Determining Your Market ValueFrom: Jack Chapman How do you determine your fair market value? First understand that a fair market value is not one neat, tidy number, but a range. It’s the answer to the question “Within what range would a company have to pay to find someone like you?” Or similarly, “If you don’t take the job, what will the company need to offer someone as good as you to take it?” A market value is a composite picture made up of three pieces: your Objectively Researched Value (ORV$), your extra Individual Value (IV$), and what I’ll call your Risk-factor Dollars (Rf$). You left-brained folks might think of it as a formula in which the market value equals the sum of three other values: Market Value = ORV$ + IV$ + Rf$. For you right-brained, visual types, just think “present, past, future,” and picture your market value as a composite photograph made by combining these three perspectives: the present going rate (ORV$), the added value of your accumulated past experience (IV$), and your future contribution (Rf$). Left- or right-brained, in order to fully understand these formulas, you need some definitions. ORV$ (Objectively Researched Value); present. Objectively researched information from current published data about the going rate; this year’s average earning range for people doing the kind of work you’re considering. IV$ (Individual Value); past. A subjective assessment of the strength of your past track record as it applies to this new job or promotion. It puts you somewhere on a scale from entry level to seasoned professional, possibly with a unique competitive advantage. IV$ measures how you stack up individually above or below the competition. RF$ (Risk-Factor Dollars); future. Compensation you are willing to make contingent on your future success; speculative compensation. Calculating the Three Factors, Part I: ORV$E-ResourcesIn the days before the internet, researching your competitive value required a trip to the library only to discover dusty books with data so far out of date you needed a scientific calculator to gross up by three years’ compounded inflation to come up with meaningful numbers. By contrast, www.PayScale.com collects up-to-the-minute salary data from thousands of individuals every day. Very precise salary-research data is available to you today at the speed of light that would have cost thousands of dollars just a few years ago. The problem is, the same alacrity that put these sites up can also send them into obsolescence. Websites sprout, grow, blossom and then either they continually re-invest, re-invent themselves or they become eclipsed by an even-better-yet technology. Frankly, it’s hard for the printed page to keep up with e-resources! So I encourage you to consult my website for a continually updated list and critique of web-based resources. www.SalaryNegotiations.com ORV$ (Objectively Researched Value)Find out in what range people get paid for work similar to yours by consulting published surveys. Make sure you’re comparing apples to apples, that the salary you find matches the responsibilities of the job you expect to be paid for. People often have a hard time matching their job to a job title. You’ll need to pick one – or two, perhaps – that seem close. Where there are actual job descriptions along with the titles, that can help you select a title most closely related to the level of responsibility. Once you’re on track with a title and perhaps a job description, begin collecting pay-comparison-analysis information that will coalesce into your objectively researched value (ORV$). You have five resources, which are not exclusive of one another: » library and other printed information, » internet resources: online information, » library-research-for-computer-dummies technique, » person-to-person research: direct-dial resources, and » person-to-person research: word-of-mouth resources.
Library and Other Printed Information Frankly, while there is printed salary info you can unearth in the stacks of your local library, you don’t need to plow through those stacks anymore. For all practical purposes, your library’s computer room with Google will give you more than enough data to affix a range to your ORV$. Internet Resources: Online Information The four “preferred providers”: In the following pages you’ll find screen shots and more in-depth information on my “Favorite Four” sites. They are, namely: » www.Salary.com, and You’ll also find brief information on other sites of relevance. Since the world of cyberspace is ever changing, you’ll be reminded several times, too, that you can go to my website www.SalaryNegotiations.com for the latest update on e-resources. Some info might be password protected, reserved for people‑like you‑who purchased my book; try BoughtTheBook. Jack Chapman is a nationally know job coach and seminar speaker specializing for the last 20 years in salary negotiations and job interviews. For more information on Salary Negotiations, please visit: http://www.breakthrough-salaries.com/ |