The dreaded "What are your salary requirements?" question!

First, I'll make a brief acknowledgement that it has been quite some time since I have posted a blog here and today I'm prompted to do so by some eager "soon-to-be" graduates at UW-Milwaukee. As a guest speaker in a communication class about interviewing; today was specifically about job interviewing, we covered a number of topics. We discussed LinkedIn and networking, we talked about the types of interview questions and did a practice exercise using examples, and we covered some topics important to the students, one of which was handling "salary requirements" questions.

I'm not sure I was able to give an adequately concrete response, and quite honestly, I'm not sure there is one. I do think there are some strategies that can be used to handle the questions about salary requirements. To me the goal is to respond well enough to stay in the game without, leaving available money on the table or without pricing yourself out of an opportunity.

Here are some of the ideas I shared in class today, plus a few other thoughts that came to me later:

1. Do your research: The more you can find out about the company, the industry, and the role, the better prepared you will be in estimating the salary range you might be working with. Most companies have a range for each requisition, and while their job is to get the most qualified person for the lowest cost, and it is your job to show how qualified you are for the role and secure your target salary.
2. Be authentic: Often you will be asked to provide a salary requirement or range. In either event, I would recommend you provide a range. This gives you an opportunity to account for your estimate, and it gives both you and the employer some room to negotiate.
3. Always be negotiating: From the first conversation with a recruiter, and all the way through to when you receive an actual offer, there are opportunities where you can be negotiating. For you, the job seeker, it's your goal to continue to get as much information as you can about what will be offered, if you are the selected candidate. This can be salary information, details about benefits, information about company culture, or details about how the hiring manager supervisor's staff.
4. Be honest: At some point, you will be asked to give your salary history. This is a place where honesty is imperative. As part of any job application, providing accurate salary history is required, and if not accurate, can be a reason for an employer to disqualify you from consideration. Remember: your salary history is simply fact-based, while your salary requirements are what you are aspiring to be offered.
5. Consider total-compensation: Making a fair wage is important to all of us - we want to be paid what we think we are worth. No matter how you slice it, keeping the lights on, putting food on the table, and paying your basic expenses is necessary! So, what else can you negotiate for that is important to you? Well, that requires you to make a list of the things (other than salary) you see as valuable. Some of those things might be flexible benefits, paid-time-off (PTO), work hours flexibility, remote-commuting, tuition reimbursement, etc.
6. Turning point: I believe that there is one moment and one moment only when you, as the candidate, will be in an ideal position to ask for what you really want. There is one time and one time only when the employer likes you just a little more than you like the employer. That time is when they offer you the job. This is when you can feel good about asking for what you want. It is the time you can make a counter-offer, and feel assured that it will be seriously considered. The outcome will be one of three things: It will be fully rejected, it will be fully accepted, or it will be partially accepted.

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Don't be hesitant to reach out for help, ask all of your questions, and use every resource at your disposal.

You can do this!

Still plenty to offer an employer!

Recently I came across a white paper from a few years ago and gave it another look-see. It was worth the read and I would suggest that, while a lot has changed about the labor market since being published, "Grey Matters: Engaging the Older Workforce" by Manpower, Inc. (2007) tells an important story about the hidden talent pool. You can find an overview here athttp://us.manpower.com/us/en/research/whitepapers/grey-matters.jsp, with the ability to download the entire white paper as well.

I read a staggering statistic this morning that over 80% of those currently employed will conduct a job search in 2011. So in addition to the thousands of unemployed, the job seeker population is about to potentially explode. What's interesting is that many employers are still finding it hard to get the talent they need. Is it the "needle in a haystack" dilemma or is there already a significant gap in what employers need and what is being found in the talent marketplace.

If you are a baby boomer, the white paper is a source of hope. If you are an employer looking for talent, the white paper is a source of help. Either way...it's a good read!

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

Reality Check - Keeping the job search course in a down economy.

According to Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, more than 40% of unemployed people have been unemployed for 6 months or longer and that it may take a long time for those individuals to return to "normal" working conditions (60 Minutes Interview - 12/5/2010 http://bit.ly/fH0hrZ). I offer this statistic not as a de-motivator, but as a reality check for both individuals and employers.

