If you’re busy doing your job, a long time might have passed since you’ve checked to see whether you’re fairly paid or not. Salary sites are helpful to getting a general sense for salaries. But there are so many nuances with geography, job title, functional area and more that get lost in aggregate data.  You really need data specific to your job at your level in your town. One of the best ways to get the salary data is to talk to people, but how can you get people to freely talk about salary?

It is next to impossible to get people to disclose their own salary, so don’t bother asking someone who is doing your job. Shoot for someone several levels above, who had done the job, so they will know. But who will be beyond it, so they won’t feel threatened. Here is where the research from salary sites is helpful. Use it as a starting point for the conversation. So it’s clear you’ve done some research and the person you’re asking has some talking points to start. Ask them to comment on the estimates you have. Are they high/ low, are they consistent with the specific companies you are targeting.

Remember to get more than one perspective. The downside of asking someone who has left the job is that their info is less current. You can mitigate that by asking several people since it’s unlikely that everyone taken together will be far off. Recruiters will be very helpful here. Test what you now know about salary with recruiters. Post a question to recruiters on LinkedIn or anywhere you can connect. Networking is an important part of a recruiter’s job. They also want to demonstrate their expertise in their market.

Another possibility is to ask people in the job but about another company, so you are still asking about a situation one step removed from them. So you ask someone who is working for a particular company about the pay range at another company.

Finally, even when you have a sense of what your salary should be, you have to take action if you are underpaid or paid on the lower end of the range and could be making more. One portal to consider is Paywatch, which provides all the facts and figures regarding the salaries in the IT industry. Not just the IT professionals, it is equally helpful for recruiters as well. By referring to Paywatch, recruiters would be able to understand if they are paying/offering according to the market range. The best thing is it costs nothing.

Check it out Now! http://paywatch.rezoomex.com/

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With an overall experience of  more that 3 years, Akshay Moon is someone who specializes in content marketing and has always managed to create quality content. He is currently working with Rezoomex as a Digital Marketing Executive.

Passionate about sports, particularly obsessed with cricket, anything related to the game is enough to attract Akshay’s attention.