How to Ask for a Raise When You’re Scared

Hannah Writes: Lesa, I have been with my company for almost 7 years. I know that I am a very good worker based on my performance reviews. I stay late, skip lunch and just do what I need to do to get my work done. My boss and I have a great working relationship but I am scared to approach him about a raise. I am not sure even how to start the conversation. I do not want to be threatening but I know there is another company that will offer me more than what I am currently being paid. How do I use this as leverage without seeming threatening? I know just to have a job right now is a blessing so I do not want to seem greedy, I just feel like I have worked hard and deserve a raise. Thanks.

Hannah, it’s difficult to speak to your question in detail since I don’t know what type of work you do or even the industry. That being said, there are a few general guidelines when considering how to go about asking for a raise. And in your case, it sounds like you’re looking for more of a market correction than an outright raise.

First, go to www.salary.com or some other site that offers free data on the average salaries for various positions around the country. Find out where you are according to the averages and ask yourself if you’re truly underpaid or not. If you are in fact being underpaid for your role in your geographic area then you should definitely bring this up to your boss. Simply tell him that you have stumbled across some information that lead you to inquire about your salary as compared to others in your field. You discovered that you’re underpaid by $______ per year based on the average salary data and that you feel your proven performance and dedication is worthy of an increase of ___% (however much it takes to get you where you want to be) more than the average.

Some things to keep in mind are the financial health of the company you work for, the possibility that your boss may not make much more than you do now and of course how many people like you there are in your area. Said another way, are there more jobs available than there are qualified people with your skill set or vice versa? If your company is struggling financially, your boss doesn’t make that much more than you and your skills are fairly common then odds are you will not get an increase and you are likely to create some tension in your relationship. If the opposite is true in that your company is doing well, your boss clearly makes more than you do and your job is fairly unique then I say full steam ahead!

The final consideration is the date and size of your last increase. If you’ve had a pay increase in the last 12 months then you should wait until the next review period to ask. If your review happened just recently but you feel that your increase was insufficient then it’s understandable for you to revisit the issue now.

Best of luck to you! Let me know what you decide to do and how it goes.

*This post is from Lesa Caskey’s Career and Job Hunting advice column on Searchwarp.com.

Career Planning for Stay-at-Home Moms

Connie writes: Lesa, Do you have any advice for women who used to be career girls and have now decided to be stay at home moms? I would like to re-enter the work force in a few years when my kids are in school. I am wondering what activities, programs, etc. I should be involved in now so that when I do start looking to get hired I am as appealing as some of the other candidates, even if I have a 5 year gap in my job history. It seems like a daunting task to get back out there again after such a long time so any advice for what I can do now to make that time easier would be great!

Connie: The big question is, do you want to go back to re-enter the work force doing the same type of work you were doing when you left? If so, stay current on that industry by joining groups on the internet that discuss the industry’s news and events. Contribute to the online community through posts to blogs and group discussions. You’ll meet new people this way, which may help when you begin looking for a job a few years down the road. If you can attend conventions, seminars and/or trade shows related to the industry during these years that will be helpful too. Don’t hesitate to meet people and tell them your story – you’ll be surprised by how much support you’ll receive when you tell folks that you’re just staying in the loop while attending to your young family. If you’re not going back into the same line of work then of course you’ll want to prepare yourself for whatever it is you do want to do when you re-enter. Follow the same path by participating online and in person where and when possible.

Either way, if you can volunteer your skills from home while on maternal sabbatical that is ideal. Simply put yourself out there to various organizations telling them exactly what you’re doing and why. It should look something like this either in writing or over the phone: “Hi, my name is Connie and I have a professional background in ___________. I’m planning to stay home with my children until they are both in elementary school and would like to keep my skills sharp during that time. I’m calling/writing to see if I can volunteer with your organization. What I can offer is ____ hours per week from home, and I have everything I need in order to provide these services since I already have a computer and internet connection. I can also help out with ___________ and __________ and if it’s okay for me to bring my kids along, I can be on-site ____ hours per week. I have excellent references and look forward to talking with you more about this soon.”

Beyond that, you know if you’ll need to keep current on any licenses you need for your line of work so you should take whatever classes or tests that are required. Stay active, stay connected and you should be able to re-enter the work force fairly easily when the time comes.

