Salary Increases: Changing Jobs for More Money

Salary Increases: Some people recommend changing jobs every few years solely for an increase in base pay. The benefits could make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars.

Most companies give pay raises of three percent. On the other hand, in changing jobs, you could see salary increases of 10 to 15 percent. Additionally, when you change jobs and move into a job with greater responsible, you could see even greater increases in your salary.

Immediate Gains of Salary Increases

Increases in salary have a compounding impact in your income. At 12% for each job change, your salary increases look like this example.

Current Salary: $50,000
First Job Change: $50,000 + 12% = $56,000
Second Job Change: $56,000 + 12% = $62,720
Third Job Change: $62,720 + 12% = $70,246

Longer-term Gains of Salary Increases

Another powerful reason for changing jobs for salary is that, as your salary grows, the amount of your pay raises increase. In other words, changing jobs for more money not only gives you a short-term boost in income; the change affects your long-term increases. Here are two examples for comparison. In both cases, I used 3% increases you might expect at your current employer.

Base Salary: $50,000 plus 3% pay raises

  • Starting Salary: $50,000
  • First Raise: $51,500
  • Second Raise: $53,045
  • Third Raise: $54,636
  • Fourth Raise: $56,275
  • ($50,000 + $51,500 + $53,045 + $54,636 + $56,275 = $265, 456)

However, with a salary of $70,246, your 3% annual increases would look like these examples.

  • Starting Salary: $70,246
  • First Raise: $72,353
  • Second Raise: $74,524
  • Third Raise: $76,760
  • Fourth Raise: $79,063
  • ($70,246 + $72,353 + $74,524 + $76,760 + $79,063 = $372,946 )

Negotiating higher starting salaries can also have a huge impact on your earnings.

Published
Categorized as Negotiation

Counteroffers: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

Job counteroffers are ways companies avoid losing employees at the wrong time. ~ www.jaywren.com

Counteroffers

When you resign, should you consider a counteroffer? You have packed your bags. You are ready to walk out the door. Then, your boss tries to convince stay.

Before you resign, prepare to deal with a counteroffer. You may never know when one is coming. Anticipating a counteroffer is smart. Preparing for a counteroffer even smarter. Like buying a car, dealing with a counteroffer can be a negotiation. The car salesman may try to close the sale on the features of the car. On the other hand, the salesman may be willing to sweeten the deal. More money, better working conditions, greater responsibility, or promising other changes to keep you with the company.

Pressure

Additionally, you may find the negotiations stressful. The easiest thing might be to say “I quit!” Then just walk out the door. On the other hand, as I discuss later, you may want to make a graceful exit and not destroy relationships. In this case, you will need to hear your boss out and ask for time to give a response.

During this time, you can get advice on how to handle to counteroffer. You can compare the counteroffer to the reasons you want to leave in the first place. You can consider how comfortable you will be staying at a company where you just resigned.

Risky Negotiations

There are risks in negotiating a better deal. There can be greater risks in staying with a company. You have shown yourself disloyal. Moreover, if you negotiate a better deal for yourself, remember that your boss will have to live with that deal. Maybe you will be happy, but your boss may find that the newly negotiated deal doesn’t look and feel so great as time passes. Did you get more money in the deal? Did you get a promotion? Did you get shorter hours? Your boss will have to live with these concessions.

Needs of the Company

Company hire people to fill work needs. When those needs decline, there is no reason to keep employees who aren’t needed.  At that point, well run companies fire people.

This issue goes to the heart of a counteroffer. Companies make counteroffers the company cannot afford to lose at that time. As you go through you a counteroffer, you may begin to think of making a decision with a company for the rest of your career. You see yourself as a member of a team or a family. Your boss may even frame the counteroffer as a personal matter. Your absence will be a personal loss to the company.

However, remember that people work at the pleasure and need of the employer. You may have friends at that company. Your boss may be your friend. But the issue of your employment is more than personal. It is financial and has lifetime impacts on your career and your security.

Summary

A company prefers to lose people based on the company’s timing. This concept is easy enough to understand if you follow sports. Some players are valuable in the middle of the season. They are trained and they know the playbook. When the season ends, the value of players value declines. The best teams evaluate even the greatest players on the value they will bring the team for the next week or next season. After all, perhaps much to their regret, the Red Sox sold the contract of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

Therefore, when you are considering a counteroffer, be selfish. Act in your best interest. Companies can always find other employees, but you only have one career.

