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Getting Bad Job Offers? Here’s What You’re Doing Wrong

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When you’re trying to escape a toxic work environment or making a career change, sometimes any job offer is a good enough offer. The rest of the time, however, you have certain financial expectations for your next career move.

If you keep getting job offers that simply aren’t good enough, you need to dig deep to figure out why. Here are four questions you can ask yourself to troubleshoot the bad offers you receive and improve the offers you receive in the future:

Are we in a recession?

Whether you track trending economics or not, the national economy plays a role in how many companies will be able to hire you and what salary they’ll be able to offer. Just look at how hiring trends in your field played out in New York Times’ collection of recession charts.

If you’re getting bad offer after bad offer, tap into current events and news to see if the economy is affecting growth within your industry. If you find there’s a recession afoot, and you aren’t pressed to accept a new position, it may be profitable to hold out and wait for the economy to improve. Use Simply Hired’s industry and jobs growth reports to stay informed.

Is this position valuable?

It may not be popular to pin a number to your life’s work, but it is realistic. Within any company, each position offers a certain quantifiable value. Sometimes the position generates income for the company, such as a business development expert or account manager; sometimes the position is critical but doesn’t influence revenue quite so directly, such as a copywriter or an engineer.

In your next interview, try to identify the source of your position’s value and position your skills in a way that invites a higher offer.

Are my skills valuable?

Some of the most valuable career skills include communication, data analysis and marketing. There are also alternative skills that translate into higher-paying jobs and opportunities for growth.

If you’re applying but still not getting good offers, take a look at your resume and work history to make sure that you’re giving voice to the valuable soft skills you have. If you don’t have credible examples of these skills, it might be worth focusing your current job on building them.

Is the company doing well?

Broke companies can’t pay good salaries. If you try to jump onboard a startup that’s not funded or a company losing value year over year, don’t be surprised when you don’t get a good offer.

When you apply for a job, do online research into the longevity, status and reputation of the company. If you’ve been applying to new or risky companies, try focusing your job search on established brands with a long history of stability and market rate salaries.

If you’re making a career transition and getting job offers with salaries way below your needs, figure out what you can do to make yourself more attractive and strategically focus your job change for more lucrative job offers.

Getting Bad Job Offers? Here’s What You’re Doing Wrong by
Authored by: Andrew Ostler

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