What’s Your Worth
In your job search, it is essential that you know what you are worth before a prospective employer asks. While they may not come right out and ask, what do you think you’re worth, they will ask about your salary range.
Doing a self-assessment will not only prepare you to establish your worth, but it will also help in developing a winning resume.
Step One – Knowledge & Skills
The first step in conducting your self-assessment is writing down your skills. Include those you gained volunteering or from non-traditional courses you’ve completed. This will be essentially a laundry list of abilities you’ve developed over the years. Don’t worry about refining the list at this point that will be done later.
Step Two - Achievements
The second step focuses on the abilities you will bring to the organization by capturing the impact/results of your work at other businesses. Here you’re focused on things like; increasing sales/profits, increasing customer base, expanding organization reach, innovative ideas that delivered positive results, and awards/recognition such as salesperson of the quarter/year.
Step Three - Market Research
This step is the most overlooked facet in the job search process; it can have the most devastating impact. Consider you are talking with a hiring manager and they ask, what’s your salary range. Since you didn’t do any research your range is 40 to 50 thousand below what is considered reasonable for that market. You may appear either underqualified or desperate.
Using the internet you are able to quickly conduct market research using a variety of resources like; LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, or Career Builder. This allows you to see an actual job posting for what hiring managers are looking for in potential candidates. A few of the resources like Glassdoor include salary information.
Step Four - Conduct Analysis
Now you’ve conducted the market research it’s time to determine how your skills compare to those being sought for the job you are seeking. It’s critical to consider transferrable skills. For example, the employer is looking for experience using SAP ERP, but you’ve used Oracle Supply Chain Management ERP. Even if you don’t have the skill all isn’t a loss as many hiring managers focus on a candidate’s fit in the potential workplace, rather than solely abilities. It’s understood that no matter a candidate’s experience there will be a learning curve for someone stepping into a new position.
Step Five – Establish Your Worth
After reviewing all the information, you can establish what you believe you are worth. It’s important to remember that your worth can change based on the location where you are seeking employment. Self-worth is established by comparing your skills and abilities to those required in the field you are seeking employment. Then consider how much your achievements will put you above peers applying for that position.
Never undervalue yourself as a means of getting your foot in the door, it is much easier to negotiate a higher salary coming in the door than it is to negotiate a meaningful jump as an employee.