Resigning Gracefully: The Do’s and Don’ts of Leaving a Company

A former employer is a future reference. Leave them with a smile. www.jaywren.com

Resigning Gracefully: When you’re leaving a company, knowing how to say goodbye gracefully is important. Using the following steps will reduce the stress for you and avoid burning bridges with the company you are leaving.

Review You Decision

Before resigning, once again weigh the pros and cons of leaving your current company. This review will help you ensure that you are making the correct decision. Moreover, reviewing your decision will help you think your way through discussions in your exit interview.

Once you have assured yourself that you are committed to leaving, give the company two weeks’ notice. Two weeks’ notice is common courtesy. It most cases, a company expects no more than two weeks’ notice.

Remove Your Personal Property

Also, before you resign, remove your personal property from your workplace and delete your personal files from the company computers. You do not want to have your company holding your property until someone gets around to doing an inventory of what belongs to you and what belongs to your employer.

When you go into an exit interview, bring the company property: for example, keys to a company car, company laptop, mobile phone, etc. Since you have already recovered all your property, put the burden on your employer to give you an inventory of any other property they believe that you need to return.

Additionally, having your personal property in hand will make things simpler if your company decides to walk you out the door during your exit interview.

Exit Interview

Prepare for the things to do in the exit interview.

When they are preparing you leave your current company, there are benefits to attending and even excelling in the way you handle your exit interview.

Whether you are going through an exit interview with your supervisor or an HR person does not matter. Remember that the person who is conducting the interview is simply doing their job. Whether you like the way they handle the exit interview, they are human beings. There is no benefit to you for being rude or disrespectful.

As I said in the first paragraph, somewhere down the road, you may need the people involved in your exit interview to help you find you as a reference.

Firm but Positive

You should remain positive firm that you are leaving. Allow the interviewers to express their point of view. When they have finished, simply tell them that your decision to leave is final.

Politely explain that it is time for you to move on. Thank your employers for the support they have given you.

Financial Details

Do prepare for questions that you have about compensation and benefits you receive when leaving: unpaid vacation time, unpaid bonuses, and unpaid salary. Your company should explain to you what money you have coming and when they will pay you.

Furthermore, know the questions you need answering in transitioning or continuing your health benefits after you leave the company.

Continuation of Health Coverage

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) generally requires that group health plans sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year offer employees and their families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage (called continuation coverage) in certain instances where coverage under the plan would otherwise end.

COBRA outlines how employees and family members may elect continuation coverage. It also requires employers and plans to provide notice. (http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm)”

Don’t Discuss Your New Job

Don’t say where you are going to work or how much money your new employer is paying. Avoid giving any details about the function of the new job or your capacity in the new job. The information about your new job is confidential information between you and your new employer.

Published
Categorized as Success

Wrongful Termination: You’re Fired. Now What?

Wrongful termination is a legal issue. I am not a lawyer (IANAL).

I read questions on Internet forums every day. Often these questions are about handling termination situations. A Company fires a person. The person goes on the Internet to get advice on suing the company that fired them.

The people responding with advice don’t always give their qualifications. Some state that they have so many years of experience in management. Others state that they have so many years of experience in human resources. These people are just responding with their feelings or opinions or examples. But if they are not an attorney, I suggest that you not use input from forums to make decisions about claims of wrongful termination.

However, pursuing a settlement in the courts for wrongful termination is a legal matter and is often a complex legal matter. You may want to research the costs and commitments of working with an attorney. This page on the CONSUMER PROTECTION DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (https://www.justice.gov/jm/jm-4-8000-consumer-protection) may help you with your research.

Additionally, before you threaten to sue your employer, I recommend that you get legal advice from an attorney.
Legal Issues for Wrongful Termination

There is no single law for matters relating to termination. Employment laws vary from state to state. In some states, companies can require employees to agree not to go to work for a competitor. These contracts usually limit the agreement for a certain amount of time after leaving a company. Some states do not allow companies to impose non-compete restriction on employees. Before signing that type of agreement, research the legality of that agreement in terms of the contract and in terms of your location.

In conclusion, I do not recommend that you act solely on the advice from an Internet forum. At the same time, you can learn a great deal about the best thing to do when you believe that your employer has violated your rights. You have rights. Your employer has rights. Act intelligently in respecting the rights of your employers while protecting your rights of employment.

