Careers and Jobs

job – How To Negotiate A Starting Salary For A New Job by Betsy Ribera

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:54:00 +0000

When you are looking for a new job, advice on how to evaluate and negotiate an appropriate starting salary is invaluable. We’ve teamed up with acclaimed salary negotiation expert and author, Jack Chapman, to bring you practical advice on negotiating a proper starting salary.

Five simple starting salary rules:

Rule #1) Postpone talking about starting salary until there’s an offer on the table

Rule #2) Let the other person name a figure first

Rule #3) Repeat their starting salary offer and be quiet

Rule #4) Share your researched starting salary range and establish your individual value

Rule #5) Clinch the deal and deal some more

Starting Salary Rule #1 – When to Discuss Starting Salary

There’s not much point in discussing starting salary unless you’re sure you’re going to get an offer, make sense? But more than that, it’s not to your advantage to talk about your starting salary. When an employer asks “what are your salary requirements?” or “what are you currently earning?” they are gathering information on your likely expectations. There are maybe two or three right answers to this question and more than 20 wrong ones. Too high and you’re screened out, too low and you’ll lose money in the initial offer, or you’ll be eliminated as under-qualified based on your low salary requirements.

The proper time to discuss your starting salary is after the job position has been defined and you are sure the employer understands what you are bringing to the table.

Until then, a good postponing phrase would be, “All I’ll require is a competitive salary. I will likely be using PayScale and other resources to help determine that — as I presume you will, too. So I’m confident the starting salary will take care of itself, if I’m the right person for the job.”

Starting Salary Rule #2 – Who Goes First

When they’re ready to make an offer, here’s a second piece of timing advice: don’t haul out your research too soon! When it comes to discussing your starting salary, let the employer go first. That way you have a firm starting point that you can be assured of, when it is your turn. Generally, you’ll want to bump the starting salary up 5-10% or more. But, in the worst case scenario, if they go first, you certainly won’t get less than their initial offer. Additionally, there is always the chance that they will exceed the starting salary figure you were planning to mention.

NOW do you show your salary research? NO…. Not yet.

Starting Salary Rule #3 – Repeat The Offer And Be Quiet

Once they go first, you respond by repeating their starting salary offer and remaining silent. If they have given you a low-ball offer, and they know it, now is the time for them to increase their offer. Okay, I’ve heard the offer, I’ve greeted it with silence, now do I get to use my salary report?

Maybe…

Starting Salary Rule #4 – Share Your Researched Range and Establish Your Individual Value

If you are reading this article, you have probably done some research about what your salary should be. If you haven’t or want more accurate and reliable salary information, complete our brief salary survey to determine what the average salary and salary range is for your new position.

Now that you have the salary information necessary for negotiating, I want you to learn the value of having PayScale salary report in hand. The best way to leverage a PayScale salary report for a successful negotiation is to set your own expectations about how you will use your report. Know what information your report contains, and especially know what the data represents – what is behind the numbers – before taking it to the boss or a potential employer.

When you compared your research with your offer, you were either under market, over market, or right in the range. If your salary research indicates that the offer is below the range for your specific job and responsibilities, now is the time to share your research with the employer and discuss how the employer arrived at his/her estimates. Often you will find some points of disagreement on which to negotiate an increase.

Keep in mind that the employer will likely view compensation data differently than the employee. Two common points the employer may wish to discuss are the sources used to obtain the data in the report, and whether the data in the report matches your job profile, the company profile, and job location.

Finally, when a company wants to buy your time and effort, remember it’s a human being who makes the decision. It isn’t a cut and dried assessment; it’s a rational-emotive process that takes into account many factors that aren’t always fair or logical. Your awareness of these factors can greatly improve your chances for improving your salary.

Starting Salary Rule #5 – Clinch the Deal and Deal Some More

Finally, you receive a salary that you can live with and is fair. Do you sign it then? Well, yes and no. Yes, you now have a firm base to agree to, that you know you will be happy with. But, don’t stop! It is now time to put your attention on the other factors of the salary-equation gold mine.

About The Author

Betsy Ribera is the Vice President of Consumer Marketing for PayScale, Inc., a market leader in online compensation information, providing access to accurate compensation data for both employees and employers. With the world’s largest database of individual employee compensation profiles at her fingertips, Betsy provides immediate and precise insights on the job market.

http://www.payscale.com/

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Real Estate Investing Strategy Guide

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:19:34 +0000

A number of things likely come to mind when you think of virtual real estate investing. If you are already familiar with real estate investing you may think of short sales, bulk reo investing and virtual real estate investing or you may think of it in terms of real estate portfolios and real estate retirement plans. Likely you also wonder how these things will factor into your life as a real estate investor in the current economy.

