What’s that job worth? Look before you leap
➔ The one question that looms largest for all job seekers who happen upon a possible opening is: How much? That is, how much does it pay?
Sure there are questions involving the organization’s culture, the job description, the responsibilities, the co-workers and the supervisor. As important as those are, “How much?” remains as the overriding issue.
Follow the money
So you found a job that interests you. How much does it pay? What is this job worth on the open market? There are a lot of ways to determine that. First, pay little, if any, attention to the job title. What’s really important is the job description and its responsibilities. What most people find is that there is a lot more discrepancy in pay among similar job titles, than there is among job responsibilities.
Chances are that you won’t find a single, hard number. What you are more likely to find is a range, or some sources may post it as an average. You may also find substantial differences in pay among corporate, non-profit, government and education employers. This is one area where a rose is not a rose.
Fortunately, in this – the Information Age, salary information can be found without too much difficulty. And much of it is online. You may try websites such as:
• CareerBuilder
• Glassdoor
• Indeed
• Monster
• Payscale.com
• Salary.com
That said, historically, salary was the dominant consideration for most jobs. Now, there are many more factors in the equation. In addition to dollars, one also must consider non-monetary factors such as: benefits, bonuses, vacation, education and/or professional development, etc.
So many questions and so little time.
Commentaires