How much do you expect to make, the
interviewer or recruiter will ask you…
What do you say?
Several posts have addressed this.1 2
So, do you say what you find at one
site? No as we have mentioned, check a
few.
But don’t just run the numbers, do a
“sanity check” on the numbers.
Recently, I went a reputed high value site
and used the salary comparator. I compared
several different jobs which I expected to
come up differently, like process chemical
engineering with 20 years experience with
a health and safety principal engineer. Guess
what? Same numbers…
It suggests the database does not have enough
data or does not separate the job titles enough,
or regions of the country. This means that any
data from this kind of search needs to be
questioned.
Certainly, I complained to the association. I
do know that they have severely cut back
on providing this service for members as it
is not a revenue producer. Members need
to indicated dis-satisfaction. However we
need to also look at sites like salary.com and
others that may help.
September 10th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Data reported in the WSJ (9-10-08; p. A3)
indicate wages for degreed employees has
decreased comparing 2007 to 2000.
The article highlights inflation-adjusted data
giving a 2.7% falling for BS, 3.8% falling for
MS and 1.2% for Ph.D.
This is interpreted as being due to
(1) off-shoring,
(2) competition for jobs in US (market
forces, more seekers than positions),
(3) rising employee health-care costs,
absorbed by employers.
Note there is no discrimination among fields,
regions of the country, years of experience,
or size of companies in the Census bureau data report.