The 60 Minutes interview link above is worth a watch - it's about 14+ minutes in total, but was very enlightening and apparently rare. Bernanke seems to share expert information to the wide public in the hopes of educating and persuading. He makes us aware of some facts that seem germane to decision making for individuals and businesses and it also seems he's working to persuade the nay-sayers of his recent policy actions to see the economic situation more broadly and more long-term.

For individuals, particularly the unemployed, this report highlights the harsh reality of the overall state of employment or unemployment in the U.S. Highlights includes such fact as:

• 9.9% or greater unemployment rate for 16 months
• Unemployment rate not going down - same as mid-2009
• 8.5 million lost jobs from the peak of the downturn to the end of 2009; only 1 million jobs back since that time, not accounting for new employees entering the workforce
• Prediction that it could take 4-5 years to return to a 5-6% unemployment rate

Another assertion Bernanke makes is that individuals unemployed for longer periods of time can experience skill erosion and diminished attachment to the labor market. So the picture this all produces for the job seeker today is that it's imperative to have a thoughtful and long-term job search plan. To keep from the pitfalls, job seekers should plan for a longer than usual search. It was once thought that for every $10,000 of needed income it would take one (1) month of search - that's probably increased some, so keeping connected to job service organization, volunteer opportunities and other networks will mitigate the skill erosion and labor market detachment.

Remarks I think were more directed to business were Bernanke's assessment that the primary source of risk for another economic slowdown are related to unemployment. He states that if we continue to have high unemployment over a protracted period it could send us in the wrong direction. This seemed to be a call to action for business - lowering of interest rates is likely forthcoming and with that some stimulation to the economy - he talks about having faith in the U.S. and from the top financier of our country, which speaks to how businesses should consider adding jobs. He also acknowledges the educational gap contributing to unemployment - unemployment rate for College Graduates is 5%, while unemployment rate for High School Graduates is 10% or more.

The subject of education cuts across both the individual and business planes. If you believe this is a contributing factor to the unemployment situation then, job seekers need to keep skills current or potentially re-skill for job changes. Businesses in or connected to higher education could benefit from more job seekers returning to school. The dilemma is this: Where does the money come from to pay for higher education. Most grand (stimulus) funding is starting to diminish, unemployment benefits may or may not be extended and the only other alternative would be student loans. With the number of "baby boomers" and the percent of unemployment in that population, are they going to want to be saddled with new student loans?

This is no doubt a complex topic, but we have to talk about it at an individual level. If unemployment benefits are not extended, that might mean that nearly 15 million unemployed people would have no source of income come Christmas (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). This is obviously a policy issue, but that starts with the attitudes and actions of individuals.

It's a difficult time for unemployed people. It's a challenging time for our country. What can you do - on a personal level - to make a difference? Refer a friend to a job, help a friend with his/her resume, agree to keep a position filled at your small business and contact your Congressman to show support for unemployment benefits extension. This is a long road. Some of us at at the end of it and some are at the beginning, but let's all appreciate this is still an issue that, according to Bernanke may last several more years.

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

Virtual-employees - Now I'm just making stuff up!

Employed, un-employed, under-employed, over-employed, self-employed - these statuses have been about the "what" of employment and who is considered in these classifications. What about the "where" of employment?

Many years ago and certainly before it was named or vogue, I was a virtual-employee and also managed virtual-employees. I guess a common colloquialism might be employees that "wore fuzzy slippers" - connoting a person who needs only roll-out-of-bed to their home office/desk. I can honestly say that with very minor exception I was usually dressed in some form of "business casual or casual" every day I worked from home.

With this "fuzzy slipper" connotation often came ideas that employees working from home, watched TV, did laundry, ate bon-bons, etc. The thought was that there couldn't be real productivity or accountability from this scenario. But entrepreneurial folks will tell you that the ability to save on the overhead of an office might be the key to getting a business started and back in the 90s companies like IBM were exploring this model as a means to save on overhead, but also to avoid the constraints of geography.

