Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep230: Salary is not your self-worth.

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Your salary is not your self-worth. And the more that you tie how much you are actually making in your career right now with who you are as a person,

that's exactly how you're going to stay stuck in your career as well as the income that you are making right now. Hey, welcome, welcome back to the Corporate Survivor Podcast. It's me, Mei Ping, as Corporate Leader turned Career Coach and founder of the Ultimate Career Program for 95 Professionals to the Corporate Survivor Podcast with me, Mei Ping, ex-corporate leader, turned career coach and founder of the Ultimate Career Program for 95 Professionals, the Corporate Survivor. So today's episode is going to be a preview of a workshop that I'm going to run for my career course members this weekend. And I really want to have an honest discussion with you on what is your perception around salary and specifically how much you're

making right now. And more importantly, how much do you think much you're making right now. And more importantly, how much do you think you should be making right now in your career? So we're not going to talk about how many years of experience and so forth. But the point I want to make in this episode is that I have noticed that when I ask people and I know when people come to me in my community, on social media, and even clients in my career program, The Corporate Survivor, and most of the time, when someone comes to me telling me that, hey, you know, maybe I feel quite stuck in my career, you know, I'm not happy with my career level, I feel like I should be making more money. Most of the time, I will ask them, so like, what is stopping you from asking for that job promotion? What is stopping you from asking for that salary increment? And what is stopping you from seeking that next career opportunity that can give you the career level, the job title,

and the salary that you want? And usually I get these two answers. The first answer is, I just don't know how, which is fair because if you haven't tried it before, so for example, if you're someone who has always been working hard, you've actually never tried asking for a job promotion from your boss or you've never actually asked for a salary increment before, it can be very daunting. And when you don't know how to do something or you haven't done it before,

it's very natural to just say, I really don't know what the steps are, right? So I'm lost. Or if you're someone who has been working in the same company for a very long time and you haven't been seeking out new opportunities for a while, it's very normal to also say that I actually don't know how, like what's the latest way to seek career opportunities, like what's the you know, the strategies of like being a good job seeker right now, like how does it work? I think

it's very normal to feel confused and to not to know. Now think that one is fine like you can learn it and in the corporate survivor there are very specific lessons around how to prepare for a performance review or how to understand what um your bosses are thinking about in terms of like who gets promoted how to follow up as well as like specific lessons around job search so that one is all resolved however the second um i'll say i'll say, but the second response I tend to get from, you know, people in my community and even in some of my career program students as well, I think it's the more dangerous part. And that is around, I feel like I'm not deserving of this next career level or the next salary.

So what if I get that number, I get that salary, but I fail? What if I'm not good enough to make this amount of money that I want? Now, I think this is actually a much more serious discussion. And if I were to dive a little bit deeper, I noticed that for the people who usually tell me this, they are very insecure and they also don't feel confident of their competence. Now, this is actually something that definitely can be fixed, right? Work confidence, work competence definitely is a, it's just a part of like career development. It's a part of like self-development. And of course, if you feel that you're not very confident on the quality of your work, then maybe some upskilling is required. And that's something that can be done as well. But the point I'm trying to make here is more like,

you know that you have been working hard, but for some reason you are afraid to ask for the promotion. You are afraid to even raise for the salary amount that you want. And you think that, oh, the amount of that I'm making right now, I only deserve this much or whatever that the company or my boss is paying me right now. That's the maximum that I deserve. I think that's actually a wrong mindset to have.

And I think that if let's say, there's this like one first step that you can take is to actually remove this mindset of like, I'm not deserving of this salary. And I can tell you that in my own career, when people look at my career, they're like, oh, maybe, you know, how did you manage to increase your salary so quickly?

How did you climb the career ladder and so forth? It's because I never had the mindset of like, oh, if someone is paying me this much, right, if the company is paying this much, this is everything that I deserve. No, no, no. I never had that mindset. And in fact, each time I felt that I have over-delivered and I always make sure that I'm meeting expectations, I'm always delivering. And whenever that I ask, I always have a plan as to what am I going to do depending on whether I get the promotional increment or if I don't get that, right?

That is actually self-advocacy. That's actually taking charge of your own career. And I'm very, very clear that the salary that I make, the income that I make should commensurate the effort that I'm putting in. And more importantly, the results and the outcome I'm driving for the team and for the company. And of course, right, you need to learn how to articulate that.

Everything else is taught in the Corporate Survivor. But the main point I'm trying to make here is that you need to make sure that you are not tying salary to your self-worth, meaning that when you are making maybe a lower number than you actually want, a lower salary, it doesn't mean that you only deserve this low salary. It means that maybe you're not in the right environment to be paying you the amount of money that you deserve. Or maybe you are not advocating for yourself, you're not getting visible enough and actively asking for the salary and the job title and the promotion that you actually want.

