Posts Tagged ‘career’
How to Negotiate a Salary
Money, can’t live with it, can’t live without it. Salaries shouldn’t be important when it comes to accepting a job offer you really want, but unfortunately, we need money (and lots of it these days) to get by. Between rent, buying a new professional wardrobe for said job, phone bills, food, and other expenses, your paycheck will go down the drain fast. An important skill to have when entering the job market is knowing how to negotiate your salary, so both you and your boss are satisfied and you don’t end up living in your cubicle.
The first step is self-evaluation. This part is tricky because you have to get a sense of what you are worth—and no, this doesn’t include all the chores you did around the house as a kid or what a good person you are. You need to think of your skill set and what you can bring to the company you’re working for. This is more than just considering if you can do the job—you got the job, so hopefully you can. It’s about progress in your field, striving to do better, making recommendations and if you’re willing to go beyond the work requirements. Professionals recommend that you keep track of your progression, making a file of your best work and any recognition you receive. If you really have no idea how to begin to consider what you are worth, there are even websites like PayScale and Vault that will determine a reasonable salary for you based on the company, your location, and other factors. You should also talk to colleagues and people in similar job positions elsewhere to get an idea what an average salary for your work looks like. Ultimately, doing your job, doing it well and going beyond what you have to do will give you more leeway in your negotiation.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is to not walk into the job offer with big money signs going off in your head. Consider yourself lucky to have a job in this economy, and don’t expect a certain salary just because you used to make it with your own company or it’s the amount you want to make. Don’t suggest a salary to your employer before they even lay an offer on the table. Your new employers don’t even need to know what you used to make, though sometimes they’ll ask for a range. Since salaries can be a touchy subject, try to keep this conversation for the post job offer period. When they propose a salary to you, think of all the research you did ahead of time. Consider your worth, what others are making and compare the marks. If it’s close to what you expected, congrats! You got a job and you don’t have to sweat through some awkwardness of negotiating. If it’s too low, it’s time to get polite and reasonable.
Discuss with your employer the work you did before the job offer. Convince them of your worth and why you are worthy of such an amount. It will also help to tie in your knowledge of what other people are making in a similar job position. A lot of people are afraid to negotiate because they think they’ll come off as rude or too aggressive. It might feel awkward at first, but being assertive isn’t necessarily bad as long as you speak to your employer politely and don’t get too demanding. Negotiating will not lose the job—unless you’re completely unrealistic or rude to an extreme. Keep in mind, not all companies will be able to up your pay simply because they don’t have the means. In this case, ask your boss about the potential for raise evaluations when possible or the opportunity for bonuses. Don’t automatically assume you can’t take the position because there isn’t enough money in it for you—unless there is absolutely no way you can live off of the offered salary.
The best thing you can do in approaching your boss to discuss a salary is to be honest with yourself and with them. If you know you deserve more than you’re making, don’t be afraid to speak up and show off all the hard work you have done for the company or what you are capable of doing. Be realistic about what you think you should be making and what the company can afford to pay you. Further, even if your salary itself can’t be made, ask about bonuses or later raises with evaluations that can boost you to the amount of dough you always wanted and more.
Good luck and may the best negotiator…have lots of money!
-ToonyToon
Unorthdox Gigs to Get You Through College and Beyond
College graduates are coming up on an unforgiving economy and a Congress that screams SOCIALISM, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!! and plays possum every time legislation comes up for safety nets for the young, struggling startups like you and I (a little help, please??).
That's a sweet bridge. Look for large support structures to shield from gusty winter winds.
The facts are—adapt or die. I mean, not literally. You could live under a bridge. My suggestion: think outside of the box when it comes to acquiring skills and experience you’ll need for your career. Everyone’s waiting tables and applying to the same internships—the right question to be asking is what can you do to stand out?
When I was kicked out of school a few years ago for failing grades my dad said “don’t come home” which was crazy at the time. I was 18-years-old, had only worked at Chili’s as a hostess and Pitti’s Pizza as a delivery driver. I wasn’t exactly in high demand, and I owed Princeton a lot of money to come back the next year. I did what any normal 18-year-old would do and hightailed my butt down to KY to ride racehorses. I had only had informal experience riding horses but the training was on-the-job and once I broke into the industry I knew I’d be set. And I was. I waited tables for a while but wound up riding and training thoroughbreds for three years and at the end of it, here I am back in school but with a wealth of knowledge to bring to my next position (and a fat wallet—I was making upwards of $30/hr, sometimes more). You get perseverance, dedication, and a good work ethic. I learned how to deal with problems on my own (no Human Resources on the racetrack)… you get the picture.
