What Kind of Jobs Can a Creative Person Have?

7 Surprisingly Creative, Well-Paid Jobs

By Carol Tice

What kinds of jobs can a creative person have? Here's a look at some of the best-paying jobs that require a creative mind:

1. Computer security specialist – Computer programmers who detect and resolve security breaches need to stay one step ahead of computer hackers seeking to steal information, says career-change specialist David Couper, owner of Transitions Coaching in Los Angeles. Often, they must work with older computer systems that companies have yet to replace, finding workarounds that will keep data secure.

"You've got to come up with creative ways of dealing with problems," Couper says. "It's highly paid because it's more strategic than other programming jobs."   Salary of a computer security specialist: $77,561 per year

2. Project manager - This managerial job is found in many industries, and requires more than good organization skills; they must be experienced in what a project manager must know and why. Beyond creating charts and graphs to track progress, Couper says, project managers need great people skills, as they will have to motivate people to work efficiently. A project manager needs to be well-rounded, with a variety of abilities that will help keep the project on track.

"Good project managers understand people and come up with creative ways of dealing with things," Couper says.  Salary of a project manager: $62,108 per year

3. Product manager – The product manager helps design packaging and create the brand for new products, as well as reposition old goods to catch consumers' attention again. Skills needed include color, design and marketing savvy, and an understanding of consumer behavior and trends, says Toronto-based certified resume specialist Karen Siwak of Resume Confidential.  

"Think of a perfume bottle," she says. "This person is determining the shape, the color, the name of that scent."  Salary of a product manager: $60,655 per year

4. Mediator – Mediation requires knowledge of the law, but also an ability to find creative solutions between two parties who are so polarized in their views that they're ready to sue each other in court.

"It's part acting," Couper notes. "Not letting on who you think might be right, and part listening carefully to people and being in the moment with them. You need to get to the real problem, and then come up with possible answers people haven't thought of yet."  Salary of a mediator: $57,273 per year

5. Instructional designer – Career coach Couper held this job in the past, and says it's a little-known bastion of creativity. Designers need to create educational texts that draw in the student and make them want to learn the material, whether they are young or old.

"I once did one [project] about acquiring communication skills for interviewing suspects," he says, "and we did it as a murder mystery."  Salary of an instructional designer: $56,878 per year

6. Home stager – These specialty interior designers work with realtors to spruce up cluttered or poorly decorated homes to help them sell faster, says Toronto-based certified resume strategist Karen Siwak of Resume Confidential. Essential home stager skills include being able to move existing furniture around and declutter or fill an empty home with furniture. They often purchase and provide some of their own décor items to enhance a home's look. Their work requires a flair for design and space planning, combined with an understanding of consumer behavior and neighborhood tastes. Every home is different, offering plenty of opportunity for creative problem-solving.  Salary of a home stager: $50,000-$60,000* per year

7. Finish carpenter – Finish carpenters are the creative woodworkers who design and install moldings, cabinetry and other final touches that give a home or public building its unique character.

"The job combines aesthetic sensibilities and design capabilities with conventional carpentry skills," says Steve Kindel, author of the upcoming book Skill Sets: Land a Better Job by Understanding and Maximizing Your Abilities. Salary of a finish carpenter: $51,202** per year

Business writer Carol Tice is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur, The Seattle Times and other major publications. Contact her at caroltice.com.

* Salary range for home stager with 5-8 years of experience provided by Shell Broadnax, CEO, Real Estate Staging Association.
** Salary listed is for the upper 25% of carpenters due to finish carpenter’s higher skill level.

Source: All salary data, except for home stager income, is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

For more information about creative jobs check out:

• The job of editorial writer can be creative and well paid.
• Creative directors allow their creative sides to come to life.
• Read about the creative side of life from Dustin Evans, comic book artist.

Green Works:  Low-Cost Training for a Green Job

By Siri Anderson

The green economy is coming – some say it's already arrived – and around the country new types of careers and programs that offer short training for green jobs are popping up rapidly, while old jobs are changing to align with sustainable practices. Green services and products are already in demand, and workforce development experts agree that this movement is going to have enormous impact on jobs of every level.