8 Priorities for Starting a New Job

Starting a New Job

The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

Seize upon small wins. You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enable you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss. Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships. Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down. Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step. The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge. Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas. A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was a great as a month of sales the rest of the year.

Prioritize tasks. Before starting each day, make a list of five things you want to accomplish that day.

Published
Categorized as Success

Job Search Keywords and Refinements

Keywords and Refinements: Search engines are like people in that they are more effective when they can understand what you are asking them to do. ~ www.jaywren.com

Making your job search more effective, using search engines.  Search engines return resumes based on keywords.

Keywords and Refinements

Start your internet search with job title, company, or other keywords, and preferred location.

Keyword and location are excellent starting points for your job search in a job search website. Other keywords might include might be phrases like these:

  • Best companies in [name of city]
  • Jobs in [name of city]
  • All companies in [name of city]
  • Name of job skills in [name of city].

Add refinements or filters. Google for Jobs and SimplyHired offer refinements for things like job category or industry. Indeed.com offers refinements in the sidebar for compensation, job type, and a few other refinements.

Browser Tip

A helpful tip is to open the job listing links in a separate tab or separate window. By using that technique, you will be able to work your way through the search results without having to re-enter you search.

Additional Keywords for Your Internet Job Search

Environmental, Geographic, Geological Skills

  • Archeologist
  • Cartographer
  • Conservationist
  • Ecologist
  • Environmentalist
  • Geographic Information Systems
  • Oil and Gas Explorers
  • Surveyor

Hands Skills

  • Barber
  • Beautician
  • Carpenter
  • Cook
  • Cosmetologist
  • Electrician
  • Mechanic
  • Plumber
  • Truck driver
  • Welder

Helping Skills

  • Child Care Provider
  • Counselor
  • Hygienist
  • Librarian
  • Nurse
  • Nutritionist
  • Paramedic
  • Teacher
  • Therapist
  • Trainer

Math, Science, Research Skills

  • Accountant
  • Assessor
  • Architect
  • Astronaut
  • Biologist
  • Chemist
  • Chiropractor
  • Computer Developer, Programmer
  • Doctor
  • Engineer
  • Financial Advisor
  • Geneticist
  • Investigator
  • Meteorologist
  • Pharmacist
  • Scientist
  • Statistician
  • Systems Analyst
  • Veterinarian

Negotiation Skills

  • Agent
  • Broker
  • Insurance
  • Lawyer
  • Salesperson

Leadership Skills

  • Coach
  • Editor
  • Insurance
  • Lawyer
  • Manager
  • Pilot
  • Politician
  • Producer

Large Team Skills

  • Firefighter
  • Police
  • Military

Creative, Design, Performing Skills

  • Advertising Executive
  • Chef
  • Designer
  • Marketer
  • Performer (Actor, Actress, Musician, Singer, Songwriter)
  • Photographer

Language Skills

  • News Reporter
  • Translator
  • Writer

Conclusion

On the Internet, everything is easier to find when you know where to look. And knowing where to look starts with keywords and refinements. 

Published
Categorized as Success

Lifetime Career Success Requires the Power to Grow

Lifetime Career Success: Building a successful career is a continual process of expanding your skills and your network. Don’t fear change. Embrace it.

Move beyond your comfort zone. Self-doubt is a sign that I am growing. With growth, I gain greater confidence and marketability.

The Texas Ice Houses

At one time, ice houses sold one thing: ice. People who could afford them, had cabinet ice boxes that held large blocks of house.  With the invention of the refrigerator, the need to buy ice for the ice box disappeared. In most cases, these ice houses disappeared. However, in Texas, some ice houses survived the changed. They became open air public gathering places where people could sit and have cold drinks and salty snacks. Many offered sandwiches and burgers.

In my career as a recruiter, I saw rapid changes in my industry. Through mergers and acquisitions, an industry that once had thousands of companies evolved into an industry that had fewer and yet larger companies.

However, advances in technology created new potential clients with companies in marketing services and market research. I responded with an increase in my focus to these new companies.

Starting and Evolving

The first day that I sat down to start my career as a recruiter, I had no contacts. I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards.

On the other hand, my client base continued to broaden to include companies that you might consider for your career. Here are segments of industry where I recruited.