Maynard Webb, CEO of LiveOps, a call-center services company http://www.liveops.com/ has built an entire profit model on the idea that creating a workforce that is completely flexible to the needs of its clients is key to growth and success. LiveOps employs more than 20,000 operators nationwide - these operators (call-center agents) are contractors that work from home, selecting their clients and work slots in blocks as small as 30 minutes. Now this may be more plausible in the call-center occupation as it is materially a job that can be done from anywhere as long as the skills of service match the needs of the clients. That said, there are any number of other occupations that this model might serve.

My own experience was a little different than the LiveOps example - I was an executive at a very large Fortune 500 company and also managed virtual (at home) employees across the country. We were all employees (W-2) and not contractors, but the premise of the way we worked was much the same. It didn't matter where we were, we were servicing clients everywhere and they didn't much care where we reported everyday as long as we were with them when they needed us.

Some similar companies that use a virtual service model - mostly in the IT space and often using freelancers are ODesk http://www.odesk.com/ and Elance http://www.elance.com/p/landing/buyerA5.html. These and LiveOps along with other models are based on a "supply-chain" model - a "just-in-time" concept of sorts. It makes sense.

So here's my question. Naysayers would probably suggest that there might be risks associated with the virtual-employee model - how do you ensure productivity, quality and such? The fact of the matter is that these are tangible/measurable aspects of work. It simply takes managing performance by results rather than by attendance and effort. What's the fear and is the world (and by world here I mean the U.S.) ready for a full-on virtual-employee model (where the work supports it)?

Give it some thought - what do you already think about virtual-employees and does what you've read here shift that thinking in some way?

I personally loved being a virtual-employee! It was hard at times to stay motivated and focused. There was an aspect of isolation I dealt with at times. Much to the contrary of the typical connotation of bon-bon eating, I often didn't stop for lunch and there were countless times that I lost complete track of time - ending my Fridays after 7:00pm. There were two true draw-backs for me: 1.) my work was ALWAYS there and it felt like I was being a slacker if I didn't attend to things immediately. (Maybe that's an over-responsibility factor of wanting others to KNOW I was "really” working) 2.) my family and friends often thought I had all the time in the world on my hands - wasn't I free to do as I pleased, when I pleased? Couldn't I just stop anytime to finish the chores, pick up the dry-cleaning and generally meet the needs of others?

If you are un or under-employed or maybe if you feel over-employed and are looking for an alternative way to do good work in the future, consider the "where" of your employment situation!

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

Your job and your work - are they the same thing?

Several summers ago I was just starting a new job at a new company. I was discussing how excited I was with my uncle and he asked me about the “work” I would be doing. I responded by telling him my job title and rattling of the list of responsibilities I would have. He asked me a very simple but powerful question: "How do you define “work"”? I started to re-purpose some of what I had just said and he stopped me and asked "Does “work” have to result in compensation – what about all of the other valuable things you do"?

I eventually stopped talking and started listening. My uncle had been in Corporate America for his entire career. In later years he also bought and ran a farm and much later still, he taught classes in organic farming to weary farmers from all over the state – they had come to join him for a pasture walk on his 100 acre farm just south of La Cross, WI in a small town called Coon Valley, WI - population 200. That day he talked to me about work in a new way - a way I'd not conceived of before. This stuck with me and has become part of how I define "what I do for a living", today.

The distinction that I'm attempting here is between the value often assigned to where we go to work or our title and responsibilities, compared to the actual contribution or difference we make to people and organizations. The first I would define as a "job" and the second I would define as "work". This distinction is important because it's often how we self-identify, self-actualize and certainly how we derive value. If we see "job" and "work" as synonymous terms then we might be missing a way to encompass more in how we define and value ourselves and what we bring to society.

I'm not intending to pass judgment in any way, merely establish a more thorough way of defining the broad range of activities we all engage in as part of how we thing about, talk about and value "work". If I go to work each day at ACME Company and doing my job gives me what I need, then there's no need to read any further. A good day’s wages for a good days work is a respectable perspective to have about one's "work". I would define this as more the notion of having a "job".

