How to Get a Pay Rise by M Simmins

Author:M Simmins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
ISBN: 9781740667289
Publisher: Hardie Grant Books
Published: 2010-08-14T00:00:00+00:00

4 Go fish

Fishing for new jobs internally and externally is one of the quickest ways to get a serious salary hike, and if your qualifications are up to par and the economy is growing, you’ve got negotiating power.

‘You can have my triple degree and shiny Fortune 500 creds for $185,000 today, with certain sweeteners. Given there’s a skills shortage in our industry, I’m thinking top-tier private health cover, a company car …’

Maybe not quite that punchy, or that qualified, but you want to shake that professional booty every chance you get.

Fishing for change can be as simple as having coffee with your manager or another department head to discuss your ‘medium-term prospects’ or to ‘understand more about their area’, which translates to ‘I’m up for openings’.

Once you start angling outside your pond applying for jobs and meeting with recruitment consultants and managers from other companies, you’re making valuable contacts.

We recommend you Go Fish occasionally. It’s not about being disloyal to your boss, or your company. It’s about evaluating your professional worth.

In this chapter, we’ll explore new and exciting ponds:

• knowing your market worth

• identifying skills to attract employers

• shifting your comfort zone

• top fishing spots

• managing job offers.

Merryl gets hooked

In my last year of high school, I decided that economics was the place for me. Okay, a tiny part of me wanted to impress Mr Gardner, my drop-dead gorgeous economics teacher who rode a motorbike and had a trendy mo (Rarr!). Economics did come naturally to me, and my marks were fantastic.

So I asked myself, where would the best economists hang out? I applied for roles with the Treasury Department and the Reserve Bank of Australia. I got the nod to join the Reserve Bank as a junior clerk in the Foreign Exchange Department. I think Mr Gardner was suitably impressed.

Baiting the hook—know your market worth

Before asking for a pay rise or applying for a new position, you need to know how much a company will pay for your skill set and experience. Then you can shake that money tree for all it’s worth.

It’s also wise to get a grip on your industry. Industries expand and collapse, and pay rates rise and fall with them. In the early ’90s, Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett closed 350 government schools, slashing 7000 teaching jobs. Who was going to enter that profession?! Now that teachers are thin on the ground, Victorian schools are paying bigger bucks to attract and keep teaching staff.

By appraising your skill set regularly and keeping tabs on your market worth, you’ll know whether you’re being undervalued, if it’s time to do some training (see Chapter 3, ‘No train, no gain’), time to ask for a pay rise, or even time to zip off.

And the winner is

… Colin, forty-five years old, human resources director, large transport company. It pays to know your market worth. As a senior executive, Colin was earning $140,000, about 17% less than the going rate for his role—$165,000. Colin felt he deserved a pay rise, and asked for one, but management insisted he do an MBA first.

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