Quote:
Originally Posted by chopstick
pokeraz -
First, congrats on nailing the CCIE on your first attempt. I am friends with a bunch of CCIEs and know very well that the test is no joke. The pass rate is much lower than you think, it's somewhere around 25%. Lots of people can get beyond the written, only to get killed in the labs. The average # of attempts before passing is "above 2" per Cisco. Kudos to you for nailing it on the first run.
You said that you intend to finish out your career at your current place, does that mean you have no interest in determining your new market value? Doesn't hurt to see what you are worth and if nothing else, it is a good idea for you to sit down and assign a dollar value to those ancillaries. There is likely some amount of money that makes it worth it for you to consider other options. Why not at least figure out what that amount is and contrast it to your updated market value? You don't have to leave your current job to get an idea of your value. Contact a recruiter / head hunter (they love love love CCIEs given how bankable you guys are) and let them do all the work for you. Then you'll have more info to re-evaluate things. If the current ancillaries still outweigh the difference in salary (and the new ancillaries) then so be it. Explain up front to the recruiter all the ancillaries that you have now and how important they are for you.
As far as your manager goes, it depends on what your relation ship is like and why she suggested pursuing the CCIE. If she suggested it thinking you'd never follow thru and just wanted to shut you up, that is much different than her suggesting it in order to increase your hourly bill rate for your company's clients. Both of those are different from her just wanting you to be happy and knowing she needed a bargaining chip to go to bat for you, or some other reason. Hard to suggest an approach without an idea of what her motivation was. Definitely approach her ASAP to avoid the "we just gave you a raise" thing.
Another thing you may want to consider is staying at your current job and taking on small contract project in your spare time. That allows you to keep your existing position, and still somewhat leverage your increased market value at a higher rate.
Thanks for the reply. I went through this process 6 or 7 years ago and actually got a great offer. Maybe it is time to do it again just to check and get a firm feeling for the current market. While money is important, it is not at the top of my list for work/life satisfaction.
Quote:
Originally Posted by El Diablo
Poker,
Let her know that you passed tomorrow, but don't mention anything re: the raise or your career.
If she doesn't mention anything about the raise during the one-on-one, bring it up then.
This is what I am going to do. I'll let her know tomorrow and then discuss during our next meeting if needed.