“This will affect all areas of the economy in ways we are only beginning to find out,” says Julian L. Alssid, executive director of Workforce Strategy Center (WSC), an East Coast-based organization that consults with economic development agencies and educational institutions to help state and regional economies grow. “If we do this well, green will become a part of every job.”

Green enthusiasts believe that blue collar and white collar will one day be ideas of the past; with “green” collar leading the way of the future. Do you know how your job could change to “go green”? And could the green economy present an opportunity for you to increase your marketability and earning power?

Low-Cost Training for Going Green at Work

One of the unique features of the green economy movement is its efforts to include the poor and socially disadvantaged as a starting point for change. According to Marcy Drummond, vice president of workforce and economic development for Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, in most economic shifts, “The poor are first to be left behind. We wanted them to be first [to succeed].”

Over the past three years, this LA community college has pioneered team-taught, comprehensive programs aimed at overcoming traditional barriers that underprivileged students have in attaining a degree and long-term, gainful employment. A range of green certifications are available at LATTC, from solar panel installation and weatherization to sustainable architecture and landscaping. Program lengths range from just a couple of weeks to two-years for a certificate.

Programs like these aren't solely for the underprivileged however, and the first place to look for a similar program in your area is your local community college. Drummond says that more and more programs are going to be available in the near future, especially because much of the stimulus money will be funneled to these institutions first.

The Green Collar Office Job

If you don't work in the energy industry, green may still impact on your position. Vicki Krantz, director of business and professional programs at UC San Diego Extension, is seeing that, “Really smart firms are thinking about every stage of the life of their product.” And this goes far beyond just production, packaging and transportation.

UCSD Extension is one of the first institutions to start training for green jobs from the business point of view, training students for going green by incorporating sustainability into all levels of an organization. Accountants can take carbon accounting classes to track a company's carbon footprint. Marketers can develop skills in green marketing so that their claims to be a green company are valid. Managers can take classes on how to include sustainability into corporate strategies.

Though a lot of buzz is on emerging clean tech, solar tech and bio fuels, according to Krantz, the best businesses of any industry are going to set the vision for sustainability and encourage all employees to translate that into their discipline – from the receptionist who reduces paper use to the CEO who makes fewer business flights each year.

The Green CEO and Entrepreneur

If there's any evidence that the green movement has begun from the ground up, it's shown in how few business leaders are prepared to enter the highly regulated energy field. They want a piece of the pie, though, so they’re learning quickly. Charley Polachi, partner and co-founder of Polachi, Inc., has been a member of the steering committee for the Clean Energy Fellowship Program, a course started in early 2008, designed for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to get into clean tech industries.

The unique feature of clean tech is the degree to which it is regulated – there are a whole new set of rules and a large infrastructure already in place that business leaders need to understand before jumping in. In the Clean Energy Fellowship Program, entrepreneurs and CEOs learn how to navigate the regulation, come up with funding and develop partnerships with very big companies so that their innovations can become a part of the larger energy infrastructure.

This program was the first of its kind in the country, and admission is highly selective. However, there is a lot of interest in expanding, and other organizations have been looking at the Clean Energy Fellowship program as a model to prepare future green-business leaders.

Green Works: Nab Short Training for a New Job

“All you need to know is there's a lot of money, in terms of training,” says Alssid of WSC. The stimulus package and consumer demand are supporting huge investments into programs that help to “green” jobs. However, Alssid also cautions, “This is in a totally emergent state... it will be up to the individual to zero in on those places that are doing this well. So do your homework.”

The importance of community colleges shouldn't be underestimated in this. They have the resources to create programs quickly, and they will be the first to access stimulus funds. Workforce training centers are also great places to ask for help, and every state has their own way of organizing them – search “your state” and “workforce development” on the internet to find one in your area. In addition, Web sites such as GreenForAll.org, CareerVoyages.gov, and Online.OnetCenter.org have excellent information on career outlooks, training programs and financial assistance.

“If you take advantage of this now, it'll be an edge. Within a couple of years it will be standard,” predicts Krantz of UCSD Extension and, “don't think of this as a passing fad at all. This is the new normal.”

