UX career paths are rarely linear

As I’ve written about before, there are a number of routes into UX. There is also a massive skill set that could be considered part of our remit so it’s really easy, over time, to find yourself taking on more roles and greater responsibility day-to-day.

Once you realise this has happened, your mind may turn to promotions and salary increases. So how do you know when is the time to have this conversations, and how to approach it?

Things to think about before having that career conversation

You will get the best outcome if you invest some time in self-reflection and planning. Here are three things to think about:

1. Have you earned it?

First off, I think most of us would like to earn a bit more, or to be given some kind of recognition, even if not a level-up promotion. But before you go asking for Things, make sure you’ve earned them:

• Are you meeting the requirements of the role you were hired for?
• Have you met any set objectives?
• Are you doing something other than or in addition to the job you were hired to do?
• Are you doing work that is usually done by someone at a higher level?
• Have you developed or are you contributing skills that do not exist elsewhere in the company?
• Have you generated additional revenue or recognition for the company?

Bad news time — Just the fact that you have been in a job for a certain period of time is no reason whatsoever for a company to give you money or promotion unless you can demonstrate value. Sure, some companies give everyone x% salary increase every year (lucky you if that’s the case) but many don’t. With most employers you have to earn it, and for some you even have to fight for it against other colleagues.

It’s got to make business sense

Business is rational. Your desire for More Things is probably more emotional. Especially if you’ve been feeling under-appreciated or over-worked for some time. But you will need to speak to rational business benefits if you want a positive outcome.

What you really need to establish is the following:

1. Does my company value my current contribution?
2. Is it of more value to the company than my current status/level/salary?
3. What objectives must be achieved for this to be formally recognised?
4. What then are the financial or other rewards?

2. Do you know how your company manages career development?

Now that you think you’ve earned something more, the first thing you need to know is how your company manages promotions and raises. Ideally you found this out at interview, but most people are too afraid to ask.

• What is the career progression process or career track programmes?

• What is the approach to reviews and objectives?

• What is the salary review process?

• Who is the person who guides or mentors me through that?

You can usually check with your HR team, or have an informal chat with a colleague. Once you have even rough answers to the above, you will know who need to have the initial conversation with.

Word of warning — if there is a process, don’t try and bypass it or go over your manager’s head. It has the potential to damage trust between you and your manager which is not going to help your career at all.

3. Are you prepared?

As above, to you this may be an emotional situation, that you feel you deserve a raise or promotion. But to a business it is a rational decision. So you need to prepare a rational argument.

Prepare … your (rational) argument

If you are a UX person reading this it should be second nature — this is an evidence-based process. You need to think through the conversation you want to have, the evidence and examples you may need to reference, and how you are going to respond and manage your own emotions and responses. For tips on rehearsing and planning the conversation, you might want to experiment with something like prolepsis as it lets you work through various scenarios in advance.

Prepare … for the awkwardness

I try to have open discussions about career development (both levels and finances) with all my humans, but in my experience, it’s not the norm for a manager to proactively invite you to discuss these things. And the subject of money in some cultures can be uncomfortable.

But again, this is not personal, and it’s not emotional — it’s a business transaction. And more managers need to approach it this way.

Prepare … for the human stress response

Whether or not you live in a country where such conversations are awkward, you are still essentially about to tell someone there is a problematic power imbalance — that you perceive you are doing more or different work which you feel requires greater compensation from the company. You’re telling them in some way that you don’t currently feel valued.

Managers (who are not ‘holes) want you to be happy and feel valued in your role. Signs that you are not, can a trigger stress response which can lead to knee-jerk responses and decisions.

Managers who are under-trained or under-prepared can also not know how to handle this situation and this can lead to knee-jerk responses and decisions.

Both of these scenarios, even with good intentions, can leave the employee feeling under-valued and under-appreciated.

You can mitigate the emotional weight for both of you by going in prepared and making it a collaborative inquiry into the state and progression of your career. More on this below.

Now ask for the meeting

So you’ve worked out who you need to speak to, and you’re asking for a 1-to-1 meeting. Make sure it’s at least 30 mins so that you have their full attention. If your manager is a flake who always arrives 20 minutes late, book them for an hour. If the person asks what its about in advance, say you’re looking for some career guidance.

How to manage the conversation

As above, do not start the conversation in a way that is confrontational, demanding or focused on money.

This is just the first conversation

This is the first conversation of several, wherein you are trying to understand if your company values what you are doing, whether they see a path to promotion and advancement for you, what objectives need to be met for this to be formally recognised, and only then discuss how that aligns with financial reward.

