Thinking about salary BEFORE you think about writing resumes

Feeling a bit philosophical this afternoon…thinking about the importance of salary (or lack thereof).

No, it’s not a delayed April Fool’s joke. It’s a question worth asking as you prepare your resume for the next step in your executive career. Just how important is your salary to you?

Of course, your current job state may affect your thinking on this – if you’re currently unemployed, a salary becomes monumentally more important as the time between jobs wears on. If that describes your state, try to step back from that for a moment for the rest of this post.

Honestly, your salary is probably the single most important factor that will affect your job satisfaction – and your life. Bigger steps up in salary makes life easier, more fun, and more secure. It’s like marrying for money, to some degree. The spouse becomes more attractive when the financial rewards increase, and so it is with management and career-making positions.

That all said…you can’t let yourself get caught up in it. It doesn’t matter how high the number, and if you can stand it, it doesn’t matter what your current financial situation is. Money is one, and only one, element of the job. It’ll show up every two weeks, and in the between-time, you’ve got 80 hours or so to exist in a great job, or a job that’ll drive you crazy. And that’s not even counting the commute.

Which leads into the natural suggestion – consider your other factors carefully before you send out your resume. Yes, before – even before you write your resume. You want to be very clear why you’re putting yourself into the job search position in the first place, and what you want to get out of it. You want to get it right when you jump to the next job, don’t you?

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