I was in a “bad relationship” with my employer.  Not bad enough to leave, but bad enough to know I didn’t like it there.  It wasn’t healthy for me at all, and I should have left. The experience helped me realize there’s a lot more to a job than just a paycheck, no matter how good it is.

What’s on your list of must-have’s in a new role?

I explored this a little bit on this post: Blue Collar Job Search – What Do You Want in a Job

I put that post together for a friend who was in transition.  He wasn’t sure what kind of environment he wanted to work in, which was affecting his ability to narrow down companies, titles, roles, etc.  This list was quite helpful.

I found a new list on recruitingblogs from Paul Crowley.  The post is titled What do you get from a job besides a paycheck?

It’s an important post to read. If you don’t understand the answers to those questions, you might get stuck in a job that just isn’t right for you. The culture might be wrong.  The way you are appreciated might not fit.  The non-monetary compensation might be out of line.  The ethics might cross lines that you never wanted to cross.

Go through Paul’s list right now.  Answering those questions, and the questions I pose in my post above, can give you focus and clarity in your search.

She talks about one job seeker (aka, candidate) who just about had a job until he declined the type of BMW the company was going to give him, instead asking for a different model.  Then everything fell apart, and the recruiter looked really bad.  Many parties were frustrated.

She also talks about a GenY recent grad who wanted a salary that would have been more appropriate if the candidate had 5 years of experience.

Recruiters are saying “geez, people!  Look at reality!  This is a job … supposedly, a perfect match for you, based on what you’ve told me!  Why are you ruining it?”

Job seekers seem… entitled.

I can see it from that side, for sure.

But I can also see if from the job seeker’s side.

The company and position I left was not a good fit for me.  The job search was long and arduous.

I wanted it to end, and to jump back into the workforce.

HOWEVER, I had matured a bit, and knew that I didn’t want what I had before.

What I had before had been stressful enough to put in on an urgent care bed, hooked up to see if I was having a heart attack (turned out to be an ulcer).

I, as a job seeker, could CHOOSE to not put myself in that position again.

And I was definitely choosing to not take the crap, or be in a bad environment, or to make concessions.

I knew what I wanted, and I DEFINITELY knew what I didn’t want.

So while I see the recruiter’s perspective, and understand that that recruiter probably black-balled the candidate, I can totally see the candidate’s perspective to walk away from something that seemed perfect… but something just wasn’t right.

Have you ever done this?  Would you ever do this?

Here are some of their snippets (read post for the entire story):

“It’s amazing when people come in for an interview and say, ‘Can you tell me about your business?’ Seriously, people.” (#1)

“A lot of managers don’t want to hire people with young kids, and they use all sorts of tricks to find that out, illegally.” (#2)

“Is it harder to get the job if you’re fat? Absolutely. Hiring managers make quick judgments based on stereotypes.” (#3)

“Another candidate didn’t get hired because the manager was worried that the car he drove wasn’t nice enough.” (#4)

“If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.” (#5)

This is dark and ugly… but look folks, PEOPLE STEREOTYPE!

I bet <gasp> even YOU stereotype!

I’d love to see an entire BOOK on this type of stuff.  This is a market – they are buying, you are selling.  The question is, what are the buyer’s behaviors?  And what does that mean for you, as the merchant?

You NEED TO know about this stuff – illegal or not, it’s how it works.

Here are some points from the article:

“There’s one website that drives all HR people crazy: salary.com. It supposedly…” (read the post at RD for more… ) (#1)

“On salary, some companies try to lock you in early.” (#2) Want to get “locked in??”

“You think you’re all wonderful and deserve a higher salary, but here in HR, we know the truth.” (#3)

“Be careful if a headhunter is negotiating for you.” (#4)

“I once hired someone, and her mother didn’t think the salary we were offering was high enough, so she called me to negotiate.” (#5)

Wow… the gloves come off! I would love to hear more from HR – the article only had these 5 points (read the article for the meat and potatoes).

Again, take it with a grain of salt. Is there stuff to learn? Definitely. I remember reading on BrazenCareerist one GenY job seeker was appalled that his/her mom called HR on her behalf. Many others chimed in saying they would NEVER want that to happen.

Is HR friend or foe?  You better know this, before you go in thinking they are there advocating for you, and championing your resume.

Again, these responses will vary by various factors…!

It talks about Morris Wilkinson who, at 91, still delivers mail for the USPS.

