Are You Making Enough Money?
Market Value and Goal Setting
During any recruitment season, people are always trying to figure out if they should be asking for a raise and what they need to ask for (settle for) with new job offers.
In some occupations, this is easy because there are services that do salary surveys. In international education, heads of school often get this data as part of groups they belong to, or via accreditation bodies. This information is rarely shared with teachers.
Your first salary at any job really determines the most about your final salary and earning potential. If you start too low, the nominal raises given would never equal the amount you would make if you started at the top of your salary range.
So how do you know if you are making enough money and if you are being paid the true market value for your position? How can you improve your situation? By setting personal goals and not worrying about other people.
What is your goal? Forget the housing package, medical insurance, etc. What is your long term financial goal? Do you want to retire? Buy a home? Pay off debt? Maybe, all of the above.
Sitting down and doing some simple math will let you know if the job you have can help you reach your goals, and in about what amount of time that process will take.
If you find that your job cannot help you achieve your goals, without having another job, then it is time to move on. If you find that your job can get you to the end but it will take far too long, then it is time to move on. If you find that you can reach the summit in a reasonable time frame if you could get a one time 10% raise, now you can negotiate.
Being logical, and using math, is really the only path forward. Some people stay in jobs for years for emotional reasons. I had a friend keep a bad job because they had invested time in developing a curriculum, yet the job was killing them financially.
This is often known as a skin in the game fallacy. People have a tough time cutting their loses.
I had a friend who was tutoring so much that 33% of their income was coming from tutoring. Now, this seems quiet impressive, until you realize they are working for their school full time, doing additional duties as required, teaching a night class at a university, and tutoring 12-25 hours a week. My friend had no personal life, and they had the potential to earn the same level of income by switching jobs.
My friend switched jobs, exceeded their previous total income, and stopped tutoring.
I have had the same experience. Once I settled on what I needed to earn, I ignored any job offers that were out of that range. Regardless of location or how “famous” the school was.
I had two offers from schools that were literally less than one kilometre apart. One job offered $20,000.00 less than the other. The schools were nearly the same size, and the job was the same. The job offering less was more famous , but that fame does not translate to money or assets.
Determining your value on the market is challenging. I have thought about doing a seminar on ways to do this. It does require regional based research on taxes, currencies, investment potential etc. I believe a seminar like this might help the average person boost their potential salary for new jobs by 5-10%, and possibly help others looking to internally promote. Recruitment agents rarely negotiate salaries for candidates, and it is a tricky business.
If you would be interested in this, comment, email me, or contact me on LinkedIn. My information is below.
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Why is this SubStack called, Pancake on a Stick?
Pancake on a Stick is the single funniest story I have ever heard in my life. In about a year from now, the event will be reenacted and recorded. I named the SubStack after the story, because every time I think of the name, I smile and laugh. This helps with my writing and tone, and makes me always remember the most important things in life.
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Most social media is dead to me, but you can find me on LinkedIn and Youtube.
LinkedIn (A bastion of boredom but mostly on mission)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdeprato/
Email
info@tonydeprato.com
My video series on Expat Recruitment is BORING but useful Listen or Watch and you can master this process.