5 Tips to Maximize Your Job Offer - CareerAlley

5 Tips to Maximize Your Job Offer - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Youve sent countless resumes, spoken with too many recruiters and have had your fair share of interviews. Now you have a job offer, but do you know what youre worth and do you have a bottom line? You need to know both, what you are worth in the current job market (please see my post Are you paid what youre worth?) as well as your bottom line (defined as the lowest salary, benefits and other perks at which you would accept an offer and not feel as if you are under selling yourself). Following are some tips and tools to help evaluate a job offer. What to Consider: Is this Your Dream Job?: All of the items listed below are important, but your responsibilities should be your number one consideration. Is this really the job you want? Will you get an opportunity to learn new things? What are the prospects for advancement? Think long and hard and make a list of the pros and cons. Will Your Job be There Tomorrow?: Is the company profitable? Is your role and department part of the companys long term strategy? You need to know these things before you say yes. The Company and Your Manager: Do you feel comfortable with the company? Is this where you want to work? Do people look like they are happy? What about who will be your manager? Can you work for this person, do you like them? Think about it long and hard. Is this Your Dream Job?: All of the items listed below are important, but your responsibilities should be your number one consideration. Is this really the job you want? Will you get an opportunity to learn new things? What are the prospects for advancement? Think long and hard and make a list of the pros and cons. Benefits: Do you have all of the benefits that you want and need? What about vacation and other benefits? How much does it all cost? Make a list can compare it to your current job. Salary: Okay, the punch line. How much are they offering you? Is this what you are worth? Do your homework, check salary surveys and make sure you are comfortable with the compensation (and take a look at the resources below). Some Additional Resources: How to Evaluate a Job Offer This article is from US News World report and covers 5 things you should consider when getting a job offer. Salary is number one on the list, but there are some additional items to review. How to Evaluate an Offer This article, from Salary.com, provides some of the basics for evaluating a job offer. Titles, Salary, Bonus, Benefits, Perks, Vacation Time and Start Date. Dont forget, everything can be negoitiated (see I got a job offer, now what? Negotiating a Job Offer), but you need to know your bottom line. Turning Good Job Offers Into Great Ones This article is from Vault.com and is jam packed with information. Additionally, the site has salary surveys from actual companies followed by salary and compensation chartes by profession. Lastly, there are links to functional job salaries (such as Accounting or Health Care). You may need to be a Vault member to see some of this information. Salary Guides Guidance Provides excellent links to Salary and Compensation guides as well as links to evalutating salary data. JobStar Central Profession-Specific Salary Surveys Links to over 300 free online salary surveys is part of the tagline for this site (provided by www.jobstar.org). Each functional link leads to a list of several salary surveys for that profession. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+ Job Search job title, keywords, company, location jobs by