Hold Off on the Jump

For years, the fastest way to lift your pay seemed simple: switch jobs and collect a BIG bump. That playbook is far less reliable today. Pay transparency has tightened ranges, employers price scope over titles, measures that track productivity are on the increase and hiring is calibrated for profitable growth, not headcount inflation. Chasing a raise by hopping roles can leave you flat - or even behind - if the new scope is narrower, the team is leaner, or your skills aren’t directly tied to measurable outcomes.

If you want more money, better scope, or faster progression, start where you are. “Know thyself” isn’t a cliché; it’s a strategy. Your market value rises when you can define your strengths, the problems you solve, and the outcomes you repeatedly deliver - and then have the right conversations where you are to turn that value into pay and opportunity.

So what do you do if you know you're more valuable? Hold off on the jump as a first step.

• Run a Personal Value Audit by listing your top five capabilities. Be honest here. Ask others, who know you well and are brutally honest, if you need to, What you're aiming for here is the combination of technical and soft skills that make you the individual you are

Hold Off on the Jump

• Name your Signature Problem Superpower so you can name the business issues you solve. Far too many people cause work issues and expect other people to sort it out. Be useful and be able to pave the way for others

• Be able to articulate your Repeatable Outcomes so that the combination of skills you have can easily be shown to deliver the measurable, quantifiable results you have created. Be warned...taking individual credit for a group effort is the mother of all karma

Staying where you are (in the short-term at least) whilst you work through this process is rarely wasted. The self-improvement insights and the strengthening of relationships as part of the steps will remain with you, whether you stay or go. But don't rush this and leave yourself in regret.

Try to get yourself to:

• An understand where upgrading skills right now will compound your progress faster

• A closing of targeted gaps that will give you immediate leverage in your current context

• Being able to shine where you're planted. Now's not the time to do just enough or hope that someone's going to notice invisible impact

Way too much b*lls%it is spouted about the only way to a raise is out. A raise isn’t guaranteed when you change jobs - and that’s a useful constraint. It nudges you to anchor career moves in scope, outcomes, and environments that multiply your strengths. “Know thyself” plus targeted self‑improvement and clear conversations where you currently are, will often get you what you want faster, set you up to earn bigger numbers where you are AND wherever you go next when the time's right.

Career advice is all part of the Role-Match service 🙃