Celebrity Photographer: A Paparazza Confession

Is a photo what motivates people to read celebrity gossip magazines?

By Tiffany Miller

If there were a list of most hated professions, paparazzi might earn the top spot. Few people besides telemarketers earn wrath like these professionals.

But Julie Smith doesn’t have the cold heart you’d expect.

The freelance photographer and sometimes paparazzi member fell into the job on accident. She was working for a now defunct entertainment magazine when she suggested they start covering more movie premieres and celebrity parties. Suddenly she was fighting for a spot with the rest of the paparazzi.

“It was just a few years ago when celebrities were just starting to be hunted,” she said.

Celebrity photographer is the sort of profession where you truly are baptized by fire, at least less so than her previous photojournalist career. She said you’re forced to yell at the celebs to get their attention.

“I once yelled at Matthew Broderick, calling him Andy on accident,” she said. “At least it got his attention. He thought it was funny."

The rest of the paparazzi weren’t so amused, telling her to ‘Get it together!’

She learned to use her wit and sense of humor.

“They do respond to jokes,” she said.

While she doesn’t mind packing in with the press on the red carpet, she gets butterflies when she goes undercover.

But that didn’t stop her from photographing a well-known recovering alcoholic at a party with her girlfriend in the Hampton’s.

“I was jumping over tables to get a good shot,” she said.

The picture is still circulating more than a year after it was taken. For a little insight into a celebrity photographer’s salary, Smith gets a check every time it’s used, about $50-$100 each month. That’s the residual from just one photo.

She admits it’s not a flattering photo.

“It makes her look like she’s wasted. But I’m not sure she was even drinking,” she said. Such is the life of a celebrity photographer.

Smith said it was once easy for celebrity photographer to make a good salary at the profession, simply following the big names around.

“It’s much harder now. So many kids go out to LA and get into it. There are so many more people following the stars,” she said.

So Smith has just decided to pursue a nobler career as a photojournalist at a magazine. She says she may sell photos again, but for now she sleeps better at night.

What do photographers make?

Salary of a freelance photographer    $35,728

Salary of a photojournalist   $37,403

Salary of a news photographer  $43,001

Salary of a fashion photographer  $48,710

Salary of a sports photographer  $44,686

*Salary data is from PayScale.com. Salaries listed are for full time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses or profit sharing.

For more information from PayScale.com:

Detailed info on a photojournalist career

A journalist describes his job in detail.

Feeling sorry for celebrities? You won’t after reading “The Wealthiest Celebrities vs. Regular People: Top 5 Overpaid Celebrities & CEO’s”

Visit our salary calculator to find out what your dream job pays.

Mad Men: Are They Making Mad Money?

By Bridget Quigg

From naughty secretaries in tight, red dresses to sexist, chain-smoking account executives, the TV drama Mad Men has fans all a flutter about 1960s culture. Right down to single malt scotch during meetings, Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper ad agency gets wide acclaim for re-creating the ‘60s Madison Avenue scene almost flawlessly.

But, what about all that money they’re making? Raises, bonuses, merit increases – Peggy, Pete, Don and the gang are hungry for them. Don Draper rakes in an impressive $45,000 a year. What would that mean in today’s dollars? And, what do big-time advertising execs in Manhattan make today?

Let’s take a look at some of the salary we have picked up from the show and adjust it for inflation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index calculator. This index tells us how much spending power each 1962 income would give its character in today’s market. We’ll also check out typical salaries in 2009 for the same agency jobs, according to online salary database, PayScale.com, and see if the TV characters seem over- or under-paid compared to today.

Creative Director, Advertising
Don Draper
Don is Sterling Cooper’s golden boy. After threatening to leave, his annual salary jumped from about $35,000 per year to around $45,000. Plus, he became a partner. In 1962, that would be like having $315,000 to spend every year. That’s a lot. In fact, your average creative director in a New York advertising firm today, with about 10 years of experience, would likely earn less than Don, at a median annual salary of $126,400. Even the highest paid “golden” guys and gals in Don’s position come in around $220,200. But, hey, he’s Don Draper.

