A small background on me: I was a desktop guy for the past 6 years and I jumped upon a chance to enter windows administration (Wintel Administrator). I was working as a Wintel admin for one and a half years. I recently completed a certification pertaining to my career advancement.
Due to my versatility, I am now handling 4 other agencies. Moreover, appraisal is coming soon. Is it wise to ask for a pay raise? If yes, how do I go about it?
Yes it is wise to ask. Take your certification when you ask and show the manager. Many employers reward employees who get extra certifications with a raise. Some will actually pay for the exams. It's beneficial for the company.
how do I go about it?
Just ask straight up at the appraisal if the company rewards things like that. They may have a set rate, or they may have none at all. It's unlikely to be negotiable unless it's a much higher cert than that though.
I used to manage a group of 40 Windows/Cisco/Nortel techs. Your certification is worth about as much money as the paper it was printed on. I would seriously laugh out loud if someone wanted a raise because they just passed a standardized test.
I once had a network admin with 11 different certifications (well known) including 5 of the Cisco variety. My new hires helped him solve basic problems. Yes he knew the command to change something but you can also google that. He passed his tests by cramming for them and retaking them as much as he could until he passed them. On the Cisco ones he averaged passing on the 5th one (he told me all of this on his exit review).
Why did he leave? Because I refused to give him a dime more after he passed 4 more certifications. Literally I had a 10 second conversation in my head and there was no f'ing way he was going to get more. You want to make more than show more value to your team, do better work, fix things that others can't, be faster. If certification helps then that is awesome.
To me certification can be a learning mechanism, however nothing beats doing it every day. When we are configuring WAN routers and connecting Juniper devices to Cisco - guess what? This isn't supported by Juniper cert or Cisco cert (at least at that time). They would have never learned about it even though it was are common configuration. There were complex procedures in setting up the routing tables and if they would have followed their certification knowledge they would take down our network.
Work knowledge/performance = raise at current job
Certification = raise at next job
So ask for the raise if you deserve it. If you have a non-tech manager then fine throw out the new certification. A tech manager won't care though and you mentioning your wanting a raise solely due to certification seems almost like a tactical threat of leaving because you are worth more on the market. In my opinion with a tech manager I would just stick to the facts about your work performance and knowledge at what your group does or wants to do.
It shall be part of an overall strategy. You have to prove that your performance today is beyond you current pay level.
The thing to negociate there(unless pay scale is carved in stone depending on your certification), is to say "my current pay level was defined against my old level of performance. my new level of performance is better, for the following reasons - blabla based on certification & a few real life examples, like your extended responsabilities".
a certification alone, in itself, is nothing in my book. Some even think it's negative. But this is alone. If it's a part of a global strategy to get better, you can sell it as a part of a package that means you took a bigger dimension recently.
I would strongly suggest you not rely purely on the certification as justification to ask for a pay raise - but definitely do include it as part of the discussion!
I would suggest something along these lines (adjusted to fit your personal tone and culture):
For the first six years I worked here I was just a desktop guy. A year and a half ago I took the opportunity to become a Wintel administrator, and things have been going really well! [Giving a concrete, short, example or two would be great.] I've even taken the initiative to get certified as a [technical certification name here]. In my new role I've been able to offer a much greater value to the company than in my own position, and I think my salary should be changed to reflect that.
Remember: a salary increase is not a gift, reward, or payment for a certification. Companies pay the job you do, not you as a person. Your certification, experience, and new position - and hopefully positive opinion of the work you've been doing - together make the case that your old salary is no longer appropriate.
The job you are doing will always be worth more than any piece of paper or credential. The right papers sure can help you get closer to what you are worth, though!
