Increase Your Salary: 10 Expert Tips
Determined to increase your salary? Follow these tips from Reesa Staten, vice president of communications and director of research at recruiting firm Robert Half International and Anna Ivey, a Boston-based career and admissions counselor, to increase your salary this year:
1. Get comfortable negotiating salary raises.
“Women fall behind here, because they generally aren’t as aggressive and fall farther and farther behind with their salaries. You can’t be shy about asking to be paid what you’re worth,” Ivey said. Along these lines, she said, it’s important to keep detailed documentation of your achievements.
2. Research and compare your salary.
Staten urges workers to make sure they know how much their skills are worth before they pursue a different position or a promotion. Compare your salary.
3. Become an indispensable expert.
Continue to learn about your line of work, so that you stay current with trends and developments. Your strategy might include going to industry conferences, reading industry publications or setting up regular lunch meetings with others in your field to exchange information and ideas. This is a key to increasing your salary.
4. Make yourself visible.
Network and mingle, making sure you are continually visible to others in your industry and your workplace. At work, take on difficult challenges and make sure that management is aware of your contributions.
5. Update your skills.
Consider training or certifications that could lead to a promotion. “In some companies, if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree, you can’t advance to the next level. Some jobs require an MBA; get as much education as possible,” Staten said. Search for online learning that could help increase your salary.
6. If you return to school, make sure that it will pay off.
Ivey said it’s important to investigate degree programs before launching into one that might not increase your salary — and could end up costing you more in the long-run. Also, find out what continuing education benefits are offered by your employer. You may be able to “earn more” by getting your employer to cover tuition costs. Research the best college degrees for higher earnings.
7. Absorb and adapt to new methods.
“Things are changing quickly; what is state of the art now will be obsolete 10 years from now,” Staten said. When things change at work instead of getting grumpy, be the first to jump on board. Your enthusiasm for change and adaptability to new systems and ideas are to how your employer values you and could lead to a salary increase.
8. Be receptive to criticism.
Constructive criticism can help you improve your performance, Ivey said. Not only is it important to be able to gracefully accept criticism from your coworkers and boss, but integrating that feedback into your work can win you points and opportunities for promotion.
9. Sharpen your communication skills.
“I don’t care what role you’re in. If you can read and speak well, you are way ahead of the pack,” Ivey said.
10. Get comfortable with math.
“A lot of people coast through college without number knowledge — just basic knowledge, like how to read a financial statement. We live in a Sarbanes-Oxley [SOX] now. If you work in a publicly traded company, you will be affected by SOX. Accounting is a great skill to have in your tool set,” Ivey said, referring to the federal law that tightened corporate governance standards.
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In: Careers, On The Job Advice · Tagged with: Admissions Counselor, Certifications, Compare Salary, Cowan, Degree Programs, Director Of Research, Expert Tips, Industry Conferences, Industry Publications, Ivey, Kristina, Lunch Meetings, Mba, Negotiating Salary, Next Level, Recruiting Firm, Robert Half International, Salaries, Salary Expert, Visible Network
Does Your Salary History Really Matter to a Future Employer?
Posted by Kristina Cowan
Your salary history tells an important story of how far you’ve come along a career path, so it’s fitting that a prospective employer might be interested in learning more about your past earnings. Yet it’s unfair to take a salary history at face value, because there are so often back-stories that need explaining.
Career experts say you should be prepared to discuss your salary history with a prospective employer, along with any back-stories. For example, if you changed careers and took a pay cut in the process, you’ll want to share that. Still you don’t want to put yourself at a disadvantage, so it’s important to tailor your approach to the circumstances.
Salary History: Irrelevant, Perhaps, But a Likely Topic During the Interview Process
Talking about your salary history probably won’t be the highlight of interviewing for a new job, but you do need to be prepared to tackle it. Here are a few tips to help get you off to a graceful start.
Your salary history may be irrelevant, but don’t be surprised if the topic arises.
Employers could ask about salary history, but it’s often irrelevant because it doesn’t relate to the job for which you’re applying, the market value for the open position, or what the market will bear, says Barbara Safani, president of New York-based Career Solvers, a career-management firm. But if a prior salary was below market value, you should be prepared to explain—maybe your company was struggling and froze salary increases, or you made a career change and took a pay cut. “Whatever the reason, the job seeker needs to be able to explain past salaries but also articulate what they are looking to be paid in the future based on their current market value,” Safani says.
Joyce Maynard, vice president of HR Xpress, a human-resources firm in Rhode Island, agrees. “What a candidate made before may or may not be relevant to the company or job they are applying for now. An interviewer will ask questions around salary history so the candidate has to be prepared to say, ‘I expect that if there was a salary offer it would be based on the requirements of this job.'”
Be flexible, and don’t forget important back-stories when it comes detailing your salary history.
It’s common for employers to request salary history during the application process, says Laura DeCarlo, president of Career Directors International, a professional association in Melbourne, Fla. DeCarlo recommends adding a line to the end of a cover letter, such as, “During the last several years my compensation has grown into the mid-$80K range. However, I am currently negotiable.”