Account Executive, Advertising
Pete Campbell
Pete had a love-child with Peggy Olson but he and his wife can’t conceive. While the stress of childlessness makes their marriage bumpy, at least his wife Trudy’s family affords them a comfy lifestyle. Pete doesn’t quite rake in the big dollars yet with only $75 a week, or $3,900 a year. That would be like having $27,300 to spend a year. Thank goodness for his honey’s money. By comparison, an account executive at a New York City advertising firm today, fresh out of college, would do a little better, making about $46,000 per year.

Office Manager 
Joan Holloway
This racy redhead keeps Roger’s heart pumping and the girls in the office fearing for their jobs. Her modern day counterparts likely live less glamorous lifestyles and wear more comfortable shoes. What do they earn? An office manager with over five years of experience in Manhattan today makes about $57,400 per year. Maybe not enough to dress quite as exquisitely as Joan, but it’s likely that her many admirers help her wardrobe stay so fabulous.

Senior Copywriter
Paul Kinsey
A lead copywriter and social activist, Paul is an office Romeo who is certainly making more than his fellow, female copywriter, Peggy Olson. Just how much, we are not sure. His bohemian lifestyle and progressive social views make it seem like he’s not a money guy like Don or Roger. But, it turns out that, today, a senior copywriter like Paul makes a better salary than most folks in the office at $86,000 per year.

Copywriter
Peggy Olson
The Brooklyn broad has made the bold leap from secretary to copywriter, thanks to her quick, quotable quips. “What did you bring me, Daddy?” for Mohawk Airlines – that was Peggy. And, she was even bold enough to ask for a $5 dollar a week raise from $35 a week to $40. That would still leave her with only the equivalent of $14,560 to spend a year. Yikes! We think you’re worth more than that, Peggy. Fortunately, today, a young copywriter at a Big Apple advertising agency can expect to earn closer to $48,200 – which is still barely making it in the big city.

Art Director
Salvatore Romano
Though Salvatore doesn’t get any extra income for the stress of hiding his sexual orientation from his homophobic colleagues, he should earn a fair amount for his hand-drawn sketches and tasteful designs. Plus, he just looks so good with that tan and colorful hanky in his suit pocket. Today, a senior art director with 10 plus years of experience who’s working near Midtown usually rakes in an impressive $99,356 per year. And, their salary can range into the high $100,000s. That’s good, because any art director probably likes to dress up and look sharp as much as Salvatore.

Secretary
Jane (Siegel) Sterling
Roger’s second wife served as Don Draper’s secretary, and eye candy, for a short time. Her secretarial skills certainly didn’t pay her bills, but maybe her college degree helped boost her earnings. It sounds like most of the secretaries and typists on the show earn about $35 a week which would be like having $13,104 in your pocket for a whole year’s work. Ouch. Fortunately, incomes have improved for the hard-working, well-organized secretaries of New York. The median annual salary of a secretary in Manhattan with less than two years of experience is $40,000.

Source: Salary data from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median annual salaries for full-time employee in New York, New York in a 200 person company with 1-10 years of experience, depending on the character, and include any bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing.

10 Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

By Bridget Quigg

When it comes to your career, you may worry about your commute time, benefits and your company’s chance of surviving. But, do you ever worry about your own survival?

Believe it or not, a good number of folks work dangerous jobs for big money each day.  They work in occupations that place them close to high-speed traffic, in front of bullet-toting criminals or high atop shaky structures.

So, which workers put their lives on the line and how well are they paid for that risk? Take a look at this list of 10 dangerous jobs.

Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

1. Construction laborer. What do you see when you look at a construction site? Lots of activity. Cranes move heavy loads, backhoes push huge piles of dirt and concrete trucks unload as quickly as possible. You can bet that the people in this environment move very carefully.

Annual salary of a Construction Laborer = $36,329 2. Structural steel worker. The world’s soon-to-be tallest building, Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to rise over 2,650 feet in the sky – just over half a mile – when it’s completed. How would you like to be at the top, soldering the last bits of rebar?

Annual salary of Structural Steel Worker = $34,388
 
3. Horticultural farmer. Getting hundreds of acres of crops to grow year after year requires some large, dangerous machinery and exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Annual salary of Horticultural farmer= $29,500

4. Ranch worker. Whether forcing a herd of unruly cattle into a pen or trying to brand them, ranch workers constantly expose their arms, legs, heads and hands to crushing forces.

