Time + Skills (should) = Pay Package

I always say to my clients, if all things are equal this equation is right. Now we all have issues with the credit crunch, the oil price and the economic situation. Lots of jobs in IT are continuing to be outsourced to India, at 20% of the salaries paid in the UK. However in today's Sunday Times there is an article about these Indian graduates setting up their own unofficial trade union and coming to negotiate with the UK employers direct. In a global economy things will balance out in the end.

What skills are you learning now to take into effect the opportunities that will come to you with the recession?

Ask your boss - discussion with coaching client yesterday

I have a target to earn £90k by 2010. What do I need to do to get that?

That is a great question to ask your boss at an informal meeting.

There are three reasons for this
1 - If you are serious it will get you thinking about the action you need to take.
2 - It will get your boss thinking about it
3 - It will mean that you and your boss will have to take action, if you are serious.

A few tips for fast tracking this.

1 - Dress like you are already earning it
2 - Act like you are already earning it.
3 - Imagine you are at 2010 and you have just received the letter confirming the new salary. What do you look like as you receive it? how do you feel? how do you sound as you talk to yourself and others? Hold that feeling and now - think back to 2008, what action did you take to start the process. Now write the actions down on a piece of paper and do the first thing you need to do. Just do it - action unlocks potential.

You can do this same process with anything you want to be successful at - it doesn't have to be around money.

Graduate salary negotiation

Jenny a University graduate when asking for more at her 1st job said, "I was expecting more for the skills I have got" She was given an extra 4.4% and told she was the 1st graduate who had the cheek to ask. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Be cheeky but say it with a knowing confident smile (:-))

Be careful how you position your price

After a life long career with just one company, a friend of mine recently asked me how to position his daily price when he went for a number of different consultancies. I said make sure you don't underestimate your value when they ask you how much you want. He is an amazingly skilled individual with the sales skills he has, the management skills he has and the contacts he can leverage.

So at the 1st job which was 20 days a year they asked him how much he wanted and he said £2500 per day. When they said OK he gulped. So at the next job when they said how much he said £3000 a day. Guess what they said - OK. Even bigger gulp - now the question is what do you advise him to ask for next?

There are three issues here that we can learn -
1 - Make sure you position yourself for the value you can create for the other side
2 - Make sure you have a mentor to help you through a time when you can be not quite as self-confident as you might be
3 - You have to be comfortable inside about the pay you receive for the service that you give to be congruent. There may be a learning cycle which you need to go through when you change jobs.

My friend who I talk about in an earlier blog has found that the company he now works for, which is German run has a much different culture than the UK culture that he worked in before. He is not comfortable, so despite the extra money he may not be around for long.

"The grass is not always as green as it seems on the other side until you get there and find that there is cost to you of their sprinkling system"

Newcastle football club refuses to sack yob footballer

Having paid £5.8m for Joey Barton last year is it a surprise that Newcastle FC will not sack the footballer who is now in prison. If they do it would mean that another club could sign him on a free transfer. Having negotiated such a poor deal in the first place shouldn't Newcastle bite the bullet and do the right thing?