In an ideal world a salary range or even set number would be listed on every job posting, but that’s not the world we live in. Let’s talk about how to research salary. Researching salary should be done before the interview, but can definitely be done even before you apply for a position if you are concerned with the salary.
There are a few ways to research salary. One is to go to LinkedIn and in the jobs section you can input your salary information to be able to see all the pay information of anyone on LinkedIn who has also put in their information. The thing to note here is that the information added by users is not vetted by anyone so you need to have that in the back of your mind when reviewing the information. You can search by the location and job title which can help you account for the different salaries that might depend on the cost of living in the area.
Glassdoor is another website that requires you to first put in your salary before you can see other information. As with any salary research you want to take into account your level of experience as this is can impact the pay over time. For example, if you have little experience you will probably expect to be offered on the lower end of the salary range you find by researching.
Another great research tool, is the Occupational Outlook Handbook that has a median pay for jobs. It also has tons of other useful information in the job search like the typical education, job outlook, and how to become whatever job you click on, including the skills necessary for the position you choose.
At last we have our outcomes data for West Texas A & M University students. This information can be filtered by major and year to see salaries that were collected from students as they were graduating. This data was also self-reported.
Now that you’re armed with some ways to research salary it is worth mentioning that the title of the position you’re searching for could have more than one name, so it might take a few different searches to come up with an average salary. Once you have an average it’s good to come up with what a normal range you would accept could be. This could be a question asked to you in the interview process, so it’s best to have this information ready. Be sure to mention your research when stating your range. This way they will know that you didn’t just pull this number from thin air.
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