Marketing Services and Market Research Companies, Adult Beverage Companies, Soft Drink Companies, Food Products companies, Confection Companies, Household Products Companies, Cosmetics Companies, Food Brokerage Companies, Personal Care Products Companies, Natural Foods Products, Personal Products Companies, Apparel Companies, Photographic Products Companies, Battery Companies, Power and Hand Tools Companies, Yard and Garden Companies, Over the Counter Pharmaceutical Companies, Snack Foods Companies, Cosmetic Companies, Snack Foods Companies

Lifetime Career Success

To stay in business, I had to continue to grow with new clients and new candidates who had different skills.

Yes, companies still come and go. People come and go, often into other industries and, sometimes, smaller jobs. Processes change. However, people who build new skills and expand their relationships will build security.

Mental Strengths: Aligning Your Career to the Way You Think

Mental Strengths: Some people are stronger at solving problems with one correct answer. They are convergent thinkers. Other people are stronger at solving problems with multiple solutions. They are divergent thinkers.

Aligning your career with the way your brain works will increase your ability to excel in the workplace. How can you shape your career around the way you think? Here are some ideas that may help you understand your strengths and weaknesses.

Mental Strengths

What Kind of Solutions Come to You More Easily?
To understand how your brain works, consider these two types of problem solving.

Convergent Thinking
Some people have terrific skills for solving problems that have only one answer.
2 + 2 =?
The specific answer is 4.

When people solve this type of problem, they are using convergent intelligence. Their reasoning converges or comes together to settle on this one answer. Their mental strengths can give them happier lives and more successful careers by working in roles that require convergent thinking.

Divergent Thinking

Divergent thinking skills enable people to see multiple solutions to the same problem. For example, many people climb a mountain by following a well-marked, well known path. This is the path most people know and the only path that most people take.

However, other people see multiple paths for climbing the same mountain. These people not only discover new paths. Their discoveries may help other people find ways of doing the same thing in new and more interesting ways.

Their mental strengths can give them happier lives and more successful careers by working in roles that require divergent thinking.

What Type of Problems Do You Like to Solve?

If you like to solve problems with convergent thinking, developing careers for solving those types of problems should be enjoyable for you.

Nearly every industry needs convergent thinkers. Whether you are an English teacher grading papers or an engineer confirming the structural integrity of a bridge, you must have the ability to see fundamental answers specific to individual problems.

On the other hand, some industries rely heavily on creative solutions. Inventors are people who have success with divergent thinking. They find better ways of doing things. These people innovate. They look at existing platforms like computers and create innovative solutions using this platform. In the case of building bridges these people can design new bridges and turn the convergent tasks over to architects and engineers who can solve the integrity issues.

When to Use Both Ways of Thinking

If you are starting a company, you may have to solve problems that require convergent and divergent solutions. You are alone or have a small staff.

However, as your company grows, you can outsource jobs that challenge your patience and effectiveness. Furthermore, you can become more successful working in the areas where your attention focuses on your mental strengths.

Career Intelligence

There is no rule that baseball catchers cannot develop the skills to play first base or that a pitcher cannot also be a pinch hitter. Likewise, broadening your skills in both convergent and divergent thinking can increase your career intelligence. You can play at a higher level in jobs that require both types of thinking.

In this case, career intelligence is viewing opportunities to become smarter and more capable by using both types of skills. Finding jobs where you can broaden your career intelligence (that is, convergent and divergent thinking) most effectively will help you become more successful.

Moreover, developing skills in areas of both convergent and divergent thinking will help you throughout your career.

At the same time, stick to your core strengths. Working in the areas where your mind is more powerful will more easily enable you to succeed. Natural catchers are more effective behind the plate than playing a secondary, more challenging position.

Summary

When are you most effective? What roles play to your mental strengths?

Some people are naturally more gifted to think convergently. These people learn quickly and can apply what they learn to solving problems

Other people are more gifted to think divergently. With less knowledge than convergent thinkers, the people see options intuitively. They excel in helping companies find new ways to succeed in failing conditions.

 

7 Steps to Starting a New Job

Starting a new job:  The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

In your new job seize upon small wins.

You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enable you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss.

Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships.

Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down.

Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step.

The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge.

Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas.

A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was a great as a month of sales the rest of the year.