If like many of us, we define our worth by not only the wages we make, but also the value we transcribe in doing the "work" we do, then "job" is an insufficient concept and term. And what about the "work" we do outside the walls of our employer? We teach our children how to be adults, we teach our fellows how to be better spiritual beings, and we teach our aging parents how to use the Internet or an ATM machine. We volunteer time in schools, organizations and places of worship. We take care of our homes, we help our neighbors’ plant trees or build additions, and we give of our time, our minds and our might in an effort to be valued citizens. Is this all not part of the concept of "work"?

If we identify ourselves by the "work" we do rather than the "job" we have it seems possible to more aptly derive the kind of robust value that is reciprocal to the effort we contribute. This speaks to the idea that "everything counts" (paid positions, internships, temporary positions, volunteer roles, mentoring roles, etc.) rather than defining the "work" we do by the constrained walls and hours of a place of business or set of responsibilities.

From an employer’s perspective it’s important to me to know all of the experiences, talents and skills a prospective employee will contribute to my organization. Some of those might have been the result of non-job related activities that are no less valuable to the talent acquisition equation.

From a job seeker’s perspective it’s fair to include everything on your resume, your online profile or while discussing a potential position with an employer. That’s why outplacement experts coach job seekers to take a thorough inventory of ALL experiences, talents and skills they possess before they start writing a resume, networking or marketing themselves to potential employers.

What do you think? How do you define "work" and do you count every activity you engage in as part of that equation, whether you are compensated monetarily or not?

For those of you still looking for “work”, this might be a good exercise to embark on – you may discover things about yourself that you wouldn’t have considered relevant and valuable to an employer before.

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

p.s. Two past blog posts you might also find useful when exploring this subject: "Non-Profit Jobs" http://bit.ly/9sxhXS and "Will you do what it takes to get the job you want?" http://bit.ly/aRxBxa

Can someone be over-employed?

I was reading an article by Mark Whitehouse titles "Unfilled Openings Frustrate the Jobless" (The Outlook, October 11, 2010) and got to thinking about the people left behind at my former employer. I wonder how they are feeling about all of the work they absorbed after the massive downsizing? Mark's article focused on the delays still being seen in hiring across the US. Do they see themselves as over-employed? Do their employers see them as over-employed people as well?

The reasoning for continued delays in creating openings and filling current openings is being pinned to a lack of confidence in consumer demand. In this same article, Jeff Joerres CEO of Manpower, Inc., says employers are taking a lot longer to fill positions even when presented with the right candidate and he expects to see this condition continue through 2011.

So here we are:

First, those still employed or possibly over-employed, are left taking on the work of their former colleagues. Once the market does start to shift, will those employees feel put-upon and tend to leave for a perceived greener pasture? It's hard to say, but it reasons out that there may be a mass exit of sorts once things shift in the economy. We already know that the employed are more sought after than the under or unemployed, so wouldn't it be fair to say that those employed when the market really shifts, will still be in the most competitive position for job change and employment?

Second, if this lack of confidence continues through 2011 as predicted then will the under and unemployed stay trapped in this status and is there a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy happening. The longer someone remains under or unemployed the less likely they will be seen as valuable to a prospective employer, or so the logic would suggest. Employers are fearful of over-hiring. Employers have, in some occupations and industries, been able to take longer, remain pickier and exclude potentially qualified candidates due to their current "employment status".

Whether you are over-employed, employed, under-employed or un-employed - What do you think about the situation?

For those of you under or unemployed...

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

Excluded from consideration for being unemployed?

When I read "Looking for work? Unemployed need not apply" an article from http://money.cnn.com/ by Chris Isidore (June 16, 2010 4:25 AM ET) I was not so much shocked as disappointed. Certainly screening out those candidates that are unemployed from applying for a job isn't illegal, but what does it say about the value we place on a person's temporary employment status rather than what a person can contribute to the success of an organization.

A recruiter friend of mine said to me recently "there are no bad employers and there are no bad employees, just bad matches." I think there's truth in this. Except for companies that are engaged in unethical business practices or employees that steal from their employers, it’s all a matter of gradations.

Having been involved locally with Milwaukee JobCamp http://www.milwaukeejobcamp.org/, a collection of recruiting and HR professionals that created a sort of boot camp for job seekers, (creators are all voluntary and seekers pay nothing to attend all day resume writing, networking, online social media and expert speaker sessions) I can report that there is a sense of compassion and commitment to help those that need this kind of support. JobCamp4 took place a couple weeks ago and the attendance, while down from the JobCamp3 event in July (1700) to 1100, was still a much needed day of hope for many still searching for work.