You have more options than the typical barista gig, serving job, Abercrombie & Fitch or the elusive office internship. Furthermore, and this is huge, it will give you a cushion when you leave school, hopefully giving you greater leeway to wait for the right job (as a rule of thumb, a year is the average time it takes to find the right job out of college) while working at a place or learning a trade that has room for growth. Consider also that most of your fellow classmates are waiting tables. Employers have seen the same old b.s. bullet points under “Server/Bartender at Buddy’s Bar”. It’s not exciting, it’s vanilla, and it’s too comfortable. Of college graduates who don’t get jobs, the majority stay at their serving job or barista job.
Job #1 that will get you through college and beyond:
Personal Training: A member of Payscale’s 20 jobs that pay over $20 an hour list.
Let’s break down the job and certification here:
Depending on where you work, you can recruit and manage your own clients, as well as run your own business. Some gyms allow their personal trainers to ‘freelance.’ The trainer pays a fee to the gym for the use of their equipment and space, but everything else goes directly into the trainer’s pocket. At other places, you will be paid by the gym to train their clients. This usually shakes out worse for the trainer per hour but you’re responsible for less bookkeeping (a plus or minus depending on your schedule).
For $400, you can get an ACE certification, plus your exam fee is covered. In a Mid-Western Town, with only ACE credentials, you can expect:
Average Pay: $11.72/hr
With more certifications, and certainly in areas where the job is more in demand, the median pay range is $20.08 – $27.55
I have a few friends who are personal trainers and they adore their jobs. They meet lots of cool, interesting people and they make changes in people’s lives.
Job #2 that will get you through college and beyond:
Construction: Two unskilled construction jobs make Payscale’s 20 jobs that pay over $20 an hour. Ladies, when I type into google ‘female construction worker’ it autofills ‘costumes.’ That’s pretty insulting considering men are not inherently better carpet installers or drywall finishers. Yet they have a corner on the market. According to the December 2011 Bureau of Labor Statistics Report, construction is coming out of a long industry-wide depression—people are building again! No degree necessary, you get on-the-job training, which means BOOYAH! your training is paid for by the company.
It’s unorthodox advice, but consider that graduates fresh out of college have a reputation for being undisciplined, not ready for the working world and soft. (adult babies, basically, who need to be potty-trained in the business world). A consortium held by hiring managers found that the three most important (and lacking!) skills in recent graduates are: Work Ethic, Teamwork/Collaboration and Oral Communications. All things you can’t help but pick up while doing manual labor jobs (if you don’t want a hammer dropped on your head). Working in an office isn’t the only place you can pick up skills that make you more valuable to employers, and it beats the heck out of the $7/hr you’ll make at the G A P.
Construction Project Managers make upwards of $100,000 a year and most of them are terrible. Of all the industries that rely on contract-work, construction ranks worst. Most of them get paid obscenely well for doing their job at a mediocre level. Think you can do better? Start climbing that ladder–get out there and show em!
Job #3 to get you though college and beyond:
Blogging is a great way to make money while you’re attending school but you didn’t think I’d tell you all my secrets, did you?
-Wonderbread
I’m reading Essentials of Biology
Why Internships Are Vital
Each year, millions of students graduate college with a bright future in mind, knowing that they have taken the first major step in finding a lifelong career. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will find that career in the next month or even the next year. A recent article published by USA Today stated that unemployment for college graduates is at its highest point since 1970. At the beginning of 2011, the Jobless rate for college grads was right around 5.1%. In that same time frame, there were 2.4 million people who were unemployed but had earned their bachelors degree or higher.
Things don’t seem very promising for people (like me) who are in their final semester of college. However, it’s important to understand that the unemployment rate of college graduates is less than half of the unemployment rate of non-graduates, which is currently hovering around 10%. Students who graduate with a Master’s degree or Doctoral degree aren’t immune to this phenomenon. According to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, In August 2011, 4.6% of graduates age 25 and up with a Bachelor’s degree or higher are unemployed. The fact that the group is made up of people ages 25 and up signals that most of that group completed or are currently working on post-graduate studies.
In today’s competitive job market, it’s particularly important to complete an internship or even more than one. Internships offer many benefits, such as experience, knowledge in a certain field of study, and meeting professionals in your industry. Not to mention that if you prove yourself at your internship, you could be offered a full-time job. If nothing else, you will more than likely find references who can help you take your next step forward on your career path, whatever that might be.
Some Internship’s are unpaid, however whether paid or unpaid, they provide essential knowledge and experience, and contacts to add to your resume. Interns provide a company with fresh faces, prepared to do any kind of work and do it right. Some majors require internships as a graduation requirement, which is a good thing if you ask me. It can’t hurt a student or recent graduate to gain valuable working skills and experience, while along the way meeting professionals who play a fundamental role in a workplace community.
The bottom line here is that Internships are a way for young people to get their foot in the door in an industry. They are a good way to provide young graduates and soon-to-be graduates with the things necessary for finding a job in these tough economic times.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2010-12-06-collegegrads06_ST_N.htm
Alabaster
I’m reading New Perspectives on Microsoft Office 2010