Most of us when applying to a position target the upper echelon on the pay scale. Why is that? Could it be that we all belong in the top 10% of pay? Regardless of your profession we all feel that we deserve to be compensated well, if not even a little bit better than our peers. This sense of wanting to be paid more comes from an inherent need to compete. According to Harvard Business Review research studies suggest that competition can motivate employees, make them put in more effort, and achieve results. In fact, competition increases physiological and psychological activation, which prepares mind and body for elevated effort and allows for higher performance.
If you showed up to work today you are competing whether you’d like to or not, and even more so if you are in the job market. For many of us our resume is a snapshot as to who we are as an employee, and many times is the only thing that we have to represent ourselves. Every skill you show illustrating the arsenal of your capabilities. These attributes ultimately are what make someone contact you for a role, or choose to move on to another candidate. Every profession has the words as these indicators, and each one with a monetary value attached to it. For example, a C# Developer in New York City can carry a number of different titles but if they were to Label themselves a Sr. Web Software Developer they could be looking at a median income of $115,352 according to Salary.com.
Things That You Can Do to Reach Elite Status
Have you ever asked yourself how you could make yourself more marketable? The answers may be clear but the resolve it may take to get there may not be as simple. Today’s market is ever changing and being able to adapt to it will ultimately determine who is going to be moving up the corporate ladder.
- Learning a different language sounds like a daunting task, but mastering one will open up opportunities for you that you may not have had otherwise. Spanish, in the tristate area is one of the more in demand languages but if you are looking to make a larger imprint in the international field, French is a very up and coming language with a possible 750 million additional people speaking it by 2050 according to Forbes.com.
- Having a Bachelor’s Degree today tends to be the minimum standard for getting your foot in the door at most companies. For many of these positions getting a graduate or professional degree can make a major dent in enhancing your marketability and pay expectations. According to Study.com the difference can be as little $2,700 a year from a Bachelors degree to a Masters degree in Journalism and Mass Communication or as much as $24,200 in the case of a Bachelors Degree to a Masters Degree in Nursing.
- Not all skill sets are sought after in all locations. If you have, the ability to do so be flexible to the idea of relocating. Many roles out there are dependent on this road warrior mentality. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy many candidates were able to capitalize on the dire need in the state of NJ for construction, electrician, and engineering professionals to the tune of close to 36 billion dollars according to an ABC news article.
Things You Should Avoid
Have you sent out your resume to several hundred recruiters and employers and have not heard anything back? Although it may not be apparent to you, there could be simple things that you may be doing that will keep you from being a Blue Chip candidate and leaving you in the same Bin with the “maybe” resumes.
- An e-mail account acts as a virtual address for your email messages. This address is provided to you by your email account provider and contains information about your username, email account provider, password, and email settings. As plain and as to this point as this description of your email address is, should set an example of what your email address should read. An email address should not be treated as a vanity license plate but more as a reliable means of being able to communicate with you. In many instances emails like this could cause you to lose out on a federal job according to jobhunt.org.
- When you are earlier on in your career, there is a lot of pressure to be able to fill your resume with viable experience. Not everyone has had have experiences relevant to the careers you are targeting and could, instead include hobbies and things you may have excelled at. Once established in your career, you may want to taper off from your experiences as a JV basketball coach, or interest in stamp collecting.
- Over exaggerating, is something that is relatively common. To an extent, most have over exaggerated on resumes. The issues lies in when you claim a skill set that you simply do not possess. Be clear with your abilities, if you studied Spanish last in your sophomore year in high school and haven’t attempted to speak it in the past few years you do not possess “conversational” Spanish skills. Being honest with yourself is the best way to assure you find the right role for yourself.
Being a Blue Chip Candidate is difficult. That difficulty tends to be what employers are willing to pay more for. If you want to be one of the elite in your field, be open to advice and constant education. It’s easy to become complacent. Take an active role; be intentional in how you design your career by staying interested, engaged, and hungry about whether you are an entry-level intern, or high-level CEO. The universe will always find a way to reward those striving to better themselves in their field.
Thank you for reading,
Jorge Brizuela | Sr. Recruiter TBG Healthcare
