Salary discussion

[St33ls3ri3]

Over the weekend, I also created a light Excel sheet about my own salary development. It was interesting to dig up payslips from 10 years ago. The industry is so rare that I won’t go into detail about my current role, but it falls under the building services/construction sector.

2012: 2100€/month - installer
2017: 2850€/month - installer
2018: 2650€/month - designer. Graduated as an engineer while working.
2022: 3410€/month - designer
2023: 4000€/month + bonuses averaging 500€/month - specialist. Changed jobs, and the job description changed completely at the same time. Better pay with less stress.
2025: 4850€/month + bonuses averaging 500€/month - lead specialist. Promotion.

I am quite satisfied with my current job and salary. Of course, every job has its unpleasant tasks, and so does this one. About 90% of the work is done remotely; occasionally, I visit the office and clients. Good team and an excellent supervisor.

[Nappikauppias]

Well, negotiations finally done, resulting in 4150 €/month and moving to a higher-level employee position, same job description with a new title and no subordinates yet Now under the YTN collective agreement, so in the future, we’ll negotiate purely and won’t have to rigidly adhere to salary grades.

Very satisfied with the outcome, and apparently so is the employer; the salary negotiations weren’t really even negotiations, but the company offered that straight away (with 3 months of backpay), and I accepted without complaint. In the current economic situation, demanding more pay at this point didn’t even cross my mind.

[kekeke]

In the same design office and with the same title of electrical specialist/designer, job duties remain unchanged, but the base salary has risen to €5750/month.

I was satisfied before, and now, in my opinion, this is starting to be a very strong income for this kind of work. It’s a significant raise, and as often happens in these situations, a client wanted to recruit me. My current company matched the strong offer, and I wanted to stay. It’s nice that professional skills are valued by more than one party, but why change a good thing.

[Ripetirip]

Update on this: I’m now 28 years old, and my salary, without changing jobs, after one promotion, is now 5000€/month. Annual bonuses for each of the three years have been more or less clearly less than one month’s salary.

[Mirkkis]

Great strides on the salary front for many!

My own experience from the financial sector, with a Master of Laws (OTM) background. After graduating into an expert role in 2017, salary 3500. I asked for a pay raise in 2018 → 4200. Moved to a supervisor role and more responsible tasks in 2020 → 4600. More responsibility in 2021 → 5200. Pay raise in 2022 → 5600 (years and salaries are approximate from memory, plus smaller collective agreement increases). Late 2024, changed jobs, advanced to management, still in the financial sector, total salary 7000. Salary was reviewed last week, new total salary just over 8800.

It has required, among other things, moving for work and long days, but I enjoy my work and am happy with my salary, so overall not bad eight years after graduation.

[Pro_Pertti]

That’s a strong performance, even experienced designers usually get a grand less.

[Shuko]

At the turn of the month, my job description and department changed, but the company remained the same. Previously, I did hardware assembly work in projects, including supervisory tasks without actual manager status, and on top of that, electrical & automation specialist duties. The contract was for a senior salaried employee, where working hours were not defined, and everything was included in the 5125e monthly salary.

Now, the job description is practically a maintenance mechanic in the food industry, with additional tasks falling on the sole electrician. The salary remained the same, but 37.5h/week working hours were added to the contract, and a mention that overtime would be compensated.

I shouldn’t jinx it by saying this out loud, but the monetary compensation is starting to be relatively okay for a basic maintenance guy.

[Sfinski]

@Pro_Pertti

Great performance, usually even experienced designers get a thousand less.

Even experienced project managers get a thousand less. Even group leaders don’t get that much in our design office. It’s great, however, that they’ve reached those figures. Clearly there’s demand for their expertise.

[Mazinho]

As a class teacher, salary 4600€/month. Minimum teaching hours 24h/week, seniority bonuses with 15 years of experience, one personal supplement, and additional duties as a member of the management team and leader of the school’s digital team. With these holidays, quite satisfied with the current salary.

