Page 293 - Marky Stein - Get a Great Job When You Don't Have a Job-McGraw-Hill (2009)

Get a Great Job When You Don’t Have a Job

2. Clarify what qualifies you to make more than average
and more than the employer’s initial offer.
3. Determine your target salary and benefits.
4. Forecast how long you are willing to wait until the negoti-
ation resolves in your favor.

I want to see you get every penny and every advantage that
you deserve. To accomplish that, let’s take a closer look at each
bargaining factor.

1. Know the relative worth for your position in the market-
place. It is helpful—especially if you happen to be entering a
new field, going from a very small to very large company, or
making a significant geographic shift—to get a ballpark salary
figure for a position. Do some research to determine what, sta-
tistically, is a low, mid, and high salary range for a particular
position. At no point should you confuse this ballpark figure for
the actual sum you’ll settle for. You should use this only as a
broad guideline.
There are a couple of quick and handy ways to estimate what
a reasonable range for your position might be. One is the do-it-
yourself method, and another is to let a professional salary ser-
vice do the work. If you would like to research your salary range
and your probable benefits yourself, I suggest these free Web
sites and links on the Internet:

http://www.salary.com

http://www.salaryexpert.com
http://www.jobsmart.org

http://www.bls.gov/oco/

If you’d prefer to have a professional service research your salary
for a fee, I would recommend these companies:

Pinpoint Salary Services, http://members.aol.com/payraises/
pinpoint.html
Personal Salary Report, http://www.salary.com

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