So I like to think of it in a way of, okay, if I'm not getting it, right, whether it's the promotion, career level or salary, then what more can I do to make sure that I advocate for myself? I never once think that, oh, you know, if my salary is low, then I feel miserable. There's nothing I can do. And, you know, my self-worth, my self-esteem, self-confidence just go downhill. And thinking like this, right, will always put you in a situation where you are very dependent on your boss and your company to fight for your career. And that's actually not a very, very good way to think about it. What will be more helpful, and if you're someone who really cares about the next 10, 20, or even 30 years in your career,

I think it's more important and more helpful to adopt the kind of mindset of the salary, my salary should be a reflection of the hard work, contribution, and more importantly, the results and the outcome of the deliverables KPIs that I've already delivered for this company. So now it's for the boss, the company to kind of like meet me halfway, right? To, I don't want to say like, yeah, maybe, maybe let's use the word compensate, right?

To compensate me fairly for everything that I've already delivered. So I've done my part. Now it's for my boss and my company to deliver that part. And if they cannot do that, then I will take the next step and probably move on to the next place that can actually give me the salary that I think actually commensurates the outcome and the results that I can bring to the company and how did I eventually develop this kind of mindset it's true a lot of um listening to false promises a lot of like waiting around and a lot of like waiting for something to happen and assuming that just because I work hard, I'm going to get rewarded. No. And last time I even remember that when I was a fresh graduate, I also used to think, and if you don't know, like my first job, I was only paid like 300 USD.

I was working in Malaysia. And I remember like the first year after like working one full year, the salary increment was only about like a hundred ringgit. A hundred ringgit is about, I would say 25 usd i'm like what the heck am i doing here right what the heck am i doing here and that was really really a big wake-up call that i decided that like no thank you i don't want to be here anymore at no point i felt that oh i must be only deserving this much if i'm only making this amount right now it means that my next job my next job i'm gonna get stuck at this number no no no the mindset i had was like why and like what the heck am i still doing here and this is not the right place to be and i feel like i have over delivered and i'm ready for the

next thing and i actively search for the next thing and of course i want to make it very clear every time you are making a career progression whether whether it's a career level, right, it's a job title or salary, then you need to be ready to take on the new challenge. And that is something that can be learned. But what is the starting point is, I think, your courage of advocating for yourself and not believing that the amount that you're making right now

is going to be the amount that, you know, forever, you're going to only get stuck at this stage. Because I tell you that for many of my corporate survival members, especially those are the one, you know, the many of them who are able to get like huge salary increments, we're talking about, you know, 50%, 85%, and some of them even double their salary. It's not from the mindset of like, oh, you know, pity party. I'm just going to get stuck here forever. It's about, hey, I think I've outgrown this place and I've learned whatever I need to learn. I have delivered whatever I need to deliver.

Now I need to equip myself to get ready for the next phase of my career. I need to take that courageous step forward then to move on to the next place or to actually go and ask for the next opportunity, whether it's the next career level, a promotion and so forth, and to be able to prove themselves. And I'll say that those of my career course members who are successfully able to do that are those people who have already broken that limiting mindset of like, oh, my salary is my

self-worth. No, salary is a compensation of the results that you have already delivered. You have already done it. Now it's for the company, your boss, to, I won't say, I don't want to use the word return, but to compensate you fairly, right? Balance out what you think you can continue to give, right? I mean, I always see these things as a two-way street. You know, if I give like, you know, 100, 200% and the company is giving giving me peanuts then what the heck am i still doing there right that's the mindset that i have and i hope that you also take on this very very strong mindset as well so as i said this is actually a preview of the job promotion and negotiations workshop that i'll run for my career course members actually tomorrow so we'll go deep dive more into the behind the scenes on how management makes decisions on who to promote,

how can you actually increase your chances, more details around how managers, how, you know, management decides, you know, should they promote internally, hire externally, and I think more importantly, how to sharpen your money instincts. And I think that's really, really important as well because it's about the money mindset,

the money instincts, and then obviously backed up by your work confidence and competence and kind of like comes up with a full circle that you know that you can be successful at any job. And that's something that I've also personally done in my career. I want to make sure that every move that I make, I make it with confidence and I can become a top performer at any job and I can get promoted every year and get salary increment every year.

And that's something that I've definitely done in my career. And nowadays I teach that to my career course members in the Corporate Survivor. So with that, I hope that you take on this mindset today and for the future of your career, which is your salary is not your self-worth and you deserve more. And if you think that you deserve more, then actually go and get it. So with that, I'll see you next episode. Bye.