Sometimes testers aren’t getting paid what they’re worth. In my new MoT article "
* Getting paid what you are worth as a software tester," I discuss why some companies can be secretive about salary, why researching a company is important when applying, what we can do to avoid underselling (and overselling) ourselves, and explore non-salary benefits that become more important as you advance in your career.
What You’ll Learn:
How to aim for the objectively best salary for your skill level
Non-monetary benefits become more and more important as you climb the ladder
After reading, share your thoughts:
What are your experiences in salary negotiations?
Do you have any other useful tips, especially for new testers?
This reads like classic corporate fluff wrapped in “self-empowerment” talk. Most companies don’t actually care about your passion, impact or “alignment with values”, they care about minimizing costs. You can overperform, mentor others and “go above and beyond” but if the budget doesn’t justify it you’ll still get the standard raise like 3% or maybe 5% next year. The only real way to get paid what you’re worth is to treat your career like a business deal, not a family. Negotiate hard, job-hop when you need to and stop believing that loyalty or “potential” will be rewarded. Mostly HR doesn’t care about your story, they care about the salary spreadsheet. Be strategic, be lucratively-smart and make them pay for the value you bring
I know what you mean. I wanted to write things like: “All companies won’t exploit you, so pick those who pay a bit more and convincingly pretend they care and respect you”, but I felt like that’s a bit too blunt for an article. In a lot of cases, how you present yourself means more than your actual skill. Maybe not every single company out there is like this, but in a lot of places, people who know how to fake it are the ones who climb the ranks faster than the rest, a sad reality.
Technically I’m paid nowt at the moment but it was eye opening when I looked at the job market.
I was happy with my pay previously at a manager grade but if I drop down to senior or mid level in my next role (with the job market it looks likely) then I may get a pay bump. I hadn’t realised how horrendously underpaid I was.
However where you talking about the benefits like flexibility and culture really resonated. So long as I can afford what I need in life (including MoT Pro of course), I’d sacrifice money for luxuries to have quality of life with work. With my old role I probably knew that if I went looking I could get more but my work gave me the support and flexibility that I needed in life. I’d take that over a few grand (especially when most goes to HMRC etc).
To me small pay cut (like 10%) if I get to work remotely would be acceptable since it saves me a lot more money and time, compared to when I worked in the office. If office work started at 8 AM, I’d have to wake up at 6 AM to catch the bus at 7 AM, so I can be there on time, plus there’s usually the lunch breaks that take longer than 1h and 1 more hour to get back home, so that’s at least 3-4 hours just daily that I have for other things.
My outlook on salary is bit different. I believe salary is subjective upon where you are in life personally. I am not denying the fact everyone deserves to be paid according to their skillset and experience, also I am very much well aware the perspective of companies in regards with cost savings.
From my research on this topic: For example; if the question is just about survival, or getting job after being unemployed for months, people do not care about how much they are being paid (they still should negotiate -show the stronger outlook), they would need some income to meet both ends. People who work on employer sponsored jobs (expats) in whichever country, they just care about their sponsorship remains continue regardless of benefits or salary they are getting, because its costly too. Of course people that are being hired on highly skilled visa are self aware of their worth and likely to get what they deserve, but salary takes 2nd priority for them.
Having said that: a skilled person should project braver outlook, well researched salaries of the role to negotiate whilst playing safe in this so saturated and volatile job market these days.
That time aspect can mean so much. I think it is definitely important to understand both your worth and your priorities. If you can get paid right to your level AND get quality of life then great but that is hard to come by.
I do have some sympathy for companies. Their main considerations are:
Their budget for salaries. The board will set a budget for the entire salary expenditure for the company. So increasing that needs to be budgeted for.
Their specific source for identifying industry salary levels the roles. Most HR companies will use something for that but “remote working” has thrown a spanner in the works there.
The applicants expectations. There are so many factors in that which is why you get people applying with salary expectations all over the place.
So nearly every company I’ve worked for kept the salary range for internal eyes. That gives the recruiter a clear boundary on those well out of range and those that are on the border line. If you published the salary at say £42K and you had a brilliant candidate who wanted £44K, if you published the salary they might not apply. If you don’t, they might and if you think they’re perfect you might negotiate on their behalf. So I don’t think its for bad reasons they keep it secret.
I have also seen it where that policy changed where we published the salary for a mid level role and upset juniors who had been promoted into the bottom bracket of the new salary range, when they see an advert for a mid range engineer that is a few thousand more than what they earn.
So my advise to testers is simple, do you own research on salaries, know what you’re on now, know what you need and pitch at that level. Don’t compromise, because annual reviews are restricted to those budgets I mentioned, your best chance to get the best deal is at the beginning. Keep doing that until you come to that happy place where you can say “I earn enough”. Then enjoy your career and focus on all the benefits beyond money.
