Searching for a new job can be a stressful, anxiety-inducing process for anyone. If you’re one of the 61 million U.S. adults (26% of the population) who suffers from a disability, a job search can be even more complex and worrisome. Are you legally required to share information about your disability in the first place? […] More
In recent years, organizations across all industries have made strides when it comes to building diverse and inclusive teams. In fact, companies are increasingly hiring and promoting employees from historically underrepresented groups, and they’re also extending offers to more and more women, who now make up the bulk of the U.S. workforce. But despite this […] More
Three-fourths of American women will carry a pregnancy at least once while employed, according to a recent study. With as many as 64% of Americans looking for or considering a new job, it’s reasonable to assume many women will go through the application and hiring process while pregnant. One concern of expectant mothers is that […] More
Have you ever felt like you’re in way over your head in your career? Or maybe read a job description and thought, ‘there’s no way I’m qualified for that’? If so, you may be experiencing imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is the appearance of anxious thoughts and feelings that lead you to believe you’re out of […] More
PrepareDon’t wait for your start date to begin getting ready. Preparation should start immediately! Decide where your dedicated workspace will be and set it up to be a comfortable and productive area for you. Make sure your WiFi connection is strong and that you’re near an outlet. Living with family or roommates? Be sure to establish ground rules with the people in your home. Getting a jump start on the little things will make a difference when you get started and will let you focus on your new role. Check out our expert tips to help you get into the right mindset and ease the transition into remote work.Next, if your new company sends over any onboarding material (whether it’s an employee handbook or remote work best practices), be sure to read it! If you have any questions or concerns, reach out to the hiring manager or recruiter as soon as possible so there are no roadblocks on day one. If they send you any IT-related material, make sure all applications and extensions are downloaded and ready to go. Lastly, ask if there’s an IT representative in case there are any hardware or software issues in your first week.The best preparation will ultimately alleviate a lot of the stress that comes with starting a new job — especially a remote one.Understand expectationsWith remote work, you don’t have the luxury to turn to your manager with questions as you acclimate to your new role. This can make it difficult to know if you’re on the right track. On your first day, clarify what you’re accountable for — to your manager, your team, and the company overall. Use the time spent with your manager to understand how the business and your team measure success, and plan how you will make an impact. Confirm your standard work hours, communication preferences, daily priorities, and other metrics/KPIs that are being measured.Take initiative, and see what you can do to get ramped up as quickly as possible. Are there specific training materials that you should reference? Should you shadow certain colleagues? Don’t leave day one without a clear grasp of what’s expected from you.While it’s easy to stay hyper-focused on your specific role when you first start, remember to think of the big picture too. Recognize how your new responsibilities roll up into the success of the business overall. How? One idea is to set up meetings with different departments to learn about other areas of the company. These are also great opportunities to meet with coworkers that you might not work with on a daily basis.Ask questions to show that you’re engaged and thinking ahead. Which coworkers prefer which communication methods, or are there company-wide guidelines to follow? For example, would certain teams prefer a video call while others respond quicker to an email? Should instant messages only be used for urgent questions? In time, you will observe and adapt to the norms, but it’s a good idea to get familiarized early.As you continue to work, more questions will pop up. Instead of pinging your coworkers or boss every time you encounter a hiccup, bundle your questions so you can ask them all at once.Establish relationshipsWorking remotely doesn’t mean you need to sacrifice company culture. Socializing with your teammates is still a must — especially when you’re new!Start by introducing yourself to the necessary individuals (think: teammates, Human Resources, IT, etc.) Set up a quick video call to get to know these people better. It doesn’t need to be considered a “meeting.” Make it a quick coffee chat or a lunch hour – try to mimic the social interactions you would normally have in an office space! Use this opportunity to ask questions such as general icebreakers, perks, and benefits they enjoy, or tips on how to succeed at the company. Forming these relationships early on will make it easier to work with them down the road and give you great insight into your new company.When a colleague helps you during your first week, be sure to thank them. A little bit of gratitude can go a long way. Lastly, ask your manager what meetings you can join in on and observe. Simply showing your face in meetings can help establish your presence at the company and make future introductions more seamless.We recognize that starting a job remotely can be challenging. As you adjust to your new role, be sure to cut yourself some slack. It will take time to figure out a remote setup that works for you, but these tips will help you hit the ground running and ensure an all-star first day! More
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Discussing salary or going into a salary negotiation conversation can be nerve wrecking for many reasons — and you’re not alone. Some may feel like they lack enough (of the right) data to discuss numbers, while others might not feel confident in the actual words to use when approaching a salary conversation to appear fair while achieving a salary they deserve. Both instances can cause unnecessary anxiety for job seekers, and can prove especially difficult for candidates of underrepresented communities, even though it continues to be the top motivator for tech candidates to look for and accept a new role.
Leveraging salary data can help empower job seekers to not only ask for the compensation they deserve, but also expect it. In our webinar, “Staying Empowered With Data: Knowing & Asking For The Compensation You Deserve,” I had the opportunity to discuss with our guest speaker, Virgginnia Buccioni-Hillman — an experienced D&I recruiter, HR professional, and DE&I Program Manager at Tile — about why it is important to seek pay equity, how to uncover accurate data sources, and approach salary discussions.
Empower yourself with accurate salary data
With a wide variety of resources available online, job seekers must be keen to know where their salary data is coming from. Salary information can be presented as base salary or total compensation, which may include equity, stock options, and bonuses. In addition, salary data can be characterized as employer-reported or self-reported data, the difference being that self-reported data cannot be confirmed by employers. While both types of data sources can be helpful for research purposes, this is what can confuse job seekers and make salary discussions more intimidating and possibly misleading.
