Hey Pythonista,

It's interesting to me how unwilling we are to back ourselves when it comes to negotiating price (our worth).

I was chatting with an ex-colleague last week who was telling me about their salary negotiation going into a new job. Even after their many years as a senior leader, it was still daunting asking for the money they wanted.

I'm no different. I still often get this feeling like I'm inconveniencing the other party when I give them a dollar figure for my services, my requested salary, or other.

Imposter syndrome comes to mind, but I'm sure there are many reasons why so many of us fall into this gap.

What we need to do is recognise our accumulated worth.

When we do things for other people, they're paying for the sum of our experiences not just the task we're completing in the moment.

I'm sure you've heard of this lesson in some form before:

The engineer who comes out, tightens one bolt and charges $5000 for their time.

When questioned why the steep charge, they reply that they're charging not just for the act of tightening the bolt, but the countless hours and many years of experience that led to them knowing it was that specific bolt that needed to be tightened.

The same can be said for us techies and coders:

• The other day we wanted to make some backend changes on the Pybites Platform. Bob had it implemented in a couple of hours.

• Two weeks ago, a friend was struggling to get a device in their office working. It would have taken them hours to figure it out. I had it up and running with 1 network cable and 3 minutes on site.

In both scenarios, it was our years of experience that led to the quick fix/turnaround.

That is how you justify asking for the higher salary.

So next time you're in a job interview, pricing your product, quoting for a service, or discussing a pay rise, remember to factor in your years of study, work, experience and growth!

Have a great week.

Julian

P.S. This is also why our coaching is so valuable. You're getting access to our many years of expertise as Python Developers and professionals. If you want to chat about it, come send myself and Bob a DM in our community!