When people attempt a job search, they almost always take an approach that leads to limited success. Of course, it is unintentional. They just don’t think about the fact that, because we live in such a high-growth market, local companies already have good choices to pull from the employment pool. As a result, these companies less likely to advertise, and unlikely to make a major attempt to find…you. Our economic climate requires a more sophisticated approach to career search.
What is Your “RMP?”
It is critical that you understand the value that you bring to the market—your “Realistic Market Potential,” or the amount of money that, realistically, you can expect to make given your background and experience. Example: If the minimum amount of salary necessary to maintain your desired career level and lifestyle is $40,000 and the maximum is $80,000 then your RMP is $60,000—the average of your low and high.
- Your unemployment cost. In our example, it is $5,000 per month. Yes, it costs you $5,000 for every month of your job search. This is an extremely important consideration, because not many people can maintain their standard of living with this kind of deficit. And yet, most job seekers use classified and Internet job listings for 90 percent of their searches, not the best use of either their time or effort as their unemployment “costs” pile up.
- Your underemployment cost. If your job search is ineffective,
there is a good chance it will wear you down—and you’ll end
up taking any position that is reasonably close to what you wanted, even
if it falls far short of your salary expectations. This creates a different
kind of inefficiency. In our example, if you take a job with a $40,000
salary when your RMP is $60,000, you are actually underemployed
$1666 dollars per month.
As this figure compounds over time—and you’re probably not in as stimulating an environment as you had hoped and secretly resenting the “pay cut” you’ve given yourself—an unfavorable outcome is possible.