It talks about Sally Gordon who, at 101, works for the Nebraska Legislature.

It talks about Dr. Howard W. Jones who, at 99, works at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

It seems that each of these people WANT to work, which is great.

But the article made me think about how long we’ll HAVE TO work… which is not so great!  Back in the olden days (a few years ago) we could kind of count on retiring, with a pension, at 65.

Now I don’t know anyone who is seriously thinking of throwing in the towel at 65, mainly because most people can’t afford to.

Working just one more year might help you make ends meet better in retirement.  Or it might provide you with health insurance for just one more year.

I don’t hear a lot of talk about this trend of retiring older, but as we live longer and pensions are a thing of the past I think we’re going to have a lot more working years than we might have thought.

It will be interesting to see if this is a trend that continues, and what it means for our workforce…

It says that once employers “step up hiring” there will be two types of jobs:

Professional jobs, with higher pay, and

Lower-skill and lower-pay jobs.

Those who were in the middle of that?  Bleak outlook.

What that means, I think, is that we’re going to have to become a more skilled and/or educated country, OR we’re going to have to work more in lower-pay jobs to make up what we used to make.

OR, another alternative, is that some of those middle-pay employees that supposedly won’t get a job might just become entrepreneurs (!!).  We’ll see how that plays out.

Down the article is an interesting quote which I think opens up a can of worms. The CEO of Simply Hired, which is a job search aggregator, says:

“The big fear is the country is simply not preparing workers for the kind of skills that the country is going to need…”

For me the question is who is “the country?”  Does this mean the government should be preparing workers, or should workers be preparing themselves?

How do you plan on preparing?

Jack Chapman wrote Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1,000 a Minute.  He’s be sharing ideas with Jill and up to 1,000 people (it will fill up) … AT NO COST.  You want to get on this webinar.  Here’s the email I got from Jill:

LAST CHANCE to SIGN UP / F-R-E-E Webinar
Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute

When: Thursday, July 22, 1pm EDT, 12pm CDT, 11am MDT, 10am PDT
Presenter: Jack Chapman, author of Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute
Register:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804691051

In 20 minutes my client, Pat, made an extra $20,000.  His [new] employer told him, “If I had any doubts about you to begin with, they’re all gone now.

Pat used Jack’s “No Dollar Left Behind” compensation method.  It begins weeks before you actually get an offer when you are asked, “What range salary were you thinking of?”  Or, “What are you earning now?” A single misstep at this juncture can cost thousands a few days later.

One of the most lucrative negotiations you’ll ever do is for a created job that has no salary attached.  Jill Konrath says she has… “created opportunities in big companies and small ones.  In most cases these organizations didn’t have a penny in their budget for my services.”  You can help a company see your value, create a project or job for you.  And you will be in the strongest negotiating position possible: They know your value, and you’ve got no competition.

You’ll learn:

• when to discuss salary at all and how to hold off until then,
• who goes first and why,
• what the unfailingly single best reply to an offer is,
• how to evaluate your worth in the market place on the one hand,
• and on the other hand, how to get the top of that range.

…And we’ll include special advice related to Jill’s Job Creation Scenarios.

You KNOW you’ll be in negotiations one of these days.  Don’t wait until it’s too late.  Come and learn the art and science of salary negotiation.  “Dig your well before you’re thirsty,” as Harvey Mackay would say.

REGISTER NOW for Thursday’s webinar on Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute.
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804691051

Even if your busy, sign up.  You can always listen in at a later time.  We’ll send you the link as soon as it’s ready for prime time.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jack Chapman is the author of  Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minut e, known as the bible of salary negotiations.  Now in its 6th edition it covers the broad principles and the nitty gritty details of getting the salary, raise, options, benefits, commissions, sign-on, bonus, residual, etc., income for yourself.  With 30 years in career and salary coaching, Jack has a wealth (literally) of information to help you negotiate.

Jack Chapman is the author of several job search books, and best in class webinars and workshops.  Some examples include: Job Search 2.0, SpeedSearch, and Revolutionary Resume Replacements.

Register today!
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/804691051

Go check it out!!!

First is Long-Term Unemployment: 80 Percent Of People Jobless Last Summer Still Out Of Work from the Huffington Post.

Second is 7 Wildly Successful People Who Survived Bankruptcy from Mental Floss.