Annual salary of a ranch worker = $31,343

5. Police / sheriff’s patrol officer. While the rest of us run from trouble to save our lives, these brave souls head straight for it. They may be well trained, but the people they face are unpredictable and very dangerous.

Annual salary of police officer / sheriff = $46,467

6. Fishing vessel deckhand. If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, The Deadliest Catch, just imagine trying to hold on to a slippery, ice-covered deck while 40-foot waves crash over you in a Bering Sea storm – frigid and frightening. Annual salary of deckhand= $46,978

7. Roofer. Since over one-third of fall-related deaths involve roofs and ladders, it’s easy to understand why these nimble-footed folks are at great risk every day they’re on the job.

Annual salary of a roofer = $42,116

8. Coal miner. Sadly, because of several tragedies in recent years, most Americans are well aware of the dangers present in this line of work. Fortunately, the number of deaths in private mines decreased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Annual salary of coal miner= $53,500

9. Highway maintenance worker. We get frustrated when they slow down our morning commute. But, the truth is, this group of essential laborers – from asphalt layers to sign holders – gets closer to distracted, speeding drivers than any of us ever should.

Annual salary of maintenance worker = $33,685

10. Journeyman lineman. In the cruelest storms and thickest snows conditions, these tough and highly-skilled people scale electrical poles to help us keep our lights on. With risks ranging from falls to voltage, they must move quickly but cautiously to stay safe.

Annual salary journey lineman = $53,461 per year

If you’re curious, here are some more facts about fatal work accidents in the U.S. from a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study.

• Men make up 54 percent of the workforce but experience 92 percent of fatal work accidents
• Women die more often from highway incidents and homicides than men.
• Latinos are the ethnic group most often involved with fatal work accidents
• Construction has the highest number of fatalities total, but agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining have the highest rates of fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Highways incidents alone accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries in 2007.
• Workers over 65 years of age are over twice as likely to die on the job (9.9 per 100,000) than the national average (3.7 per 100,000).

Source: All annual salary data is from PayScale.com. The annual salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

Other sources: PayScale.com http://www.payscale.com; Skyscraperpage.com http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008 http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0006.pdf; The Discovery Channel “The Deadliest Catch” fansite http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html.

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

How to Find Training for a Green Job

Green Works:  Low-Cost Training for a Green Job

By Siri Anderson

The green economy is coming – some say it's already arrived – and around the country new types of careers and programs that offer short training for green jobs are popping up rapidly, while old jobs are changing to align with sustainable practices. Green services and products are already in demand, and workforce development experts agree that this movement is going to have enormous impact on jobs of every level.

“This will affect all areas of the economy in ways we are only beginning to find out,” says Julian L. Alssid, executive director of Workforce Strategy Center (WSC), an East Coast-based organization that consults with economic development agencies and educational institutions to help state and regional economies grow. “If we do this well, green will become a part of every job.”

Green enthusiasts believe that blue collar and white collar will one day be ideas of the past; with “green” collar leading the way of the future. Do you know how your job could change to “go green”? And could the green economy present an opportunity for you to increase your marketability and earning power?

Low-Cost Training for Going Green at Work

One of the unique features of the green economy movement is its efforts to include the poor and socially disadvantaged as a starting point for change. According to Marcy Drummond, vice president of workforce and economic development for Los Angeles Trade-Tech College, in most economic shifts, “The poor are first to be left behind. We wanted them to be first [to succeed].”

Over the past three years, this LA community college has pioneered team-taught, comprehensive programs aimed at overcoming traditional barriers that underprivileged students have in attaining a degree and long-term, gainful employment. A range of green certifications are available at LATTC, from solar panel installation and weatherization to sustainable architecture and landscaping. Program lengths range from just a couple of weeks to two-years for a certificate.

Programs like these aren't solely for the underprivileged however, and the first place to look for a similar program in your area is your local community college. Drummond says that more and more programs are going to be available in the near future, especially because much of the stimulus money will be funneled to these institutions first.

