Unreasonable to Want Higher Pay or Better Fitting Position?

• I get the feeling I'm underpaid in my current position and my primary skillset is definitely under-utilised, but without a degree or even the industry standard certificate for what I really like to do, I feel like I have to accept that. Am I wrong? It would change my life to be wrong. Current Position: SaaS product tester, mostly user and stability testing without automation, all through the GUI. I also do process improvement, metrics tracking, test case authoring, release tracking, team member training, some documentation, and pitch in on side projects like data migration. I've been doing this for a little over 2yrs. I'm paid a little over $40k per year in Austin, Texas. Salary references for similar positions all seem to point to a cold minimum of $10k more and an average of nearly twice my salary. My immediate supervisor does not have an interest in leveraging anything other than what I'm doing right now. My true interests were well-known when courted for this position and have been put to use in minor ways, but no way near the level they could be truly useful. Based on my manager's needs, I must remain a reactive asset with narrow leeway for proactive initiative with no guarantee of acceptance of output. There's more to it, but that's the most relevant aspect. Primary Skillset: My true love is project management, process analysis/development/improvement, and training. I have more than a decade of solid experience in this realm, some professional training supporting necessary and complementary skills, and a certificate for Project Management that was a precursor for PMI certification, but current job interrupted trajectory to take test, so don't have that crucial boost. Also have well-regarded professionals available as willing references supporting my experience and skills in these areas. Salary references for PM alone have a start of about $60k and quickly average out around $100k, rocketing higher for those with deep experience, advanced degrees, and great connections. I'm currently wasting tons of energy and opportunities to enjoy life because of my underpowered salary, but can't shake the feeling that this is the best I can get because of the lack of degree and most-respected industry cert. I ended up here after 2 miserable, worrisome years of unemployment during the worst of the recession, so there is definitely a mix of gratitude and fear keeping me loyal. But...am I wrong? Should I be hunting for a level-up position? Extras, since this is anon: • Willing to leave Austin, with preference for Houston or Pacific Northwest. It would be nice to stay here for a couple more years, though, due to family concerns. Would your answer change based on a move? • Can't pursue higher education until I have a past tax issue resolved, so that's not an option right now, even though it feels like it would solve my whole problem permanently. • It'll take 1.5yrs at current rate of pay/responsibilities to save the $2k for the PMI test, so that's not as moveable an object as it might seem to be. Do have litany of valid PDUs and can easily immerse in study materials to get back in the flow of it once I have it saved, making it a viable longer-term option. • Don't have coding experience. Have QA'd backends and PM'd throughout the SDLC, though, and understand things like database table structures, queries, syntax, the difference between client-side and server-side, and other fundamentals. • I'd love to consult, but I think most outfits want degrees and I definitely need health insurance coverage, which makes that seem like a bad fit on both sides. It would be great to be wrong. • If current workplace suddenly paid me closer to $50k, I would likely be content for another couple of years doing little bits of PM/process improvement like I do now...unless a head hunter or "perfect" opportunity came along offering me an even more livable deal, of course. Thanks for any and all advice and input on this, AskMe!

• Answer:

  There's no such thing as "deserve" in life, only "earn". And you get nothing if you don't ask. And your education and CV are not absolute determinants of anything. If you feel you're worth more than what you're getting, go out and see if the market agrees with you. This has nothing to do with your current company or what your supervisor wants. They have their own needs and their own goals and are looking for particular roles for particular salary amounts. That may or may not line up with what any given person wants, but nobody cares what you want. Nobody is in business to do you favors or make you happy or make your life work. So any given person can take what they're offering, bargain them up, or go elsewhere. Sometimes in tight job markets, that's harder than at other times, but people are hiring all the time if for no other reason than the usual cyclical reasons. Somebody leaves, somebody's gotta come in. Depersonalize it and view it as more of a puzzle piece situation. You sort through a bunch of them looking for the right fit, both you and all the employers out there. Additionally, people get hired all the time without having all of the qualifications in the job listing. As someone who has hired people, I can tell you that often when you need somebody, you need somebody in short order. And if your pile of applicants doesn't include someone who has all of what you want, you will very often just pick the best of the lot, someone who seems generally capable and who you're confident can pick up things along the way. Also as someone who has hired people when I really didn't see why I was the person qualified to do that, I can tell you that people hire people all the time without being some all-knowing sage who is making a completely informed decision. You never know who you're going to get. All of this is just to say get out there and start advocating for yourself. Make a confident pitch wherever you go and don't worry too much about what you have and don't have. Never let that stop you from applying. The worst anyone can say is no, and there are so many situations where you can't see what's going on behind the scenes, can't see the people, can't see the reasons, can't see the criteria, can't see what they're willing to do without, can't see their timelines, and whatever those things are could result in an unexpected yes. Make your search be more of a people thing than a list thing. Life is not a struggle, it's a wiggle. Start wiggling until you wiggle into a good fit.