Want a salary hike? Ex-Meta, Microsoft HR executive reveals 'the best time to ask for raise​'

People usually believe the best times to negotiate their salary is during a job interview or during an appraisal, but they’re not the only acceptable checkpoints to bring up a hike in salary with the manager, says career strategist Maddie Machado. She has been a recruiter for 10 years and has who has worked as a recruiter with Meta, Microsoft, and LinkedIn.

“You don’t have to wait until promotion cycles or merit increase cycles to ask for more money,” Machado tells CNBC Make It. “There’s never a wrong time” to discuss salary with the manager or the HR, she adds. “This is your money, and every week you wait to have the conversation is a week you’re getting a few hundred dollars less than what you could be getting paid.”

To explain further, Machado says that companies never hesitate to negotiate contracts with other vendors or clients. It works the same way with employees. She also shared that once she informed her boss that she wanted to revisit her pay and got an offer of 10 percent raise without even having to negotiate.

"The best time to ask for a raise, then, is when you’re prepared to make a strong case for it based on your contributions and performance," Machado tells CNBC Make It.

She also shared a few pointers to help professionals approach the topic with their managers.

"Your raise conversation should start off with the value you’ve contributed to your team and employer," Machado says adding that she learned this from a former boss, a director of HR. When Machado brought up the issue of revisiting her salary, she was advised to “go home and write down every project you’ve done, process you’ve improved, and anything you’ve done to save the company time, save the company money, or make the company money.”

Another way to look at it would be preparing a list of the things the employee has been doing for the company and the things that wouldn’t have gotten done or wouldn’t have gotten done as well had the employee not been there, she explains.

Machado also points out that it's important for employees to keep track of their achievements throughout the year so that they can be used when asking for a salary raise.

Read more: Don't want your boss's job? It may be time for you to quit, says expert