The Green Collar Office Job

If you don't work in the energy industry, green may still impact on your position. Vicki Krantz, director of business and professional programs at UC San Diego Extension, is seeing that, “Really smart firms are thinking about every stage of the life of their product.” And this goes far beyond just production, packaging and transportation.

UCSD Extension is one of the first institutions to start training for green jobs from the business point of view, training students for going green by incorporating sustainability into all levels of an organization. Accountants can take carbon accounting classes to track a company's carbon footprint. Marketers can develop skills in green marketing so that their claims to be a green company are valid. Managers can take classes on how to include sustainability into corporate strategies.

Though a lot of buzz is on emerging clean tech, solar tech and bio fuels, according to Krantz, the best businesses of any industry are going to set the vision for sustainability and encourage all employees to translate that into their discipline – from the receptionist who reduces paper use to the CEO who makes fewer business flights each year.

The Green CEO and Entrepreneur

If there's any evidence that the green movement has begun from the ground up, it's shown in how few business leaders are prepared to enter the highly regulated energy field. They want a piece of the pie, though, so they’re learning quickly. Charley Polachi, partner and co-founder of Polachi, Inc., has been a member of the steering committee for the Clean Energy Fellowship Program, a course started in early 2008, designed for CEOs and entrepreneurs who want to get into clean tech industries.

The unique feature of clean tech is the degree to which it is regulated – there are a whole new set of rules and a large infrastructure already in place that business leaders need to understand before jumping in. In the Clean Energy Fellowship Program, entrepreneurs and CEOs learn how to navigate the regulation, come up with funding and develop partnerships with very big companies so that their innovations can become a part of the larger energy infrastructure.

This program was the first of its kind in the country, and admission is highly selective. However, there is a lot of interest in expanding, and other organizations have been looking at the Clean Energy Fellowship program as a model to prepare future green-business leaders.

Green Works: Nab Short Training for a New Job

“All you need to know is there's a lot of money, in terms of training,” says Alssid of WSC. The stimulus package and consumer demand are supporting huge investments into programs that help to “green” jobs. However, Alssid also cautions, “This is in a totally emergent state... it will be up to the individual to zero in on those places that are doing this well. So do your homework.”

The importance of community colleges shouldn't be underestimated in this. They have the resources to create programs quickly, and they will be the first to access stimulus funds. Workforce training centers are also great places to ask for help, and every state has their own way of organizing them – search “your state” and “workforce development” on the internet to find one in your area. In addition, Web sites such as GreenForAll.org, CareerVoyages.gov, and Online.OnetCenter.org have excellent information on career outlooks, training programs and financial assistance.

“If you take advantage of this now, it'll be an edge. Within a couple of years it will be standard,” predicts Krantz of UCSD Extension and, “don't think of this as a passing fad at all. This is the new normal.”

Celebrity Photographer: A Paparazza Confession

Is a photo what motivates people to read celebrity gossip magazines?

By Tiffany Miller

If there were a list of most hated professions, paparazzi might earn the top spot. Few people besides telemarketers earn wrath like these professionals.

But Julie Smith doesn’t have the cold heart you’d expect.

The freelance photographer and sometimes paparazzi member fell into the job on accident. She was working for a now defunct entertainment magazine when she suggested they start covering more movie premieres and celebrity parties. Suddenly she was fighting for a spot with the rest of the paparazzi.

“It was just a few years ago when celebrities were just starting to be hunted,” she said.

Celebrity photographer is the sort of profession where you truly are baptized by fire, at least less so than her previous photojournalist career. She said you’re forced to yell at the celebs to get their attention.

“I once yelled at Matthew Broderick, calling him Andy on accident,” she said. “At least it got his attention. He thought it was funny."

The rest of the paparazzi weren’t so amused, telling her to ‘Get it together!’

She learned to use her wit and sense of humor.

“They do respond to jokes,” she said.

While she doesn’t mind packing in with the press on the red carpet, she gets butterflies when she goes undercover.

But that didn’t stop her from photographing a well-known recovering alcoholic at a party with her girlfriend in the Hampton’s.

“I was jumping over tables to get a good shot,” she said.