You will need to know a lot about real estate investing. Getting the most out of real estate investing education involves being familiar with basic RE info. No matter whether you are interested in short sales, bulk reo sales, virtual real estate or just enhancing your knowledge as a real estate investor, knowing some real estate investing basics will help you succeed. Here are three real estate investing basics that even some experts do not really know:

1. You will always get a positive yield with real estate investing education. Every real estate deal has the potential to create thousands of dollars in potential wealth. The knowledge of how to get that wealth is the key to your success. Learning about real estate increases your odds of success when you do a real estate deal. Small investments in education yield big results upon implementation.

2. Any economy allows for success in real estate investing. Lots of people believe that real estate success is only possible in a booming economy. You should remember that a bad economic situation is not usually bad for real estate investors. Likely you will be able to find properties at deep discounts. In addition, you can find deals that simply would not exist in a booming economy. Poor economies can have the tide turned based on real estate investing. When the economy is not so good, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate are great. You can save yourself from financial difficulty along with others by knowing how to do these deals.

3. You will not need lots of money to be a successful real estate investor. You can succeed in real estate investing no matter how much money you have. There are many deals that will let you use other people’s money to do them. Private lenders will lend you their money if they think you are a good investment. The best way to be a good investment is to know as much as possible about real estate investing. This will help you represent yourself as a good investment to private lenders who do not know how to make money in real estate investing.

Real estate investing is a great way to generate wealth. You can create an income in any economy. By using a base of knowledge of real estate investing, short sales, bulk reo sales and virtual real estate you can create success for yourself. Knowing the basics of real estate investing will help you succeed as a real estate investor. Knowing some real estate investing basics (beyond what older gurus like Robert Allen teach) and applying them will help you succeed as a real estate investor.

Great real estate investing resources are available at RealEstate.BryanEllis.com.

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The Required Training For Personal Assistant

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:53:39 +0000

A personal assistant-the one in-charge for the daily organization of the employer’s overall schedule-should have invaluable leadership skills and strong initiative in doing things. These are very essential because the employer relies and depend on what the personal assistant has prepared.

Another main qualification in being a personal assistant is mastery of skills in terms of organization and socialization aspects. Though there is no specific training to become an efficient personal assistant, it pays to undergo some sort of briefing to know what it’s like to be one. Here, people who have plans of becoming a personal assistant would have an idea what are the key essentials needed for one to be hired immediately and of course, how to be efficient for a specific type of boss or employer.

Aside from that, a personal assistant should be able to do two or more tasks at any given time. This is very vital especially to those bosses who have very hectic schedule. A personal assistant must also be able to remain calm despite stressful situations because there will always be time when she or he will be blamed for the things that went wrong along the way.

Other qualifications include being business and Internet savvy, being computer literate especially to basic operations, having knowledge in accounting and bookkeeping, basic phone etiquette, and people skills especially in dealing with people during negotiations and meetings.

To be able to become an excellent personal assistant, one has to know the tasks and responsibilities for the position. Knowing these will somehow train you to becoming an efficient and reliable personal assistant to your employer.

Preparing for the job

Once you have listed down all the qualities a personal assistant must have, it is now time to know if you have those skills needed for the job. If you think you don’t and still would want to pursue a career in this position, then you can train yourself to possess those skills.

It is best to begin with the nature of the job you will be related to. If you will be working for an employer who runs a business, you must master the skills and efficiency of a secretary. This is because you will be asked to do all the scheduling and bookkeeping for the business. If you will become a personal assistant to a politician, you must also master the skills of organization and people skills because you will be dealing with people from all walks of life.

If you plan to work as a personal assistant for a celebrity, you must be very well ready in dealing with pressure. This is because you will be involved in the very busy and complicated world of show business. If you will be working for a person with medical condition or disability, you must be very well informed in dealing with the boss who is also a patient.

Overall, the best possible way of becoming a good personal assistant is by training one’s self by actually doing it. You can do this at home like helping your parents in the business or handling the household. You can also train yourself to become an efficient personal assistant by dong volunteer works in various establishments or you can join organizations to form network. Here, your skills can be honed and get ready you for the job that you wanted.

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