They tie together… some thoughts:

• 8 out of 10 have not gotten jobs since last summer?  That is a disgrace, and says something about the economy and any efforts of the gov’t … as well as any stats coming from the gov’t about how great things are.
• If you scroll down on the HuffPo article you’ll see a graphic about the breakdown, including how many people simply “dropped out” of the “job search.”  Right below that it says that 61% of the people who got jobs didn’t get real career jobs they wanted, rather something to just get by until they got something they wanted (or needed).  In other words, of the 21% who got employment, MOST of them got step-jobs (or, they are underemployed or unhappily employed).
• 70% are depleting their retirement funds (think about the systemic results of this!!) and 45% are financing unemployment with credit cards (ouch!  high interest, prone to bankruptcy, and who’s going to foot the bill for any unpaid credit card bills??).
• There are a bunch of other stats/info on the HuffPo post, even with regards to age discrimination… go read it.
• Mental Floss bankruptcy article – you should recognize all 7 names on there, and probably the others from the comments.  For those 7 it was not the end of the world.  I’m not suggesting you go declare bankruptcy today, but what you are going through will not be the end of the world, even if it feels like it is.  Each of those people had to have gone through personal turmoil during that period – shame, humility, depression, blame… many of the same feelings that job seekers go through.

I hate to think “it is what it is” because I feel like “it” is what we make it… but sometimes… many times, life happens and we don’t have control over what happens.  We do have control over how we respond or react… those seven people came out of bankruptcy quite well.  And many people who have been unemployed since last summer have the skills, capacity and drive to develop their own businesses… whether it is a “small” consultancy or a large business… every business starts somewhere, right?

At what age do you think age discrimination (for older workers) starts?

What should older workers do about age discrimination?

Age discrimination is TOUGH.  When I started my job search I was 32.  I felt OLD compared to the college kids that were getting interviews… I figured they had smaller families (we had 3.5 kids – yeah, pregnant wife and laid off – not cool), no mortgage (I had recently moved from small-town to real city and my house price doubled), etc.

All that meant they could work for less… maybe not happily, but for me I had a minimum that I could not go below (or else I’d have to work two+ jobs).

At the same time, I felt pretty young compared to others I was competing with.  As I started networking I found out that others who were trying for the same jobs I was shooting for had about 20 years experience more than I had.  Same credentials, same degrees, but they had many more years experience than I had.  I was TOO YOUNG.

Talk about being between a rock and a hard spot.

Head on over to the two links above to check out over 50 comments about age discrimination, and suggestions and advice.  If the questions are closed feel free to leave a comment here on this post.

Age discrimination = YUCK!

If it weren’t for the whole “copyright violation” thing, I’d reprint this article in its entirety. It’s called “The Salary Game,” by Donald Asher, and I love, love, LOVE it. It made me laugh out loud, and it reminded me strongly of the absolute impenetrability advised in my favorite section of J.P Donleavy’s hysterical book, The Unexpurgated Code: A Complete Manual of Survival and Manners. (That would be “Upon the Sudden Reawakening of Your Sordid Background.”)

The simple truth is, employers start with the upper hand when it comes to salary. They know what their budget is, they know what range of compensation they set, they know what the last person got paid, they know how much money they need to save on the next person they hire, and if they’ve got a bead on two otherwise identical candidates, they’ll go for the one who’ll take the lower salary.

What’s more, money’s still one of the greatest taboo topics in our nation. Sure, we constantly hear about the millions that celebrities make, but when it comes down to you and me – regular folks who happen to be good at what we do and deserve to be well-compensated at it – we often find ourselves uncomfortable when it comes to asking for the money we deserve. Not out of greediness, but from a place of sheer authenticity and integrity.

So when it comes to salary and negotiation, I beg these three things of you:

1. Read, re-read, and find more. Commit Asher’s article to memory, and keep seeking out more ways to handle the salary conversation.

2. Role-play. Find someone you feel comfortable with, and practice putting these tactics into action. You want them to feel so natural coming out of you that, when you get into the real situation, you get the hiring managers to automatically bend to your will.

3. Focus on the value, not the cost. Sales-type questions, like “What would you have to see in the first 60-90 days to know you’ve made the right decision?” take the focus off salary (an expense in their eyes), and put it on results (their income). And making a point throughout the hiring process to focus on results and performance makes it easier for a hiring manager to choose you over a candidate who may take a lower salary but isn’t as results-focused. That way, there’s a clearer ROI with you than the other person, and an easier decision.