Know Your Market Value

One of the key pieces of information you must have before any salary negotiation is your market value. Determining your market value is not as difficult as you might think, but it does require some effort and research on your part.

Research job listings

The first stop for researching your market value is to research job listings. The idea here is to find listings for comparable jobs in the specific market you are considering. There are many, many good online sources of job listings that allow you to quickly and easily search for comparable positions in the market. But don't stop there; you should also gather job listings from the newspaper(s) and business journal(s) that are local to the area you are considering. Obtain several different issues of each publication, because if you stop with just one issue you will not get a complete view of the job listings in the area.

Read industry journals and publications

Most professions have industry journals and other publications that you can access and read. These are good sources of information on current trends in your chosen field, and they nearly always have job listings as well as job market information. Most industry publications do some sort of salary survey at some point each year, often collaborating with professional associations to gather and prepare the statistics.

Research salary studies

There are a number of sources where you can access salary studies. These reports provide a wealth of information across many different professions and market areas. You can find very specific salary information for a specific job position in the specific city or region you are considering. There are online sites (such as www.salary.com , www.salaryreview.com , and www.wageweb.com ) that are exceptionally easy to search and uncover key information. It is also quite common for local economic development agencies and/or Chambers of Commerce to conduct periodic salary studies that they make available to interested parties.

Compare the marketplace to your qualifications

Once you have gathered appropriate salary information for the job position and specific area you are considering, it is time to compare your own qualifications to your findings. Use your resume as a starting point, pulling out specific skills and accomplishments that will benefit an employer. Add any new skills that you also want to highlight, and use this information to compare your professional profile to the salary information and profiles you found during the research. This should give you a good range of salary potential to consider.

Another helpful tool

If you are considering relocation to a different city or region, it is quite helpful to use a relocation salary estimator. There are many such calculators on the web, some of which have national information and others of which are specific to particular regions or areas. Do a simple web search to find one that is appropriate for your needs, or check with the Chamber of Commerce in the area you are considering to see if they have one specific to their location.

Click here to go to the next salary article - Evaluating The Job Market