Utter Disenchantment with Corporate & How I Negotiated a Raise 6 Months in

Hi Sheconomist community 👋 It’s Thamina, Founder of The Sheconomist. This is your bi-weekly dose of celebrating the female economy where I help ambitious, purpose-driven women like yourself flip the script on money, career & wellbeing conventions so you can live life on your own terms.

TLDR:

• ❌ Corporate America is wildly unprepared for this next generation of women

• 🏆 A Giveaway worth ~$1,000!!! (only sent to subscribers)

• 🙈 Why I hate the term “imposter syndrome” and why we should stop using it

• 💰 The script I used to negotiate a raise 6 months into a new job

• 😮 How many billion $$$ could be unlocked by financial institutions serving women as investors better?!

🧪 Freedom Formulas

Corporate America is wildly unprepared for this next generation of women.

And that lack of awareness and preparation is gonna come at a steep cost for employers.

You see, I’ve coached & mentored dozens of some of the smartest students, recent grads, and peers in tech.

Women who graduated from the world’s most prestigious universities.

Women who landed jobs at the most desirable companies across big tech, management consulting, investment banking, private equity, you name it.

Women from 6 different continents.

Women that any company wants.

You wanna know what all of them have in common?

They are utterly disenchanted by the corporate world.

Why?

Unlike the women who came before them and who have had to make considerable sacrifices to have a shot at a successful career

(and who were still met with plenty of sexism along the way),

sacrificing their mental & physical wellbeing, financial security, or personal fulfillment is not an option for young women anymore.

This next generation of women dominating the global workforce is tolerating less and expecting more from their employers.

They are increasingly independent, confident, and outspoken.

People tend to confuse this increasing level of self-advocacy among young folks with laziness.

Gen Z is often labeled as either too demanding or the generation that doesn’t want to work.

That assessment is not only wrong but that narrow-mindedness is completely missing the mark.

And it is in fact dangerous because it only further perpetuates the patriarchy.

The debate about the future of work is not about remote vs. hybrid vs. in-person.

It’s about young women knowing their worth & finally demanding what they deserve:

Equitable pay, meaningful career progression, more advocacy, physical, psychological & emotional safety, a right to self-expression.

And then I hear stories about employers attempting to limit talented employee’s self-expression or consistently denying raises/promotions without proper transparency.

Just look at the most recent example from that social media savvy Chick-fil-A employee.

Those intimidation tactics almost always backfire.

Because as soon as that conversation is over, she will start preparing her exit plan.

And she’s gonna tell all her talented female friends.

(+ go viral on social right after)

Not meeting young women where they’re at is going to cost Corporate America BILLIONS.

Many countries, including my home country Germany, are already suffering from major labor market shortages.

Women in the US are starting their own companies at the highest rate ever seen.

Often precisely because they want to have more agency.

I predict we’re only going to see more young women choosing that path over corporate America.

If you are a company leader or people manager above the age of 40, now is the time for humility, to invest in reverse mentoring, and to start listening.

❣️ Thamina’s Top Picks

🎙️ Raising $5.4 Million Seed led by Google Ventures: Julia Haber, CEO of Home From College (Play Brydge Podcast)

📩 FinTech is Femme - FinTech news through a female lens (we 💜)

📽️ YOU are the magic (if you need a little gratitude in your life ✨)

✍️ Why I hate the term “imposter syndrome” and why we should stop using it (Harvard Business Review)

✨ This week’s Moodboard

Post credits go to @bossbabe, @etsy, @luckyrose17 & @etsy again

💸 Cooking up Wealth

The script that got me a raise 6 months into a new role

Did you know that women leave between $1 million and $1.5 million in lifetime earnings on the table by not negotiating their pay as early-career professionals?

When I came across that appalling statistic, I made a commitment to myself that I would learn how to become my own best advocate when it comes to my compensation.

I had recently moved to New York, annual performance reviews were around the corner and I mustered up the courage to ask my manager for a raise.

I was nervous but I had come prepared.

And it worked: $10,000 more in equity (vesting over 4 years though so meh) but 7% more in my OTE (OTE stands for “On Target Earnings”, meaning the total amount of $ I receive if I hit my revenue quota; my base salary represents 70% of my OTE, my commission makes up 30% - it gets juicy once you exceed your quota because that’s when accelerators kick in).

Overall, not too bad for a raise that wasn’t attached to a formal promotion. 🤑

This is the approach that worked for me and that I have since recommended to many of my mentees:

Start out by briefly summarizing the value you have added over the past however months.

Share what you’re grateful for and what excites you about your future in your organization.

(Starting out positive is important and sets the tone for the conversation)

Now, this is where it gets juicy. Feel free to adjust this to your own tone but you could say something like:

“Now that I’m a few months into my role, I’ve only gotten the full scope of what this role entails and what is expected of me, but also what my value is. And my current compensation is not an accurate reflection of the value I’m adding to this organization.

I would love to collaborate with you to get me from a place where I see compensation as a source of frustration to where I can leverage my compensation as a source of motivation.”

Staying positive and highlighting keywords like “collaboration”, “value”, and “motivation” makes it feel less like a “me vs. them” and more like a joint effort that results in a win win for both parties.

🌊 Women Making Waves

• 📈 A record share of working-age women are employed - Women have not only regained their pandemic losses in the job market, they've been exceeding those numbers month after month

• 🎙️ Doris Burke, the longtime ESPN broadcaster, became the first woman to serve as a TV analyst for a championship final in one of the four major professional sports in the US (she also got a shoutout from LeBron James who’s a big supporter of women in the sports industry)

• 💸 Women are poised to reshape financial markets —as investors and financial decision-makers - An estimated $700 billion could be unlocked by financial institutions by better-serving women as investors

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In abundance,

P.S.: If you want to work with me directly, you can do so here.

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