Job Interviews: Discovering Market Pay Rates

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Knowing your market value — the going rate for people in your industry with skills and a job description similar to yours — is the centerpiece for negotiating the compensation you deserve.

Finding salary information online

Discovering the market rate for the kind of work you do has never been easier than it is today. Two companies — Salary.com (www.salary.com) and Payscale (www.payscale.com) — dominate the online salary research services now available to job seekers. A third service, SalarySearch, (www.salarysearch.com) launched as I wrote this book.

All three services offer free basic data and informative salary negotiation articles; a custom report for your specific situation costs between $25 and $150.Why would you want to pay for something you presumably can get for free? Generalized averages produced by online salary calculators aren't always spot-on for specific companies and jobs.

Be certain to benchmark the job you're applying for by job content — not just by job title. The same job title can mean different things to different people in different companies.

Handling salary boxes in online applications

Recently I was asked for a practical way to handle the salary requirement and salary history (two different things) questions when either or both are embedded as required fields in an online application. B.I. (before Internet), you could write "Negotiable" for salary expectation to keep from under- or over-pricing yourself. But most online applications won't accept "Negotiable" (or "Open" or "Will discuss in an interview") for expected salary as a viable answer, so that tactic is out history's window. What now?

Jack Chapman (www.salarynegotiations.com) rides to the rescue. Salary consultant and workshop leader, Chapman is the author of the best-selling guide Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute (Ten Speed Press, 2006), my favorite book in the genre. Here's what Chapman told me about working those windows:

"Your self-interest is best served by putting whatever number in the salary-requirement box that you think won't get you screened out. The employer is essentially asking, 'Can we afford you?' Since you won't require anything other than a competitive salary, your answer, by putting in a competitive number, is 'Yes, you can afford me.'

"This strategy works nicely when the box is entitled 'Salary Requirements' or 'Expected Salary,' but requires an additional step if it is labeled 'Current Salary,'" Chapman says. "Once you're in the interview, you'll need to explain that you interpreted 'Current Salary' to mean 'Current Salary Requirements,' and if they want a 'Salary History,' you'll be glad to provide it later as needed."

Background on the bucks

WorldatWork (www.worldatwork.org), an international association of human resource practitioners, is a recognized authority on compensation matters. Here's a selected glossary of WorldatWork terminology:

Cash Compensation:

Pay provided by an employer to an employee for services rendered (time, effort, and skill). Compensation comprises four core elements: