The framing that actually worked wasn’t “pay me more or I’ll leave,” it was walking in with a documented list of specific outcomes I’d delivered over the past year, tied to numbers wherever possible, and asking what a fair adjustment would look like given that record.
I prepared for three weeks: pulled project outcomes, gathered a couple of unsolicited compliments from other departments, and researched a realistic salary range for the role rather than picking an aspirational number out of thin air.
The raise I got wasn’t what I’d hoped for on the first ask, but the conversation itself reset expectations, and a smaller follow-up increase came through two months later without me having to ask again.