For technical candidates, there are various factors that should be considered when researching salary data and defining a target salary range, including the career field and role you are in or interviewing for, your current city, the location of the prospective role (if it differs from where you live), your core skill-set, and your years of experience (i.e. overall, within a role, coding in a particular language/framework). In her recruiting experience, Buccioni-Hillman shares that this is how different salary bands are developed and how candidates are evaluated for starting salary within the interview funnel.
Using your research to discuss salary
On Hired, we encourage a type of salary discussion at the first introduction between a candidate and recruiter to establish a preferred base salary on both ends. While this is not set in stone until a final offer is extended, it elicits a conversation around this early on to ensure there are no surprises or time wasted for both parties. It can also be common for salary discussions to happen as the process approaches an onsite interview.
Job seekers should invest themselves into the role and team you are interviewing with and lean into these conversations. When asked what your target compensation range is, you can lean on the data you’ve gathered and share your preferred base salary range based on the market research you’ve done. Likewise, Buccioni-Hillman encourages candidates to feel comfortable asking what the base salary range is for the role and level you are interviewing for. By having an open dialogue early on with the recruiter and hiring manager, it can be an ongoing conversation as you proceed through the interview process.
After doing research into salary data, it is also important to take stock of what is most important to you in a total compensation package, including stock, equity, bonuses, and benefits. Especially in a remote world, examples can include additional vacation time, flexible work schedules, professional development budgets, technology allowances or incorporating a compensation adjustment with a performance review after 6 months and other perks. In an instance of negotiating salary, candidates might shy away from countering to not appear greedy or ungrateful for the opportunity. Companies won’t retract their offer because you would like to negotiate — if anything, they expect you too so don’t be shy.
Displaying confidence in your pitch
If a company has extended a job offer, they believe that you would be a great addition to the team. Displaying gratitude and humility for the opportunity is great but Buccioni-Hillman challenges job seekers to strike a balance between that and ensuring that you aren’t leaving money on the table. Buccioni-Hillman shares that candidates should remember to do the following in salary discussions or negotiations:
Display confidence in your ability to perform the job successfully
Focus on the value you can bring to the role and team
Reiterate your commitment and motivations
Confidence starts within yourself. When you know your worth, it isn’t boastful to ask for what you are valued. Buccioni-Hillman explains how, while there are systems that may work in favor of some more than others, it shouldn’t stop people from believing in themselves. Gaining visibility and a seat at the table starts with asking for help, gaining mentors, and surrounding yourself with like-minded people that you aspire to be like. While it might feel like it, success doesn’t have to be a lonely road. You can go much further in community with others.
Additional Resources:
If you are looking for employer-reported resources and tools to seek accurate salary data, we recommend the following:
Hired’s Salary Calculator: Discover tech role salaries for specific markets, roles, and years of experience based on real offers extended to candidates by companies on Hired.
Hired’s 2020 State of Salaries Report: Understand tech role salaries and compensation trends by market, over time, and across different demographic groups, especially in the rapidly changing world we live in today.
SalaryList: Online tool with real salary data collected from government and companies – annual starting salaries, average salaries, payscale by company, job title, and city. More
Searching for a new job can feel like a daunting task, especially if you weren’t expecting to or have been out of the market for a long time. Before navigating interviews, you may be creating a mental list of things to do including updating your resume, LinkedIn profile, and to start looking at what opportunities are out there. In our recently published ebook, From Layoff to Lift Off: A Comprehensive Guide to Bounce Back in Your Career, we share that the first, and most important, step to start with in your job search is to look within and take stock of what is most important to you in your next opportunity.
Wants & needs
Between what profession and life stage you are or will soon be in, your non-negotiables and ‘nice to haves’ can vary from person to person. Starting a job search calls on self-reflection into your top priorities and deal breakers in your next opportunity, which should take place before speaking with a recruiter. The areas that job seekers can begin evaluating include (but are not limited to):
Finances, such as preferred base salary, bonuses, equity or stock options, and total compensation
Benefits and perks
Work-life balance
Tech stack
Company size, stage, and industry
Company culture
Location, which would include considering if you’re comfortable with and able to commute into an office in a post-COVID world
As you consider these areas for yourself, understanding what you don’t want is equally important as what you do. Additionally, while it is important to showcase your skills and strengths, being able to identify what you are interested in learning more or growing in, especially with regard to your technical experience, will help you immensely to be able to communicate those desires effectively in your online presence, cover letters, and interviews.
Empower yourself with data
Once you have outlined a list of your preferences, requirements, and deal breakers, as a job seeker one of the best things you can do is to empower and equip yourself with data and research into the role(s) you are interested in. You look into the job requirements for the role(s) you’re interested in, compensation offered for the title, level, and market that role is located in, and into the hiring companies, especially as it relates to your list of preferences.
Information on company size, stage, industry, location, and culture are often easily accessible online, especially on the company’s website, prior to you even applying for open roles. On the other hand, information on compensation, benefits, and perks offered might be a little harder to find unless you’re actively interviewing with that respective company. In these instances, it is especially important to know what you want so you can ask the right questions in your interviews to uncover that information to make the best decision for you. In terms of compensation, while company-specific information may not be readily available, you can equip yourself with market research by using tools such as:
According to our 2020 State of Wage Inequality Report, the wage gap that exists today is perpetuated by a gap in what candidates actually expect to receive. This is consistent not only between women and men but also across racial groups, age groups, and markets. Since their expectations are lower than their market value, tech workers are asking for less and getting paid less. When you know your value, and it is backed by data, you can go into conversations about compensation more confidently to ask for what you deserve. By analyzing data from multiple resources, you can cross-reference the numbers you find to give you a good idea of a range you deserve for your experience in addition to what you can expect to see for roles you are interviewing for. More
