Hike

HIKE - The most favourite and the most frequently used word in the IT Industry. If someone say that he/she is not working (esp. in IT) for money, I consider them as something different. Till date, I haven't seen any such "creature". Hike varies from company to company. And within company it is valid to give hike based on performance. This is the hike period in most of the companies - that is the reason for this post.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I joined in July, 2006. So, I was not eligible for the hike previous year. So, It has been the much awaited hike - the first hike (Of course, salary was increased over this period during promotion). But this is supposed to be the most memorable as it is the first PERFORMANCE hike in my career.

I was rated 4 (5 being the best) for my performace thruout the year 2007. As said, being the first hike, I was very eager to see how company satisfies me. There were different views about the hike % from everyone round the corner. The main reasons for those different views are - the rupee appreciation and Capgemini acquisition. I heard someone saying that Kanbay gave 15-20% hike last year. So, in the worst case, I expected 10% hike. And of course, there was a ray of hope to get more than 10% - just because I was rated 4.

First, the performance bonus was given (I got around 17k out of which around 3k was deducted as TAX). Within a week, I came to know that GE gave 80k as Bonus. So, I started preparing mentally that 10% is a gud hike. But it ended up with around 8% (for rating 4) and 6% (for rating 3).

Now, the only thing which makes me feel that SOMETHING is better than NOTHING is that PC saying "No hike at all in my company". I heard similar words from some of my friends.

Now the question is - do I need to manage with this 8% hike for the next one year - till the next hike in May OR . . . . . ????