*This post was written for the Reaching Hire career advice column on SearchWarp .

Single Serving Jobs Coming Up

California Staffing Professionals CSP Group News | LinkedIn.

In the movie Fight Club, Edward Norton’s character comes to view people he meets on airplanes “single serving friends” because he’ll never see them again. USA Today’s Article “Quarter of workforce could become temps as contract work grows” predicts a full 25% of the workforce in the country will be temporary workers of some sort within the next few years.

As someone who has been a contractor/temporary worker, I have adopted the view of Ed Norton’s character. Yes, contractors work as hard as employees, but they are outsiders no matter what. This is the good news and the bad news.

On the upside, everyone gets to try before they buy into committing to full time employment. This is a godsend in those special circumstances when you find out your employer belongs on Voldemort’s team in the fight of good vs. evil, or your boss only hires yes-men and women to the team full time. Shew! No loss there. And in the professional realms of contracting, the pay is usually 10-25% better to compensate for the downsides.

On the downside, the temporary part of the deal is a glaring reminder of how temporary employment can be. With all of the layoffs that have happened in the last 30 years, you’d think that people would generally be more prepared anyway, but for contractors the stress of knowing it’s going to end soon can be altogether too much. Not to mention there’s no company benefits on the temporary ride. Sometimes the agency offers benefits, but mostly not and they tend to be spendy with less-than fantastic coverage.

But there’s hope at the end of this post, as I am ever an optimist, especially when it comes to employment issues. To be a successful contractor, one only needs to keep a steady head and find a perspective that works to keep the stress monsters away. For starters, start thinking of jobs as rental properties as opposed to families. As a renter, you don’t generally get too attached to a house, though you’re usually quite content as you know that should it ever go “bad”, you can just move.

Another way is to adopt the perspective of Ed Norton’s character and consider each job a single serving of employment. There’s nothing wrong with individually wrapped cookies, sodas or single slices of pizza. They are all delicious in their single-serving way. And we have no trouble at all appreciating the single serving (travel) sized items that get us through our trips with a disproportionate amount of assistance for their size.

It’s our expectations that make or break the experience. Contracting is not less-than, nor is it a sentence to be endured. The jobs can be all of the things they are as full time positions: fun, horrid, educational, challenging, miserable and wonderful. The one thing they do for sure is help to pay the bills. So if you find yourself in a temporary assignment unexpectedly, don’t despair! There’s a whole world of contractors out there and if the predictions are correct, we’ll see better benefits and a whole host of new services and providers to make the experiences better and easier.

Do you think the USA Today article is correct in its prediction or do you think the market will straighten out and go back to business as usual before reaching 25%?

Thanks to Michelle Baker of Pro Tem Solutions for sharing the article on LinkedIn today.

Google: We pass on hiring smart people to help the ecosystem

Google: We pass on hiring smart people to help the ecosystem.

An engineer from Google told the VP of Google that “…these people are actually important to have outside of Google. They’re very Google people that have the right philosophies around these things, and it’s important that we not hire these guys. It’s better for the ecosystem to have an honest industry, as opposed to aggregating all this talent at Google.”

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I’ve read it and re-read it and simply cannot land on an opinion. At first blush, it seems like the nicest “Dear John” broadcast let down ever recorded but then there’s this pesky, nagging thought that maybe they actually believe it.

The first gross assumption is of course that it would be possible for Google to hire all of any kind of talent. The second gross assumption being that brilliant engineering ideas only come from employees of technology companies. These assumptions smack of  arrogance, limited and short-sighted vision as well as a disregard for the spontaneity and potential of innovation.

As I type this, I suppose my opinion is being ferreted out as being offended. I’m offended on behalf of all of the talented engineers who have attempted to work for Google and I am offended on behalf of Google’s internal recruiting team who have a serious challenge recruiting under such ridiculous notions. If, in fact they believe their own words, then the recruiters are in a sticky wicket attempting to recruit “not too smart” candidates.

There must be some angle they’re working and all i can think is that they missed the target. I hope to hear better from them soon as this is catastrophic to their employer brand in my mind.

What do you think?