In the http://money.cnn.com/ by Chris Isidore (June 16, 2010 4:25 AM ET) article I read about employers nationally that would not consider candidates for jobs that were not currently employed. In the article, senior level HR and recruiting executives reported that this practice is "more prevalent than it used to be." The explanation given is that there are so many candidates for each opening; this is one way to trim down the list to a manageable number. Mostly this was seen as a bad idea and that employers were in fact missing two important things in applying this practice. 1.) Potentially good candidates that they would never even take the time to interview. 2.) An employer tax break recently passed exempting them from having to pay the "6.2% of a new hires wages in Social Security taxes" for the rest of 2010.

If this practice is common even in some limited way it speaks to a few things that I think are important as we examine the identity of what it means to be unemployed. First there is this idea of insiders and outsiders or haves and have not’s at play. There are groups of individuals; in this case employers that are deciding for those that are now outsiders (non-employees) that they aren't welcome. Second, other insiders, namely other employed individuals are welcome and given access. So those without (often through no action of their own) are kept “out” while those already “in” maintain access to the inside or in this case employment. Like the Scarlet "A", it seems that the unemployed have a Scarlet "U" for unwanted or undesirable, as their badge of shame.

Having at one time been an unemployed person for over a year, there is plenty of guilt and shame that comes built in to the status of unemployed without the help of others. Losing a job is like any other loss and the process that goes with it is the same. We experience shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance. There are practical aspects that contribute to feelings of guilt and shame like not being able to pay ones way, take care of obligations or family members, etc. The stigma of being unemployed is a bit self-inflicted, but being further excluded contributes to a sense of unworthiness too. It was quite challenging to get up every day and face the rejection and harsh reality of a job search. I'm glad I didn't know about this exclusionary tactic then.

The phrase "pursuit of happiness" keeps coming to mind here. How is my finding a job (personal freedom) coming into conflict with someone else's personal or public success? What is it about an unemployed person that, by nature of that fact alone, makes them unworthy of consideration? I think that it gets down to one thing. As a society we are suspicious of what we don't understand. If we haven’t experienced unemployment, we make fast judgment that it's due to performance or some fault of the person who finds themselves unemployed.

I would ask us all to take a look at the situation more closely. Unemployment is still at 9.5% according to the BLShttp://www.bls.gov/. According to many experts (Manpower Employment Outlook Survey - Press Release http://bit.ly/aIE3m8) while there seems to be reason for cautious optimistic, the full economic recovery in terms of job loss is still a ways away. According to USA Today (10/13/2010) there is “a record 30% out of work at least a year."

Unemployment can happen to anyone. If you haven't been unemployed, someone you know, maybe even someone you love has. This is reason enough for insiders to consider the unemployed as part of the larger insider group. The currently unemployed but the future employed.

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!

Have you been searching a while?

I'm going to start a little in the middle. We'll cover other stuff at some point, but I wanted to get a few things out for people to use right away. First - why listen to me? Well, maybe you shouldn't, but I've been a job seeker a couple times and I've been a Hiring Manager my entire career. Read on or don't :)

A few ideas to share today:

1.) If you've been in search for a while - take a vacation. Just like when we have jobs, we need a breather now and then. A chance to recharge. Not a long one, but a day or so.

2.) If you've been in search for six (6) months or more, it's time to take a step back and get some perspective. Call your closest friends together and ask them to evaluate your job search work. Are you doing the same thing over and over again and it's not working? Stop. Do ONE (1) thing differently today.

3.) If you've been in search for six (6) months or longer and you haven't considered: a.) contract work b.) volunteer work c.) internships, do so now. I have found success in contract work and volunteer work that lead to jobs.

Like with anything in life and as Yogie Berra once said "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else." - If you have a plan, evaluate it and make changes to it. If you don't have a plan, get one.

People want to help you, but you have to tell them how! Like the Yellow Brick Road, job search is scary, uncertain and long, but there are people along the way who can help!

You can do this!