She points out another potential back-story behind a salary history: changing locations. If you moved from Boston to Florida, for instance, and your pay was nearly cut in half, you need to explain that. It’s also important not to include starting and ending salaries for your past jobs, she notes, because that could limit you.
Focus on your competitive advantages when salary history is discussed.
Salary history comes up, says Dr. Rachelle J. Canter, author of “Make the Right Career Move: 28 Critical Insights and Strategies to Land Your Dream Job,” but it’s best to focus on your competitive advantages (experience and skills that make you valuable) for the job, so “prepare a couple of relevant anecdotes that showcase these competitive advantages, and dazzle the interviewer. Make them want you to increase your leverage in salary and job responsibility negotiations.”
- 7 Tips for Negotiating Your Salary in a Troubled Economy (PayScale for Yahoo)
- Good Example of How to Handle Salary Negotiations (Free Money Finance)
- Those Pesky Salary History Requests….. (The Career Channel)
- Advice on Salary Histories and Salary Requirements (The Career Doctor blog)
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In: Job Search Advice · Tagged with: Back Stories, Career Change, Career Experts, Career Management Firm, Career Path, Cowan, Current Market Value, Face Value, Highlight, Human Resources Firm, Interviewer, Interviewing For A New Job, Job Seeker, Joyce Maynard, Kristina, Open Position, Prospective Employer, Salaries, Salary History, Salary Increases
How to Handle Salary Requirements When Applying for a Job
Posted by Kristina Cowan
Job interviewing is like art: it requires skill, dexterity, and the right tools and environment. Make one wrong move and the result can be disastrous. This is especially true when it comes to discussing salary requirements. As a job-seeker, approaching a conversation with a prospective employer about salary requirements can be tricky.
How soon can you expect an employer to ask you about your salary requirements? Should you ever include salary requirements in a cover letter? How can you pick a salary that doesn’t aim too high or too low?
To find sage answers to these and other basic questions about salary requirements, I tapped several career experts for their wisdom.
The Ins and Outs of Salary Requirements
Question: When interviewing for a new job, what are some basic principles job-seekers should keep in mind about their salary requirements?
Answers: “Salary requirements should be based on the market value for a particular skill set or job … not on the job seeker’s needs or desires,” says Barbara Safani, president of New York-based Career Solvers, a career-management firm. You should be flexible, too, knowing much can transpire during the time when a job is first posted and when it’s filled, she explains. “If a position seems perfect for you, but the salary is lower than you had hoped for, go through the interview process and sell your value to the hiring manager throughout. Once a hiring manager decides that you are the right candidate, they will be more willing to negotiate salary.”
Dr. Rachelle J. Canter, author of “Make the Right Career Move: 28 Critical Insights and Strategies to Land Your Dream Job,” urges job-seekers to focus not just on salary requirements, but on opportunity. To that end, she advises asking yourself some key questions, such as:
- Will this job provide you with crucial experiences, skills, and accomplishments that you need to attain your dream job eventually?
- Will it fill in critical gaps in your industry or job experience?
- Will it give you visibility with an audience you previously were unknown to?
Question: Should job-seekers mention salary requirements in cover letters?
Answer: “No no no-–salary is a way to screen you out (too high or too low), and you want a chance to look over a prospective employer before being eliminated,” Canter explains.
Question: Should job-seekers give an exact salary figure, or a salary range?
Answers: If you have to, give a range for your salary requirements, Canter says, but try to stay focused on whether the job is the right fit.”Once an employer falls in love with you, your negotiating power increases exponentially,” she says.
Safani also recommends a range instead of a specific number, because it gives you wiggle room once you get to the salary negotiation stage.
Question: How soon during the interviewing process can a job-seeker expect the salary requirement conversation to come up?
Answer: It could arise as soon as the first interview, so you need to know your competitive market value before you start interviewing, Safani says. You can try deferring the conversation by saying you’d like to learn more about the job, so you can gauge whether it’s a good match before rolling out your salary requirements. If an employer presses you for a “ballpark figure,” ask for the salary range of the job, Safani says; if they won’t divulge it, say based on your research, you’ve found that pay for such positions is “between X and Y,” and ask if that’s consistent with their range.
Question: How do you determine what your salary requirements should be, so you’re not aiming too high or low?
Answer: “Job seekers should benchmark their market value by talking with recruiters and colleagues, researching salary ranges for comparable positions on the job boards, reviewing salary information available through professional associations, and of course reviewing information on PayScale,” according to Safani.
Questions: What if a prospective employer asks to verify your current salary with your current employer? What if this jeopardizes your current position?
Answer: “Until there is an offer on the table, this question should not come up. Once an offer is made, this is considered fair game as part of the due diligence process for some employers,” Safani says. “Job seekers can politely explain that if an offer is extended, they would be willing to have their salary information verified.”
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In: Job Search Advice · Tagged with: Basic Questions, Canter, Career Experts, Career Management Firm, Career Move, Cover Letter, Cowan, Critical Insights, Dexterity, Dream Job, Hiring Manager, Interviewing For A New Job, Job Interviewing, Job Seeker, Job Seekers, Prospective Employer, Rachelle, Right Tools, Salary Requirements, Skill Set
