The Job Offer: Negotiating Salary

Most people find “the money” conversation difficult to address when interviewing. If you aren’t working with a recruiter, you may not even know what the salary range of the position is. If you do, you likely have no way of knowing where your experience fits into the company’s compensation scale. This is one of the many advantages of working with a reputable recruiter.

There are many reasons for actuarial job seekers to work with a recruiter, but one of the most compelling is that they know the industry and all about salary and negotiation.

Your recruiter should have all the information about the company, what the position pays, what skills the job really requires, how those skills are valued, and what type of person would be a good fit for the culture. When you are the perfect match, the recruiter knows that it makes you more valuable to the hiring manager. All of these things factor in to successful salary negotiation. When you work with a recruiter he or she will be able to eliminate the confusion. 

When you receive an offer, the recruiter can help to “sell” your qualifications to the company in a way that you could never do, because they have a connection with the company and the manager.

A good recruiter is experienced in finding the right fit first and then getting the best offer for the candidate. They do the negotiation so that you don’t have to!

Visit us at www.actuarialcareers.com for more information.

Remember when Sony Pictures got hacked?

When Sony Pictures' email system was hacked? Actors’ salaries became public knowledge. That was when some actors discovered the discrepancies in pay scales. Fortunately, the actuarial community has real information and great tools to find out what the marketplace is paying for actuarial positions throughout the country, and for nearly every field and specialization.

We at Actuarial Careers, Inc. realize how important it is to your life and your career path to compare  where you are now, where you are going and what the next step should be along the path in terms of salary advancement. Our recruiters can help you with a strategy for your advancement. Our unique salary survey results are presented with query tools that allow you to slice and dice the salary data we collect. In a few keystrokes you can see what job titles, specializations and geographic locations are paying.     

   

Every year, in December, we launch a new survey. Participation in the survey includes actuaries in a drawing for prizes. We encourage you, and the actuaries you know to participate. The more participation we get the more you will know about salaries in your industry. Your information is always confidential. 

Take a look, and be sure to be on the lookout for our emails and social media posts. If you aren’t on our list, sign up here.  In the meantime, here’s a link to our HOT jobs.

Are your salary requirements realistic?

It can be difficult to get perspective on your value in the workplace. Often candidates’ ideas of what they think they should be earning are mis-aligned with what employers are willing to pay or what the marketplace will bear.

Wanting to earn more can be a reason to change jobs, but if that’s the only reason, it might mean you need to take a closer and more educated look at the marketplace, your value in it, and your value to your existing employer.

Before you begin, realize that your financial needs are not justification for earning more. Take stock of your experience, not only in terms of years in the industry, but projects and leadership roles that brought value to your employers, past and current. If you have accomplishments in your current position such as: money you’ve saved them; models you created; projects you were involved in or spearheaded; results that went beyond your job description, you could use them to ask for an increase. If not, make sure you include them in your next resume.

Knowing what your position in your industry with your specialties pays could be difficult to pinpoint. To assist actuaries, we gather information on actuarial careers and offer detailed information, via great query tools that make it easy to see how your skills and salary measure up and what you need to reach the income level you want.  

Our job listings can also help you see the possibilities!