INTERVIEWER: "You’ve been at the firm for 7 years and brought in $3.2M in revenue this year. Why are you resigning?"
EMPLOYEE: "My annual performance review gave me a 3.2% merit raise."
INTERVIEWER: "A 3.2% raise on a $95,000 base salary is over $3,000 extra a year. That’s standard for top performers."
EMPLOYEE: "Real inflation on housing, health insurance, and groceries was 7.4% this year. You didn't give me a raise, you asked me to take a 4.2% pay cut for generating record revenue."
INTERVIEWER: "We can’t break equity bands for one senior associate."
EMPLOYEE: "Your recruiting division just listed my open role with a target hiring range of $125,000 to $140,000 to attract outside talent."
INTERVIEWER: "That's just the current market rate for new hires."
EMPLOYEE: "So you have a $30,000 budget to hire a replacement who doesn't know the portfolio, but zero budget to retain the person who built it."