Veterans Day Blues

Today is Veterans Day and I am certainly thankful to all of the vets who throughout our history have fought hard and suffered so that we as Americans are able to continue our free and prosperous way of life. I am of course particularly thankful for the vets in my life, and the list is fairly long so I won’t go thanking them all here by name. You know who you are – thank you.

What bums me out is thinking of all of the veterans who have honorably left the military after serving proudly, only to find themselves seemingly unemployable. I don’t think that anyone necessarily deserves opportunity based only on their class, creed or color, but it does seem like there should be more awareness among the employment community when it comes to veterans.

I’m not suggesting an ill proportionate amount of respect or worship, but a simple acknowledgment of what veterans have accomplished by serving honorably, regardless of their position in their particular branch (Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or Reserve forces). They have all been through rigorous training of some sort, and most have completed a fair amount of technical training in many different areas of radio, computer, satellite, network or mechanical subjects. The skills they learn simply in the process of learning all of that are valuable to many organizations as you can be assured that if veterans have one universal skill, it is adaptability (IMHO).

To all of the unemployed veterans out there looking for work, know that there is a small army of employment professionals who sing your praises and work towards identifying opportunities for you to transfer your skills into. I wish you the very best, always.

How about you? What are your thoughts on employment issues specific to veterans? Are you a vet currently looking, or do you know of one? And what about resources for these folks to help them get where they’re going professionally? I’d love your input.

Resume Review – Getting Through the Stack Fast

I’ll never forget the moment I saw 9,000 as the number of applicants to one position I was working on. I was an internal consultant to a Fortune 500 company and the shock I got from registering the number 9,000 was dumbfounding. How the heck was I supposed to feel that 9,000 people had a fair shot at the position? And how could I possibly feel confident that I had presented only the absolute best qualified candidates? I sat back and tried to breathe through this sudden crisis of the mind and came to a few simple yet powerful conclusions.

Acknowledging the reality that I am not a supreme being was a huge first step. Honestly, one person can only review so many resumes for any given position. And given that internal recruiters are managing upwards of 15-20 requirements at a time makes it quite simple to accept that we will not see each and every resume with our own eyes. So how to separate the qualified from the unqualified; the appropriate from the inappropriate and the bestest of the them all from all of the other great ones?

A great preparation tool is to ask the hiring manager for the resume of the person who left the position or of another person who is currently working in a similar role. Then ask the manager what it was about that resume that was appealing. You will be amazed by what you learn in this process because you never know what is actually going on in other peoples’ minds as they attempt to communicate what it is they’re looking for in a resume versus an actual candidate. I have sat across from hiring managers telling myself to shut my mouth before flies get in as they handed me descriptions for technical project managers without listing one technology, or as they review a resume of a successful current team member who has none of the requirements being requested in the current job description. Connecting the dots between a paper representation of a person and actual experience working with a qualified individual are two radically different things.

So you’ve got your hiring manager’s input based on current and relevant information and you’ve got your arms around the job description well enough to articulate the requirements and nice-to-haves to potential candidates. Now what? Out of the hundreds or thousands who have applied, the tens of thousands in your database and the millions on the job boards, where do you begin? Absolutely begin with the folks who have applied to the position, as these are the most relevant to your current search. Learn how to do Boolean searches click here. Boolean searches will work in 95% of all applicant/candidate tracking systems and should be used in every search to narrow the results down to a manageable size. For instance, if you’re looking for someone with 5 or more years of experience, be sure to include years in your search: financial analyst AND (2003 OR 2002 OR 2001) AND (zip code OR zip code OR zip code) NOT (janitor OR “vice president” OR architect) AND “balance sheet” . This search will yield resumes of financial analysts who likely have over 5 years of experience, live within a commutable distance, are not over qualified or from a different industry and have experience with balance sheets. Feel free to copy this search and use it – replacing the key words and criteria with your own, of course! Just be sure to leave the parenthesis, quotes and operators (NOT, OR, AND); it will help tremendously. People will often tell an application system that they live locally even when their resume says otherwise, which is why you should include the zip codes at a minimum.

