INSIDE THE 
NEWS + ADVICE
Preparing Your Job Search Salary Strategy
Patra’s money quote:
“Money. Salary. Compensation. All a critical aspect of your job search and yet to many Americans, more difficult to talk about than sex.”
What do you need to do to determine your strategy?
- – Learn what you are worth in terms of the job you want.
- – Be clear with hiring managers about your desired compensation range.
- – Think about tradeoffs you are willing to make now, not when facing a job offer.
All this is good, but when a recruiter talks about compensation and I say it’s negotiable, sometimes they call me on it and ask for a range. I give them the salary.com range for a Program Manager (in the DC area where the job is) between the first quartile and the third quartile. Then, they usually say it’s still too high for their contracts.
Figure this one out.
Salary.com is certainly better than nothing but, as said, it is pretty generic. And you do have to match job descriptions carefully which is hard to do with more general job titles like PMs. PM pay is often tied to size of contract/contracts managed and varies widely among the GCs based on their focus and size. Better resources are WTPF and HRA-NCA salary surveys, if you have friends in HR who have access. Otherwise, you need to be asking about salary ranges when you are talking to people you know in the business – another value of a good network.