How to Get a Salary Negotiation Crash Course

 
I had someone tell me the other day that he was so far along in his career that he "didn't need to learn anything more about finding a job." His exact words were "if you don't know how to land a new job after 20 years of industry experience, then there's something wrong with you."

Wow! That's an interesting perspective, especially considering how much hiring practices have changed over last 5-10 years (particularly with social media, HR integration, and recruiting on the rise).

My team and I spend every day watching the IT and technical job market closely for my client members as a Technical Résumé Writer and IT Job Search Specialist, as well as a Technical Career Adviser to several news/industry outlets, like TechRepublic, Dice, the Linux Foundation, and CIO.com. And I can confidently say that the market is a "zoo" and that corporate hiring and retention practices are full of "goo" (aka, a hot, sticky mess).

Plus, I'm not sure how 20 years of industry experience necessarily equates to being a job search expert (hopefully you're spending more of your career doing the job, not looking for it, right?)

Anyway, I did my best to explain to my friend above that our purpose here at ITtechExec was twofold: 1) to provide support during what has become a "zoo"-like hiring process (on a good day) by being the eyes and ears in the industry and 2) to offer both certainty that your materials position you for this process and convenience in helping to make sure your job search has the best possible "launch" and that your ongoing career management stays on track.

Of course you can do all these things on your own; that's how you probably did them in the past. The point is that you no longer have to go it alone and hope that you are doing everything right. Support structures that are backed by a strong team are the hallmark of any strong business model, and they should be the hallmark of today's wisest "corporate entrepreneurs" (sorry, that's a shameless plug for my book UNCOMMON with Brian Tracy, Summer 2015, where I talk about "corporate entrepreneurship").

Salary Negotiation Crash Course

So with that said, we've devised some critical "crash courses" to support key areas in your job search efforts. Our most popular crash course is without question our Salary Negotiation Crash Course. Created and conducted by me with materials compiled by Sheree Van Vreede, my bride and our quality control and market watchdog (she's the thought leader who keeps us on the cutting edge of our industry).

Because of the stiff competition in not just the hiring process but also in ongoing career management and advancement, we find that many of our client members struggle most when it comes to salary negotiation. And for good reason, most companies don't make it easy to be straightforward and have a frank discussion about compensation.

If you're like the majority of our members, it often feels like you work so hard just to get to that stage where salary is discussed, only to enter a whole new realm that can leave you wondering whether you really did your best and whether you should have become some type of negotiation expert first.  

And, really, why should you? You're busy, well, working and innovating and taking care of your family and (hopefully) sleeping and, well, you get the picture!

That's where we come in! We offer a customized, 1-1 crash course with me that is guaranteed to (1) get you up to speed without taking too much of your time (1-2 hours tops), (2) give you a strategy tailored to your goals (new job or future career advancement), and (3) provide you with the certainty that you need to know only what you need to know and the convenience of not having to spend hours of free time doing the wrong things or reading up on all the latest salary negotiation hype.

"Salary negotiation. Ugh. Isn't that supposed to be the fun part of the job search? I mean, after all the stress of searching and waiting for the offer, now you're in the final stretch...only to find out the hardest part might just be beginning. The last thing you want is for the the whole thing to fall through, but you can't leave money on the table either. That's where I found myself. I actually had two offers, which meant two negotiations. It should have felt like an ideal situation, but it wasn't easy and I had to admit that I needed help. Stephen walked me through the process, helped me craft my side of the argument, and gave me confidence that I walked away with the best deal. Not too bad for only $295. I've spent much more for less!" Tim J., Aerospace Engineer, Houston, TX

How It Works

If you have a current negotiation or upcoming one, we can tailor the course to that. Or we can provide a general salary negotiation session, where we discuss various strategies. Our crash course starts out with some preliminary information gathering that includes a few questions for you to answer and an assessment of the current state of your salary needs. We will then prepare a report for you that we will share during a 1-hour phone/Skype session with you that will go through how to maximize your salary negotiation efforts. We will also share course materials and provide follow-up to see how things are going after the course.

Sounds simple? It is!

Order Your Salary Negotiation Crash Course today for just $295.

Interested in Our Other Crash Courses?

In addition to the Salary Negotiation crash course, we have three other courses, all focused on key elements of today's job search/career advancement. Like the Salary Negotiation Crash Course, they are all customized, 1-1 sessions with course material, require no more than 1-2 hours of your time, and are just $295 each.

LinkedIn Crash Course: Because of the rising relevance of LinkedIn in not just the hiring process but also in ongoing career management, we find that many of our members are not really using it or are unaware of how best to use it for them. They know enough to dabble with it, and they know it is important, but they don't have the time or energy to research how to become an "expert" at it. That's where we come in!

Video Interviewing Crash Course: The higher up the corporate ladder you go, and especially if you are dealing with global companies, the more likely it is that you will face video interviewing. This course includes a mock video interview session with subsequent analysis. Even if you don't end up having a video interview, you can still benefit from a third-party analysis of your interviewing strategy (notice I did not say "skills," I said "strategy").

Recruiter Engagement Crash Course: As you either work with Sue on obtaining our customized recruiter list or the full-service recruiter matching campaign (where Sue takes the list and makes the introductions on your behalf) or pursue recruiters on your own, you will begin to engage with recruiters who respond and show interest in you and your background. Sometimes it is great; other times it is a confusing world. When recruiters come to you, things can be good, but when you reach out to them, then things can get complicated. I have many recruiter connections, and admittedly, they will tell me that they often say one thing when they mean another. So it is wise to get educated on "recruiter speak."

