Worth Your Weight in Gold? Know Your Bottom Line
“There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold And she’s buying the stairway to heaven.” – Led Zeppelin
Okay, let’s be honest, it’s all about money in the end. “No way” you say, “money is not the driving factor for me, it’s all about the experience”. So maybe that’s true, but unless you are independently wealthy, you still need money to pay the bills and put food on the table. After you find your job, the one that really motivates you, the money comes next. And, if you are like most people, you want to be paid what you’re worth. Most times, we are only worth what the market will bear. Unless we are so unique as to command an amazing salary (and if you were you would probably not be reading this article). So what are you worth? Do you know? Well you should know before you get the job offer. Some guides and salary search tools are included below. Like everything on the Internet these days, you could spend days (maybe weeks) researching salary. After a few trys at the firms listed below you should be able to get the basic information you need without spending days looking for it.
Start first with:
Salary Surveys & Guides:
- The 2009 IT Salary Guide – This survey provides the average salary by IT job category. Click on any of the 10 or so job functions to see a brief overview, the average salary range followed by how this job survey compares to compares from city to city. Best of all, the site has links to other resources which you will find useful.
- JobStar Salary Surveys – This link to surveys, from JobStar.org, provides links to over 300 salary surveys. They start with a very long list of career types, followed by a link to general salary surveys. You should be able to find your functional role from this list and get a rough idea of what your salary might be in this market.
- Salary Guides by Robert Half – Another great resource from RHI, there are links to industry / functional role specific surveys such as Legal, Technology, Finance & Accounting and Office Team (to name a few). Click the link that interests you and you are led to a page where you can sign-up for the surveys.
Salary Calculator and Wizards:
- Salary Calculator – One of many salary calculators (way to many to list here), this one is offered by homefair.com. Type in your title, put in your zip code and you are all set to go. Fairly generic, but should give you a rough indication.
- PayScale Salary Calculator – This one is from, you guessed it – PayScale.com. Same deal here – job title, city and state and off you go.
- Calculate Your Salary – This one is from our friends at Yahoo.com. In addition to the salary survey stuff, there are also articles on salary and benefits.
- Salary Comparison and Salary Calculator – The NY Times‘ version (hey, do you remember the commercials that said “I got my job through the NY Times classified”?) which has both a salary comparison and salary calculator. The right hand side of the screen also has a cost of living calculator which can come in handy if you are thinking of moving to another city or state.
Good luck in your search.