PART ONE — introduce the concept

1. Thank the person for giving you some of their time upfront
2. State that you are seeking advice. (TOP TIP — people respond positively to people who ask them for advice and are more likely to view them positively. Science here)
3. Outline what you were hired to do and what you’ve been doing — point out the difference, the change, or your professional growth. Give short concrete examples (not a presentation).
4. Describe the value you perceive it adds or how it positively impacts the company, the work, the team, or even this person in front of you
5. Ask with genuine interest and an open mind whether this is the right thing to continue doing — for the business.

This is the turning point in the conversation — you will get a clear steer fairly quickly if your contribution is valued, or if this is perhaps not the right person to be talking to about this. Therefore you should always be prepared for the conversation to end at this point, and not try to force it.

You should always be prepared for the conversation to end at this point.

• If this is the decision-maker, and you are you are adding value, they will prob immediately suggest a formal career conversation or discuss promotion tracks. They will understand exactly what you are asking and a lightbulb will go on. The meeting may end positively with clear next steps and your manager taking charge.
• If this is the decision-maker and they have no intention of giving you anything, you will see evasive and procrastinatory behaviour. At this point you could ask who else you should talk to but if it’s really them, you might just be in a dead end job where you’re not appreciated. Sorry. This meeting may at least end with you knowing where you stand.
• If the person says you definitely add value and they recognise your additional contribution and even agree it should be recognised, but they need to speak to someone else, it might just be that they have no power to make promises or decisions and are hugely uncomfortable having this conversation. That’s totally fine, you just need clarity again on the process and the people you do need to talk to.

If the person is the decision-maker and responds that yes, you add value, then your conversation continues below…

PART TWO — agree the path forward

1. If the person is the decision-maker and responds that yes, you add value and they want you to continue doing so, this is where you need to point out that what you are currently doing is greater than the level or role you had when you joined the company, but that you are pleased to be progressing and adding value. Note at this point — we are having a conversation about level, role, contribution, skills, tasks etc — we are still NOT talking about money. We are establishing a need for realignment of goals, objectives and career track.
2. Given that the added value has now been recognised, you can ask for a discussion about what your job description, career path and objectives should be for this new role, and what you need to do to meet them.
3. Agree next steps. Thank them, and send a follow-up note with everything you agreed in your meeting. This will usually involve any or all of the following:

• The manager needs to go away and make a plan, maybe check with HR or other management so that they can come back to you for a full and detailed discussion
• They ask you to send them some documentation of the points you raised
• They ask you to think about what you are interested in pursuing as your career develops and what you do/don’t enjoy about your current responsibilities
• They may agree to set up a career review meeting via standard HR processes.

These are all good signs. But be sure to get agreement on dates by which any actions will be taken, otherwise you have no real right to chase and can be easily ‘put off’ by the manager if they are actually wanting to avoid the whole conversation after all.

Make the manager accountable, but also be accountable yourself in following up and completing any agreed actions by agreed dates and times.

Remember this is the beginning of the conversation, not the end.

And beyond…

Once you have agreed your new role and objectives, you have every right and entitlement to discuss the new job title or salary that would come with this. It has now become logical and rational, not emotional and demanding, and you are working with your company to maintain balance between your work and your value.

If you take away nothing else from this article, please realise that going in hard with “I want a raise” will almost always create a stressful situation for everyone, and increases the likelihood of negative outcomes and perceptions.

But equally, once you have agreed a change in role, responsibility and objectives, follow up by stating your interest in defining job titles and compensation. Otherwise you’re just formalising all the Free you are giving them. Again — it’s not personal, it’s a business transaction.

A quick recap

• Remember a promotion has to be of benefit to you and your employer
• Keep it about the work you are doing — it is a rational decision and needs to be evidence-based
• Have your argument and plan ready before the conversation
• Make it the start of the conversation about your wider career and contribution, not the end.
• If the person you are talking to can’t give this the right guidance, find someone else who can, but still communicate your intent to the person you’re talking to.
• Propose a plan of action and/or come out of the conversation with a clear set of actions, even if that’s to go and talk to someone else.

Do not:

• Ask for a salary increase outright — it puts the conversation into a confrontational state
• Demand a yes/no reponse on the spot. Always give people an “out” from the conversation, because forcing a binary question will trigger a stress response that usually results in denial or deflection
• Push for an answer from the wrong person — because you can’t hold them to it, you’ll stress them out unnecessarily and it’s essentially meaningless.

A better way, if you can

If you are able, it is best to start having career-based conversations with your line manager or other senior mentor as soon as you join a company, or within 6 months — long before you get to the point where you are working beyond your remit and feeling under valued. Again, this is not asking “when do I get my first raise” but “how and when do we discuss my career development”.

This reduces the need for a sudden or surprise conversation, builds a strong, collaborative career discussion with your line manager from the beginning and ensures that you are already on an appropriate career path with milestones and objectives — all of which is a much stronger foundation on which to build those salary and promotion conversations.