which would have not been quite right. Good job on your part to look out for yourself. FYI, I passed just yesterday and plan to present a similar "argument" to my supervisor in a few months if the company hasn't acknowledged my registration at all in the meantime.

Good luck to you!!!

I agree.

 

[stuckinjersey]

I passed the October PE exam and have barely received a congratulations from my company. I sent this email to my boss this morning. Do you think I did the wrong thing? I work in the northeast in an average sized city with a company of about 100 (10-12 engineers in the company) and I am making in the low 50s. I feel I deserve mid 60's. Let me know what you think.
Approximately 6 months ago I passed my PE exam. This was a very exciting moment for me and my family, however, I did not receive the response in both responsibility and compensation I was hoping for from ____.

I understand that the economy is not what it was 5 years ago, however I hoped that my hard work, 6+ years of experience, and skill set has proven me to be an asset to the company. After passing my PE exam, I was hoping that there would be some opportunities in which I could take additional responsibilities and in turn an increase in my compensation. I am open to any opportunities that may exist within the company and I am willing to put in the time and effort to ensure their success. I am interested in doing whatever is possible to advance my career and expand my professional experience and in turn increase my value to the company. I do not feel that the opportunities that will benefit both me and ____ in the future are available in my current situation.

I was hoping that we could sit down and discuss these items and also discuss what opportunities might become available to me in the future. We could discuss this over lunch or after work sometime you have availability.

I passed the October exam and also, BARELY received a congratulations. Its frustrating. I know other people have gotten raises because of their PE in the past. When I brought it up I was made to feel guilty that (a) I was the only one in my company that had to take it more than once and (B) "the company is really struggling right now"... yadda yadda. Its a tough spot. I've looked for other positions and still - not much is open. I've had a couple interviews, but did not result in offers. I graduated from one of the top engineering schools in the country, been working at the same company for 6 years and I now have a P.E., I feel like I should be in a much better place professionally and financially. Some of the comments on this board really surprise me, claiming that you should leave your job if they don't give you a raise after your PE. Where are all these available positions? I would love to apply.

 

[DannyV]

Guys, please visit www.salary.com I found this website to helped me get exactly what I'm worth. The first time I saw the number here I realized how much underpaid I was. After visiting this website I changed jobs and got a $30K raise and I'm getting an additional $7K this months for the PE and company anual raise. So in a period of 6 months I'm getting over $37K (43%) raise which places me just under the average for my discipline and experience.

Please get educated about your salary expectations and do talk about it. That's why corporate don't encourage people to discuss salaries they want everyone requesting their deserved salary.

Good luck to all.

 

[mars]

I got an interview at 5 yesterday and the principal send me a job offer at 7:30 at night. The offer he send me is so low ball that I feel more like an insult(He offer me an EIT salary, less than 60k).

 

[papa j]

I got an interview at 5 yesterday and the principal send me a job offer at 7:30 at night. The offer he send me is so low ball that I feel more like an insult(He offer me an EIT salary, less than 60k).

That truly stinks. However, you can always tell the guy that it's not good enough and make a counter offer. The easiest time to ask for a raise is before you start the position. But, be realistic as well. salary.com is a great resource.

 

[va_gator]

I got an interview at 5 yesterday and the principal send me a job offer at 7:30 at night. The offer he send me is so low ball that I feel more like an insult(He offer me an EIT salary, less than 60k).

Reminds me of my previous boss.

The guy offered me less than what I was making from the company that I was initally coming from. Being the naive 23 y/o I was back then, I accepted it. But I've since left that place, and also left them with a nice big hole in their department.

 

[wilheldp_PE]

However, did anyone know is Revit play an important role at MEP filed at this point?

Yeah, Revit was getting huge about the time I left the MEP world. It's a powerful tool, but they released it WAY before it was ready for prime time. The Architectural version was polished, but the MEP version was buggy and hard to integrate with anything (including Revit Arch). Autodesk has a bad habit of making Beta testers out of their early adopters. It has happened at two places where I have worked with two different software packages.

 

[willsee]

Seems to be important (for whatever reason)

Still a piece of junk

 

[mars]

I got an interview at 5 yesterday and the principal send me a job offer at 7:30 at night. The offer he send me is so low ball that I feel more like an insult(He offer me an EIT salary, less than 60k).

That truly stinks. However, you can always tell the guy that it's not good enough and make a counter offer. The easiest time to ask for a raise is before you start the position. But, be realistic as well. salary.com is a great resource.

I already send out the counter offer this morning and just waiting for his reply. I did look at salary.com and payscale.com for salary info.

 

[JoeBoone82]

Have any of you tried engineersalary.com , if that's not it, try a search for engineer salary calculator. I was wondering if you think it's pretty accurate or not?

 

[willsee]

I just talk to friends and former employers

 

[GS_Beacon]

You all may want to consider payscale.com as well. It never hurts to check out more than one source before negotiating a salary.

As for me, no pay raise. Just looking to get the PE officially, and move on.

 

[palvarez83]

All I got was a one time $2K bonus!

 

[palvarez83]

All I got was a one time $2K bonus!

Now that I'm expecting my second PE license tomorrow, I'm not expecting any bonus or raise. I'm just glad to have a job that I like...

 

[willsee]

Why would you get two PE licenses when one wasn't really rewarded?

 

[palvarez83]

Why would you get two PE licenses when one wasn't really rewarded?

For me there's more to it than financial reward in the short run. The PE gives you upward mobility in the long run. Really I did it for a sense of personal achievement. Just like I did 2 masters degrees after bachelors. I don't do as much design as I do engineering management type stuff in the MEP field. I'm only 27 years old, so I have plenty of time to move around to other companies in my career. I'm just trying to knock out of my tough goals, before I'm married with children and have forgotten school coursework learnings. Civil PE is my next goal.

 

[willsee]

27 years old

2 Master Degrees

and 2 hopefully 3 PE licenses (assuming Mech, Elect, Civil)

go getter

 

[palvarez83]

27 years old 2 Master Degrees

and 2 hopefully 3 PE licenses (assuming Mech, Elect, Civil)

go getter

Thanks man.

 

[monsterbbb]

Mars, you definitely should be making more money, but it doesn't sound like your firm is in the position to offer you more money. At this point, you need to make an important decision. You can stay on at the small firm, making low wages with the potential payoff to be partial owner/principal in the firm as it grows. Or you can leave for "greener pastures" now, and be a small fish in a bigger pond, but be making more money in the short term.
I would definitely talk to your current boss about a raise, and if that isn't feasible right now, discuss other options such as partial ownership in the future (assuming that is something that would interest you). If you aren't interested in that, I would jump ship...but ONLY after I had found another job.

if you are the small firm's boss and knowing his own PE license will take care of everything, will you give out partial ownership? it isn't likely. So, just get ready for a bigger company, don't waste time.