Dear MSCE, Letter 1

Dear MSCE,

I've been at my job for a few years now and although I enjoy it for the most part, the excessive amount of extra hours I've put in (with no overtime pay) and salary in general, are starting to frustrate me.

Realizing that this probably isn't the greatest time to start job hunting, I still can't help but look through job postings in the search of a better opportunity.

I've seen a few ads listed with fairly established companies that ask for applicant's resumes along with salary expectations. I wouldn't want to sell myself short nor would I want to blow my shot with an unreasonable number. What do you suggest?

What things should I consider if I take further steps entertaining these ideas? If I'm offered a salary higher than my current, can I use this as leverage for negotiating a higher pay with at my current job? How do I schedule interviews if I have to work?

Thanks,

Anon Y. Mouse

Dear Anon Y. Mouse-

I have done my darndest to answer your questions. First, I would like to remind you that I am not a HR professional. I have opinions based on my own experiences and researching. To the extent that you or anyone else is looking to make a job related decision based on my advice, please take it with a grain of salt. And if I say something the rest of you do not agree with, let me know.

Regarding Salary: I suggest assessing your personal skills and then researching online to compare with what others like you are making. Do not look for your job position when comparing salaries, but rather, look for like skill sets. This may help you better understand your current salary potential.

I would also not worry about what the percent difference is between your current salary and desired salary. If your skill set warrants a larger salary, do not limit yourself by not asking for it. Rather, when salary comes up in an interview, be proactive. Tell them what you are looking for and explain why you deserve it. Try to stay away from stating your current salary. Also, try to work potential job offers against one another to help boost your salary (Note: do NOT bring up salary on your own. Wait for recruiter to bring it into the conversation).

Regarding using a new offer to negotiate with current employer: I am a believer that this is good practice, but with one major caveat: be prepared to leave. If you tell your company you have a higher offer, be prepared to leave if they do not match it. If they do not offer to change your current situation and you stay, you become the “boy who cried wolf.” On the other hand, your employer may say that they cannot match the offer and ask you to leave. So be prepared to end your career with your current company when you try and negotiate a new offer. In my past, I have found success in this tactic and ended up staying at my present company with a higher salary and more responsibility.

Regarding how to job search and interview while working: I have attached some excerpts from “The Ladders’s” CEO, Marc Cenedella. He writes:

First, scheduling job interviews is a challenge. There are only so many breakfast meetings and after-work drinks you can make in the course of a month, so, yes, inevitably, you'll need to take some meetings during the work day. Kept to a reasonable number, this is fine – don't stress yourself out if you need to do it two or three times in the course of a month.

For most of us, our formative personal experiences with job-hunting come from a long time ago – applying to work as a waiter during college, interviewing for summer internships, hanging out at the University Career Office. And that leads us to make incorrect assumptions about what's best for our job hunts today, as professionals.

Specifically, conventional wisdom about the professional job hunt is wrong: "If my boss finds out, it's catastrophic for me. Therefore, secrecy is of the utmost importance."

That paranoia may have been appropriate when you were working summer jobs, or just part of a herd of first-year employees – easily canned, easily replaced – but the world is much different for good employees.

"Got fired for looking" is extremely rare in professional positions. The far more likely response of your boss is Relief or Repair.

As a manager, you know how maddening it can be to handle troublesome employees. Just think how difficult it is for you to unload a lazy or ineffective headcount: filling out forms, endless rounds with HR, mandatory job counseling, etc. So finding out that your worker also knows it's not working and is looking for work elsewhere leads to Relief: "Phew, I'm not going to have pay severance or go through the motions on these confrontational conversations about performance anymore."

Or, in the much more likely case that this is bad news for your boss, comes the response of Repair: "Oh, my gosh! He's thinking about leaving? I have to make budget this year and get all these projects done, I can't afford to lose somebody right now. I'd better do something to get things back on the right track!"