[Fossil]

How many total working hours are there per week?

[Mazinho]

On average, about 35 hours a week, but it varies a lot, of course. During performance reviews, of course, longer days.

[GaryKrim]

I could update my salary and thoughts. Note that there have been changes in my mindset, as the IT sector has been in quite a turmoil. Since the last message, I’ve already changed companies twice; the first time for a title and greater responsibility, the second time due to a redundancy situation, but also then into greater responsibility. I’ve managed to push my salary upwards, but now I’ve reached a point where the only way I can increase my salary is by moving into management, and that’s something I don’t know how to do.

My current salary is 6850e, and this includes supervisory responsibility. The number of subordinates has grown, and there are now 14 of them, but I don’t have responsibility for their results. It feels like supervisory work is often complained about, but I personally like it. I also find handling difficult matters in this role rewarding.

Regarding the future, all I know is that I’d like to get out of the consulting world and into a company with a shared goal and/or product. The problem is that I don’t know what kind of role I would want. The desire is to reduce coding and move towards big-picture planning and leadership roles, but that transition feels really unnatural, difficult, and I don’t even know in practice what role I should apply for next to make this possible. On the bright side, I like my current role and situation, so there’s no rush.

[Sluibaaja]

It’s nice to see other people’s salary development and earnings from different fields and jobs here. As a “youngster,” I also thought I’d throw my hat in the ring and share some of my own opinions and tips from my field

A freshly graduated M.Sc. in Civil Engineering, 27 years old. A total of 5 years of “experience” from summer jobs in the field, of which 4 years were spent working for the same company alongside school. Currently working in design tasks at a large consulting firm. I also did teaching work at the university alongside school. That, if anything, is easy money and a nice job, but I’m not including those earnings in my salary development.

Salary development:

2020 - approx. 1700e, 1st-year student, trainee work on a construction site
2021 - approx. 2360e, 2nd-year student, company change to design work
2022 - approx. 2600e, Student, 3rd-year student
2023 - approx. 2900e, Student, 4th-year student
2024 - approx. 3100e, 5th-year student, working on master’s thesis
2025 - approx. 3700e, after graduation

I am satisfied with my salary and, above all, with having a job right now. So many people have been laid off that work is terribly busy. Responsibilities are quite small at the moment, but the job description is very versatile, and I hope it stays that way. I don’t just do one “phase” of the design process; instead, I calculate, model, and create drawings with different materials.

Even though I’m a recent graduate, and if there are other civil engineering students or recent graduates here, I recommend doing a wide range of tasks on the design side, because then you’re easy to move from one project to another –> You’re more useful to the company and probably not among the first to be laid off. Also, bravely tackle calculations, e.g., RFEM or other FEM programs. It only hurts once, even if the programs seem intimidating It’s very beneficial to know how to use calculation programs, even a little. Well, that’s enough of my tips.

The goal would be to become a project manager at some point, unless I get more enthusiastic about structural design tasks. The only downside to being a project manager is having to sit in Teams meetings all the time, and technical expertise gradually fades when you don’t get to/have time to do those tasks. But time will tell where this leads

[TechLead]

I am a Master of Science in Engineering (DI) who graduated from Aalto University in the last decade. I am in my thirties. I have been coding for the web for about 10 years now, and my salary has developed roughly as follows:

1. As an undergraduate student at a small workshop, part-time with a salary of about 12e/h.
2. As a master’s student at an IT consulting firm (of which there are a tragically comical number in the Finnish tech scene) with a salary of 2100-2700e/month. I felt underpaid, and towards the end, I could have easily gotten, for example, 4000e/month from a neighboring firm. However, I didn’t switch to the neighboring firm because…
3. After graduating, I went to work abroad for a couple of years, and my earnings jumped to the 7000-8000e/month level.
4. I returned to Finland and became a freelancer. Over five years, my compensation developed from about 100ke/year to about 180ke/year.
5. This year, I got tired of freelancing and returned to being an employee. Now my compensation is about 140ke/year + startup stock options (which I, of course, treat as ~0e value lottery tickets). This position is through an EOR for a foreign company. Based on Koodiklinikka’s annual salary survey, even an elite coder in Finnish companies doesn’t seem to get more than 10ke/month, especially without managerial responsibilities, so I can be quite satisfied with my compensation.

