Selling myself short
Selling myself short
(OP)
Ok guys, I'm new to this field, fresh out of school with my Bachelor's in MET. I've been working for an OEM in the vacuum industry for about 6-7 months now as a design engineer. After about two months on the job my boss handed me a title he dubbed "Manufacturing Engineer", meaning that any trouble with BOM's drwaing or designs that occur on the production floor now exclusively come to me for solutions. Inside the next two months I'll be implementing data management software into our 3-D modeling software (PDMWorks for Solidworks), a project that could potentionally take me 6 months to do properly. These changes would revolutionize the way my department opperates.
But I feel that my company may be shorting me on salray compared to other engineers doing the same thing in the Vacuum field. At the 1 year mark will currently be making 40K, with the mean salary for the position in the industry being 52K.
Is it wrong of me to ask for a hefty raise based on the industry and the changes I've made within the company?
But I feel that my company may be shorting me on salray compared to other engineers doing the same thing in the Vacuum field. At the 1 year mark will currently be making 40K, with the mean salary for the position in the industry being 52K.
Is it wrong of me to ask for a hefty raise based on the industry and the changes I've made within the company?





RE: Selling myself short
$40k does sound a little low for a lot of areas for a "manufacturing engineer". My first job out of college was as a manufacturing engineer in 1998 and my salary was slightly below that for a fairly low cost of living area. However, the manufacturing industry as a whole has been experiencing difficulties the past several years. Supply and demand may be depressing your salary. 7 months out of school is not very much time to have proven you deserve a much higher salary. The only way to really know what you are worth is to shop around and see if you get any offers for more. Otherwise, do your job well, document the things you have done and are doing for the company and after a year or two, if you still feel your salary is low and you have received good performance reviews, approach your boss and ask.
RE: Selling myself short
Most companies give annual reviews. That would be the time to ask for raise. If you get the typical 3 - 4% raise; welcome to the real world.
Tough it out maybe one more year and then change jobs and get a 10 -15% raise from your new company.
RE: Selling myself short
I would finish implementing the data management project and use that as a bench mark along with the other responsibilities. This should give you some visibility to management which would make the approach a lot easier.
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RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
If you are successful in implementing the data management package, your boss might be very pleased. But does his boss or his boss's boss care? Probably not. You may know the project will save the company money, but you can't measure the value. In my opinion, the software implementation is a distraction that you should try to hand-off to someone else.
What the plant manager cares about is simple; how much did it cost to manufacture parts compared to how much the parts sell for.
As a manufacturing engineer, you have the opportunity to improve the cost numbers. Cost savings are measurable and are readily visible to management in the daily production reports.
If you have a history of reducing manufacturing costs you will have quantitative proof of your value to the company. It's easy to ask for a raise when you have data to support your case.
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
Note, if you're only working 40 hour weeks, your salary may be more on par. Kids starting in the $45K range around here are at 45-50 per week (even though the salary says 40). So take that into consideration as well.
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
Sorry I couldn't help it.
Do you really like vacuum cleaners? most people like hardwood floors you know?
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
Yikes, I wouldn't want to work in that environment unless I were earning a substantial premium or were learning some very cool stuff.
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RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
PDM implementation or any similar systems management/quasi IT job is miserable in my opinion.
IMO, in your situation as a fresh graduate, It's not unreasonable to expect some kind of review after 6 months that's linked to a raise if you're doing well. However, this should probably have been discussed when you hired on.
How often do other people at your place have their pay reviewed, typically from what I’ve seen it's yearly, either from date of hire or per calendar/financial year.
As a fresh graduate your value as an employee skyrockets for the first year or two. As such your pay should see a similar increase. After that raises will typically be smaller (if at all), you may be lucky to match inflation without accepting significant new responsibilities, getting a promotion or switching employers.
My start salary in the UK was £17000 fresh from Uni as a design Engineer in a small Aerospace/Defense company. Within 2 years I was at $22000 at the same place. However, as well as just learning a lot of things I’d also been given responsibility for several major projects and just after getting the raise inherited the defacto CAD administrator job.
I don’t know what the realistic figures for your industry and location are, you can’t rely on those salary sites for anything more than a vague idea. Also as others say benefits are a major factor.
Plus, the way you drive you’ll need extra money for the speeding tickets
Bring up the issue of the raise very carefully look at the advice above and on similar previous threads or any other source you can find, but it is worth asking. If you do it right & unless you’re real unlucky the worst that can happen is they’ll say something like ‘we’ll talk in 6 months’ or something.
However, that said, jumping from 40k to 52k would be a big jump in one go. If you have to give them a figure I’d think long and hard about it before you suggest anything near that. The biggest pay rise I ever got was less than 20%.
If they wont play ball I’d try and stick it out to the 2 year mark before you seriously look to move jobs but at the end of the day everyone & every situation is different, you gotta do what you gotta do.
RE: Selling myself short
RE: Selling myself short
Good points though KENAT.
RE: Selling myself short