Are you getting paid what you deserve

Are you getting paid what you deserveAre you getting paid what you deserveTake these four steps to figure out what youre really worth.We all have those moments in our career when we wonder if were getting paid what we deserve. We might even worry that were being taken advantage of. There are simple steps you can take to find out what people in similar positions are making, but its a bit more difficult to accurately determine your individual worth.Its never easy to look at your own work with an objective eye, but if you can step back and see yourself as others do, youll never have to wait on supervisors to give the official word about how youre doing. By being proactive and carefully critiquing yourself on a regular basis, youll be better prepared to ask for a raise when you deserve it - and to improve your performance when you dont.Ready to get started? Take these four steps to figure out what youre really worth.1. Know your market.Before you assess your own worth, you need a clear idea of what your peers are making. Use resources like Ladders Job Market Guides, Payscale and Glassdoor to find out what the average salary is in your field and region, and ask friends and close colleagues if theyre comfortable sharing how much they make. The range might be wide, but this gives you a general figure to start with. Are you on the high end or the low? Maybe somewhere in between? Where do you want to be at this point in your career?2. Assess your skill set.Whether youve been working for six months or six years, youve probably (hopefully) developed some skills you didnt have when you started out. Now, how much are those skills really worth? Are they typical of workers in your field, or do they help you stand out from the crowd? Are they truly useful in your career, or are they just something else to put on your resume? Pinpoint those skills that really reflect your proficiency and expertise - theyre the ones that can significantly impact your worth.3. Consider your sta tus.Have you established yourself as an authority in your industry? If you left your current job today, do you think a competitor would scoop you up right away? If you feel confident that people outside of your own company are aware of your talent or would be impressed by it, that might make you more valuable to your current employer as well.4. Pinpoint your problem areas.What are your weaknesses? Where do you fall short of your peers? Recognize the areas where you need to improve, and try to figure out how significant those areas really are in the big picture. If your skills or experience are lacking in areas where your colleagues are excelling, it could mean youre not as valuable as they are. The solution? Be honest about your shortcomings and do everything you can to improve them.After spending some time pondering these questions, you will hopefully have a better understanding of your own value, allowing you to honestly determine whether or not youre being paid what youre worth. And if youre not? Feel confident knowing that now you have the ammunition to demand what you deserve.

Career Paths Arent Always Straight and Narrow, and thats Okay!

Career Paths Arent Always Straight and Narrow, and thats Okay Career Paths Arent Always Straight and Narrow, and thats Okay 1. While career experimentation follows a more jack of all trades, master of none philosophical approach, what you wont gain in deep experience in individual feels is replaced by the ability to understand multiple perspectives. Think about it. It can be extremely beneficial to be able to call on past skills from a variety of jobs should the need arise for particular experience. Through experiencing multiple perspectives, you gain the ability to relate to people from a diverse range of backgrounds, helping you build relationships with a wider array of clients and partners.Your assorted experiences also boost your abilities as a manager as you are likely to oversee a set of employees with a host of functions. And while you probably will not be an expert in any or all of the areas represented by your team, the basic knowledge youve gained will help you be a more effective manager able to more efficiently delegate work to the proper workers.2. A huge benefit to having such a wide range of occupational experience is that you gain the knowledge you need to discard career paths that dont suit you. This decision can often be reached after an internship, without even having to spend substantial time working in the field. This is especially true if you use the time to meet with people spanning the breadth of roles that are represented within the field.3. Regardless of industry or role, you inevitably learn skills that are common and necessary across a range of careers. Such skills include communication, managing people, and building client relationships, just to name a few. As you look for new experiences, pay attention for the signs that a job will help you build such transferable skills.4. Once you build up enough experience, you will begin to recognize general patterns by which organizations operate and be able to begin comparing industries in a way that allows you to start finding your preferences. Once you start pinpointing these preferences you can start noticing those companies and industries that play to them.When youve collected these experiences and decide it is time to settle down to a strict career path, you must then determine which experiences and aspects of your past work are most relevant to the new job you are after. Stick to relying on a few core functions in your resume construction and use them to showcase your skills on paper and in person. While you may find that your skills dont match up perfectly for the job you want, dont focus on your weaknesses and let your diverse experiences speak to your flexibility and adaptability.As you can see, having a non-linear career path is not a bad thing and gives you opportunities to experiment and learn things that you would never have encountered otherwise. Just remember to always bring your past lessons with you on new endeavors and keep learning and growing your value as a unique and eclectic worker.

