[quote]Cortes wrote:
[quote]XanderBuilt wrote:
[quote]Cortes wrote:
[quote]countingbeans wrote:
[quote]timbofirstblood wrote:
Thanks for the feedback. I don’t have much leverage, and frankly am satisfied with the offer. I am basically asking if a counter-offer is an expected part of the process. This job is the first step of many that I’ll make so I’m not sweating it too hard. It’s just that some sources make it sound like every job offer should be greeted with a counter.[/quote]
Here is what you do:
- Take the job
- Keep your mouth shut, your head down
- come in before your boss
- Work your ass off
- leave after your boss comes home
- Educate yourself about your job outside of work
- be a team player
- in 6 months to a year, then ask for a raise, and have solid reasons as to why you deserve it.
Unless you already have experience and are a hot item in your field, the job market is tough today. Better to get in, prove your salt and then ask for more $, then you ask for it before you prove you are worth it.
[/quote]
As an employer, myself, and as a former employee who successfully applied this formula to rise to the highest achievable position available at the job I held before starting my own business, I enthusiastically, passionately endorse my friend beans’ advice here.
The only thing I would add is that, if you REALLY do this, and I mean, you have to go ALL in, I can assure you that you can disregard number 8. I have an employee right now whom I almost have a hard time keeping up with, and there is no way in hell I am going to let him continue to work at the same salary and bonus he is currently receiving once contract negotiation time rolls around next year. Hell, as it is, he’s so good, I’m afraid to let him go.
If you are that guy, there is no limit to where you can go, what you can do, and certainly no limit to how much money you can earn. Even if you hit the ceiling at your current job, you’ll be prepared and experienced to move on to either a more powerful employer or strike out on your own.
[/quote]
Was your business related to your job or did you start a business in something you were passionate about? Also props for doing it in Japan because business is tough in Japan, not impossible but tough. But also worth the effort. I’ve worked with Japanese clients my entire career, tough and rewarding.[/quote]
Both. I own an extracurricular English school for kids. I worked for another school (Japanese owner) for 5 years, rising to the highest position any person, foreign or Japanese, had yet risen to (a new position title was actually created for me as my responsibilities grew). I finally reached a point where there was no place else I could go. The owner was not interested in expanding his business any further, and there wasn’t a lot more I could learn without getting out and doing it on my own, so I “graduated,” moved to a new city where I knew no one, and managed to get over 100 students enrolled in under three years. We’re now at almost 200 students and still growing at a steady pace, with teachers and managers working beneath me and A LOT of new projects underway to both branch out and add more and more services, value and options for our students and our community.
Am I passionate about my job? You bet I am.
The main reason we are successful is that we are genuinely dedicated to our mission. I am not in this to make a profit. I know it sounds cliched, but that part really does take care of itself. I LOVE teaching, and I particularly love doing here, in what is considered “rural” Japan. There are a lot of warped, xenophobic ideas that start getting drilled into Japanese kids’ heads from a very young age. And the farther from the big cities and community centers you get, the more closed off and limited these ideas tend to become. We are not just here to teach English, but to serve as a model for Japanese young people (primarily) who otherwise would not know anything about the world outside of Japan except the skewed, often nationalistic, sometimes outright racist and overwhelmingly limited notions they are constantly bombarded with in this society. On top of that, we also provide services that allow our kids to take their education to the next level, and actually go overseas and experience life outside of Japan first hand. It is a life-changing experience for every one who had taken part in this and I consider it an honor and a privilege to be able to provide these opportunities, which would not otherwise exist.
To bring this thread back to the point, one of the reasons I was able to do steps 1 through 7 consistently, for years on end, without ever feeling obligated or tired, is because I was doing something I loved doing first. Or, more importantly, I was doing something that had a visible positive impact on the lives of the people I worked with, and that’s why I love it.
Since starting my own business, I put in even MORE hours than I did while working for someone else. I work six days a week, recently often working from 9am until after midnight. And you know what? There’s not been one day, not one. single. day. since I started this school that I have ever uttered the words, “Ugh. I have to go to work today.” I could die today and say that I did alright while I was here. But I’m nowhere near finished yet.
Sorry for the over-long rant, but I love this kind of stuff. One of the coolest things I have learned from the Japanese is how to find the joy and mission in whatever it is you do. The Japanese have a profound respect for work, and it is amazing to watch someone who works at McDonald’s take their position and duties with all of the passion and seriousness as any doctor or artist. I was dumbfounded by this quality at first, but now that I feel like I understand it, I now believe it is one of the most profoundly important ideas available to humankind. It is sadly, sorely lacking in America, which I think explains a LOT of the dissatisfaction and unhappiness that most people never escape from . It doesn’t have to be that way. [/quote]
This should go in the “Post Hall of Fame”.
Good stuff