In the future, I would be fascinated to jump off the rat race, either to become a full-time angel investor or to do something 60-80% of the week in low-stress jobs. My problem seems to be that once you’ve gotten into high-paying jobs, it’s hard to get motivated by tinkering anymore. I have also considered starting my own startup, but the stress levels there would be through the roof; I also don’t have a business idea that I would want to pursue.

In terms of living standards, I’m not aiming for FIRE, but I’m also not used to living particularly extravagantly. I save about 4000-7000e/month (mostly in index ETFs; direct stocks are bought mainly for speculative purposes). I don’t really budget, but I track my spending monthly, so I notice when I spend more or less than usual.

[Osakepulssi]

Are holiday bonuses included in the figure? I’m interested in how much the personal supplement, management team role, and team leader’s share increase earnings, respectively?

[lokomotiivi]

Quite impressive earnings for your age. This shows what can be achieved financially when one doesn’t follow the usual path but carves their own way. Congratulations and hats off.

[Rrryy]

Like some others here, I want a raise. Currently, I work as a project engineer (HVAC product sales), essentially sitting at a computer, making sales orders, and advising on technical matters. The title doesn’t even remotely match the job duties. The salary is 4890€/month, which is a good salary considering the demands. The job situation in my field is dire. There are hardly any managerial-level sales positions, and my current experience isn’t enough to get them. The firm has been sold and the transfer will happen soon, so it’s pointless to negotiate salary now, even though bonuses were taken away.

However, I’m playing the long game, meaning I’m thinking about it this way: I’ll ask for more demanding tasks, which in practice means field sales. I also want to negotiate the title so that my CV looks more attractive when I apply for managerial-level positions in the future. Even if the salary remained the same, daily allowances + travel reimbursements would easily be ±400€/month.

Are there others here who have negotiated for things other than salary? After all, title and job duties are what are looked at when applying for a job. Sometimes even too much.

[Tahtiassa]

I once negotiated my title twice. The first time, it was simply because the current one no longer really matched my job responsibilities. My salary had indeed risen moderately before the title change, but at that point, there wasn’t really room to negotiate for more salary. The second time, it was somewhat the same story, but a small 3% increase was achieved on top of that.

They were certainly worth it for me, as they opened up a whole new job opportunity, and my salary increased by 35% initially, with another 4% added after a two-month period. In addition, a few non-monetary benefits.

[Rrryy]

Undeniably, titles are important, and at least before, I believed that a title comes with certain responsibilities and a salary range. Nowadays, this is also exaggerated; in my opinion, a 3000€ monthly salary does not correspond to, for example, a sales manager or regional sales manager title. I’ve fallen into that trap a couple of times, even though they were large, quality companies. Of course, a small Finnish company doesn’t have the same prerequisites to pay a decent base salary + bonuses compared to a large international organization.

It seems to be a buyer’s market at the moment; there are a huge number of applicants.

[Tahtiassa]

An Area Sales Manager is a different thing, but Sales Manager is a title that many already have. Even for a basic-level worker at some point. It’s an easy way to give a title, but not much more salary. Although responsibilities at that point hardly increase much, e.g., Sales Coordinator → Sales Manager or similar. I personally think a Sales Manager’s salary is somewhere in the €2600 - €3100 range, depending on the location.

I personally feel that title has suffered from inflation. Of course, those telemarketing companies etc. places seem to hand out that title quite loosely, it seems to me.