The results are down to 300, hooray! Now what? How do we narrow it down even further? Once you have your basic list, start sub-searching based on other key words from your “nice to haves” list. This should break it down to less than half. If not, that’s okay too. Start calling! Once you’ve identified three folks who are qualified, you are free to move on without a glance back. You’ve done an excellent job of getting through the masses to the point of identifying a few who are solid potentials. Submit, wait for feedback and do not search again until you’ve received it.

Once you become familiar with Boolean searches the process will be so fast you’ll wonder how you ever searched without those handy operators. Still having trouble identifying who to call? Just start calling and really learn from the conversations. Patterns will soon emerge so that you can identify certain companies by name and know that their employees make for excellent candidates in your organization or vice versa. Or you’ll start to notice that candidates who have experience with certain tools are often better suited to your hiring manager’s environment, etc.

For recruiting managers, it is extremely beneficial to have resume review meetings where your recruiters from all of the different areas get together and openly review resumes. Everyone’s experience and perspective is valuable and everyone benefits from learning others’ triggers to either disqualify candidates or rush to call them immediately based on previous employers, experience with certain tools, industry experience that isn’t necessarily obvious, etc. You will all learn something from each meeting and will absolutely become a stronger team that cuts to the chase much faster.

*For more information on Boolean searches, type “Boolean search” (with or without the quotes) into any search engine.

So, how about it? Have you used the techniques described above? I’d love to hear about your experience(s). Are you still feeling challenged? Let me know and I’ll try to help you through it.
Do you have your own tips/tricks for getting through the stack fast? Tell us all about them!

Where Does Success Come From?

Do you ever find yourself wondering how in the world successful people do it? I once heard a story about a gentleman taking his final statistics exam to complete his Masters degree in statistics. The test question required that he show his work meaning that he would have to write down each step involved in solving the problem. He couldn’t get the right answer, so as the last step in his documented work he wrote “insert magic here”. I love this story because it illustrates what we all feel at some point in our efforts to succeed.

There is a formula for success however, but it’s not very sexy and feels a lot like work at first. The formula is so simple that literally anyone can apply it and reap their rewards in any field at any age. It looks like this:

A + H + W = S

Attentive + Helpful + Willing = SUCCESS

A: Pay attention to your surroundings all the time. You never know where valuable information may come from. Always be on the lookout for information that will either help you directly, or help someone in your network. If you’re an employee, the information may help you be better at what you do or may help you gain recognition and respect for sharing it with your superiors. If you’re self employed, the information again may help you be better at what you do or may help you gain that same recognition and respect from your clients, employees and people in your network. Look for ways to contribute to your professional world.

H: Provide assistance wherever you see a need. At a meeting of any kind, be prepared to help someone who has dropped their papers, whose hands are full and needs a door opened for them or a chair pulled out. It seems so small and insignificant, but every opportunity to be helpful raises others’ awareness of you in a positive way. This portion of the formula applies to every person you meet including the janitor, the parking lot attendant, the CEO and the receptionist. Helpful behavior builds a reputation of respect that makes people seek you out for answers and by doing this they are providing you with more opportunities to learn. What do people think of you now and why? Train yourself to be a resource by helping where you can and soon your name will be associated with words such as nice, dependable, trustworthy and smart just because you’re helpful.

W: Your willingness to actively participate in your world will pay you back in immeasurable amounts. If there is a menial task that is asked of you simply do it and do it well. Learn a new skill to help the team or yourself? Absolutely. Remember that the first part of the word “willing” is “will”. We all know people who are strong-willed and we associate that phrase with being dedicated and committed to achieving a goal. Be a willing participant and you will soon find that you are actually using your will to bring success into your life.

It is never too early or late to start.

Using the formula, your attentiveness enables you to understand the reasons why things are the way they are, your helpful habits create positive energy all around you and your willingness to continue learning and pitch in where you can provide a constant flow of opportunities for you to succeed. Success breeds success so each time your efforts are met with success, more is on the way!

Challenge yourself to apply and use the formula for two weeks. The worst that can happen is you prove the formula wrong and your search for success continues as it was yesterday. The more likely result is that you will feel better about yourself, your job and your future. You will be amazed by the number of success stories you will have to share. And definitely keep us posted on your progress!

What other ingredients can you think of that may enhance the formula? Or do you have your own recipe for success that you’d like to share? As always, the collective benefits when our readers share their experiences, insights and questions.