Everyone Faces Setbacks Adopt a Resilience Regimen Today

Everyone Faces Setbacks Adopt a Resilience Regimen Today Everyone Faces Setbacks - Adopt a Resilience Regimen Today Setbacks are an unavoidable part of life, especially in your career. If you dont learn to deal with them properly, you may end up with a lot of regret - and you may evenmake the setback harder to overcome.When it comes to setbacks, the sooner we learn to deal with them, the better. Whether a setbackispersonal or professional, one thing is certain Building resilience is critical to overcoming whatever comes your way.The Resilience RegimenSetbacks bring up a lot of emotions. They can make you feel deflated and even helpless. Theycan rob you of your sense of control over your own life and career. Once you start feeling that way, the setback may start to look positively insurmountable.When faced with a setback, the key is to quickly shift to a solutions-based mindset. This is where the resilience regimencomes in.Formulatedby Harvard Business School Professor Joshua D. Margolis and PEAK Learning CEO Dr. Paul G. Stoltz in a 2010 Harvard Business Review article, a resilience regimen is a deliberative rather than reflexive approach to dealing with hardship centered on asking questions to reframe negative darbietungs in productive ways.When we look at setbacks, we have the option to see them through various lenses. For instance, we might examine the event in terms of the control we have (or no longer have) and how longthe impact of the setback will last. While some of us have a natural tendency to blame ourselves and get stuck in the sea of negativity, others quickly focus on how to turn things around. They triage the situation, conduct some kind ofpostmortem evaluation, and are able to learn from their mistakes. These people use the setback as an occasion to find ways to move forward and to prevent the situation from happening again.For those of us who need more help when trying to shift from a blame-focused to a solutions-focused mindset, all hope i s leid lost. We, too, can practice resilience. We just need to ask the right questions. That way, we can clarify for ourselves how to push through the setback and get back on track.It is important to realize that you are not powerless in the face of adversity. You may not be able to control everything, but you can control some things. These should be your starting point. Toward that end, Margolis and Stoltz recommend you ask yourself the following questionsWhat aspects of the situation can I directly influence to change the course of this adverse event?How can I make the most immediate positive impact on this situation?What can I do to reduce the potential downside of this event by even 10 percent? What can I do to maximize the potential upside? (If you look hard enough, there may be an upside to focus on. For example, getting laid off is certainly a setback, but it could alsobe the catalyst that causes you to find a jobthat ultimately makes you happier.)What do I want life to look like on the other side of this event, and what steps can I take to get even a little closer to that end?Adopting any habit takes practice, and a resilience regimen is no different. Practice this type of evaluation as often as you can.Its just like working out a muscle The more you try resilience, the stronger your resilience will grow.Another thing that helps is to write your answers down. When you write down the answers to these questions, you force yourself to be more specific than you would be if you had just thought about the answers in your head. Writingyour answers down also allows you to revisit them at a later time. According to Margolis and Stoltz, studies show that writing your answers down canbetter support youremotional and physical well-being and offer you a stronger sense of control over the situation.Its also critical to seek support, especially if you tend to isolate yourself when dealing with a setback. That said, dontconfuse support with finding other blame-focused people with whom you can commiserate. If youre building resilience, thats the last thing you need.Instead, look to people you trust who arent too emotionally investedandcan really be objective. Someone like a mentor or trusted advisor would be best.Finally, remember that youre not alone. Everyone, even those who are wildly successful, experiences setbacks. Research your heroes and learn from the stories of how they overcame various challenges. Youll find the most successful people in the world are those who have mastered the art of reframing failures. Theyknow failure leads to growth. Instead of simply pushing past failure, they embrace the experience as a learning opportunity,and theylook forward to putting what they learned from their mistakes into practice.A version of this article originally appeared on theAtrium Staffing blog.Michele Mavi isAtrium Staffings resident career expert.