Bundled Savings Options:

If you're interested in more than one of our courses, we offer some bundled savings options:
Any 2 Crash Courses for $549

 4 Crash Courses for $995

Best regards,

Stephen

P.S.: If you want to speak with me, feel free to email me at stephen@ittechexec.com or book a 30-minute free phone/Skype consult with me via my Calendar tool.

P.S.S.: Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn too:

 

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

Determining Cultural Fit Before You Accept the Job Offer

In 2014, we were inundated with reports, blog articles, and LinkedIn group and Twitter chats all driving home the notion that cultural fit was the #1 issue in hiring today. Poll after poll and study after study made it clear that cultural fit was what both candidates and employers were after. Yet, when I spoke with technical professionals throughout the year, what I discovered is that despite a desire for a better cultural fit, very few of them knew how to make that part of the job search process.  

In other words, they were willing to hop out of one bad fit into another, hoping the grass was greener because, well, it just had to be!

I was recently interviewed by Rich Hein of CIO.com on this topic, and his article "How to Tell If a Company's Culture Is Right for You" is the result of our discussion. You may or may not love social media, but one thing that it can do for us is provide a wealth of information and quickly. LinkedIn, in particular, now gives us direct access to people inside corporations, stats, brand awareness, and more, all things that were difficult to obtain in the past.  

You may never be able to know with 100% certainty what it is like to work inside a company until you're there, but you can do more than just hope for greener pastures.

Start putting today's tools to work for you, and use networking to its fullest.

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

Salary Negotiation 411

You might be moving into the salary negotiation phase of your job search soon. This area is a big one as we all want to come out of these negotiations feeling that we set ourselves up for a fair wage (after all, we worked so hard just to get to this point!).

Below are attached some infographics on salary negotiation that you might find useful to you. As always, feel free to share them with friends, colleagues, or across social media:

 

My main advice when it comes to salary negotiation is simple:

Know what the market says your worth. Too many people walk into a salary negotiation unaware of this, but it's the main ingredient. We'd all like to think we can "name our price," but the market really does that (so capitalistic, I know!). So do your research and build your salary range off of that.  

Never offer your lowest number. If your lowest salary expectation is $100K, then your range should be something like $105K-$120K. Chances are you will end up somewhere around $110K, but even if you do end up at $105K, you are still above your bottom number. Of course, there are other factors involved, like benefits and vacation time, and you should weigh them in the offer, but companies know that candidates are willing to make sacrifices in salary for these benefits, so they use it to get you to agree to less money, which means you have to work your way up (here and at the next company) from a lower base.  

Desperation never "sells." Sorry, but like it or not, you are selling something here...your services. We can call it by any other name, if it makes you more comfortable, but what you really need is a good understanding of sales 101: Desperation is a vibe we carry (even if we think we don't). So work hard to keep a level head. The best way I know is to focus on the benefits, not features, you bring to the employer. What problem are you going to solve for them? Don't just say you are good and worth it because you have X. Instead, tell them how you will leverage X to make the employer's life better. Believe it or not, you still have to connect the dots! Ultimately, you want to "win" the offer at a rate you desire, but the company gets a bigger win: an answer to a problem it has because you are going to provide it. (And you want this, by the way. You want the other side of the negotiation to feel like it got a great deal, not because you came cheap but because you offered a great benefit. Your working relationship will start out much better this way.)    

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

Your Next Career Move Will Be All About That Presentation

 
In today's marketplace, you might often be thinking: "Good help is becoming increasingly hard to find. Whom do I trust?"

Just like you, this is exactly what employers are wondering when you approach them in the job search process. And just like you, they want more certainty. It's why the hiring and promotion process is such a zoo.  
They're convinced they need you; they're just not persuaded to take the chance. After all, like all of us, they too have made poor choices in the past, choices that have cost hundreds of thousands in salary and benefits.

So what do they do? Nothing...or worse, look for cheaper alternatives.

It's why presentation in today's market has taken on so much importance, and it's why it takes more than experience, certs, and strong connections to close an offer.  

Presentation dictates response.

When many think of "presentation," they think of 4-color artwork, a fancy brochure, a flashy website, or a 5-star multimedia campaign. But the presentation I am referring to is more than that because really what makes a presentation so effective has to do with two things: 1) a strategic, well-positioned story that 2) speaks to how it solves the problems of its target market.

In today's tech market, employers are saying they can't find good talent, both in leadership and in tech knowledge, but I meet top candidates everyday who fit this bill.

The problem? Presentation.

Candidates won't invest in getting that right, and hiring leaders are too busy to help them connect the dots. Thus, they both end up confused and frustrated, settling for less than they deserve.  

That's why you need to connect the dots.

Don't just get another resume; instead, understand how to carry that through to your job search strategy and interview. Make sure you really know what's going on in the hiring world, specifically your hiring world.

It's not like it used to be out there. That's for sure. But the biggest risk is doing all the right things, working hard, producing good results, getting the right credentials, and making good connections, only to bomb the presentation.

So make sure you have everything in place to ace it, to protect everything you've worked so hard to build. This way, when companies consider you for a role, they'll be persuaded you're more than worth the investment.

--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!