The picture is still circulating more than a year after it was taken. For a little insight into a celebrity photographer’s salary, Smith gets a check every time it’s used, about $50-$100 each month. That’s the residual from just one photo.

She admits it’s not a flattering photo.

“It makes her look like she’s wasted. But I’m not sure she was even drinking,” she said. Such is the life of a celebrity photographer.

Smith said it was once easy for celebrity photographer to make a good salary at the profession, simply following the big names around.

“It’s much harder now. So many kids go out to LA and get into it. There are so many more people following the stars,” she said.

So Smith has just decided to pursue a nobler career as a photojournalist at a magazine. She says she may sell photos again, but for now she sleeps better at night.

What do photographers make?

Salary of a freelance photographer    $35,728

Salary of a photojournalist   $37,403

Salary of a news photographer  $43,001

Salary of a fashion photographer  $48,710

Salary of a sports photographer  $44,686

*Salary data is from PayScale.com. Salaries listed are for full time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses or profit sharing.

For more information from PayScale.com:

Detailed info on a photojournalist career

A journalist describes his job in detail.

Feeling sorry for celebrities? You won’t after reading “The Wealthiest Celebrities vs. Regular People: Top 5 Overpaid Celebrities & CEO’s”

Visit our salary calculator to find out what your dream job pays.

Mad Men: Are They Making Mad Money?

By Bridget Quigg

From naughty secretaries in tight, red dresses to sexist, chain-smoking account executives, the TV drama Mad Men has fans all a flutter about 1960s culture. Right down to single malt scotch during meetings, Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper ad agency gets wide acclaim for re-creating the ‘60s Madison Avenue scene almost flawlessly.

But, what about all that money they’re making? Raises, bonuses, merit increases – Peggy, Pete, Don and the gang are hungry for them. Don Draper rakes in an impressive $45,000 a year. What would that mean in today’s dollars? And, what do big-time advertising execs in Manhattan make today?

Let’s take a look at some of the salary we have picked up from the show and adjust it for inflation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index calculator. This index tells us how much spending power each 1962 income would give its character in today’s market. We’ll also check out typical salaries in 2009 for the same agency jobs, according to online salary database, PayScale.com, and see if the TV characters seem over- or under-paid compared to today.

Creative Director, Advertising
Don Draper
Don is Sterling Cooper’s golden boy. After threatening to leave, his annual salary jumped from about $35,000 per year to around $45,000. Plus, he became a partner. In 1962, that would be like having $315,000 to spend every year. That’s a lot. In fact, your average creative director in a New York advertising firm today, with about 10 years of experience, would likely earn less than Don, at a median annual salary of $126,400. Even the highest paid “golden” guys and gals in Don’s position come in around $220,200. But, hey, he’s Don Draper.

Account Executive, Advertising
Pete Campbell
Pete had a love-child with Peggy Olson but he and his wife can’t conceive. While the stress of childlessness makes their marriage bumpy, at least his wife Trudy’s family affords them a comfy lifestyle. Pete doesn’t quite rake in the big dollars yet with only $75 a week, or $3,900 a year. That would be like having $27,300 to spend a year. Thank goodness for his honey’s money. By comparison, an account executive at a New York City advertising firm today, fresh out of college, would do a little better, making about $46,000 per year.

Office Manager 
Joan Holloway
This racy redhead keeps Roger’s heart pumping and the girls in the office fearing for their jobs. Her modern day counterparts likely live less glamorous lifestyles and wear more comfortable shoes. What do they earn? An office manager with over five years of experience in Manhattan today makes about $57,400 per year. Maybe not enough to dress quite as exquisitely as Joan, but it’s likely that her many admirers help her wardrobe stay so fabulous.

Senior Copywriter
Paul Kinsey
A lead copywriter and social activist, Paul is an office Romeo who is certainly making more than his fellow, female copywriter, Peggy Olson. Just how much, we are not sure. His bohemian lifestyle and progressive social views make it seem like he’s not a money guy like Don or Roger. But, it turns out that, today, a senior copywriter like Paul makes a better salary than most folks in the office at $86,000 per year.

Copywriter
Peggy Olson
The Brooklyn broad has made the bold leap from secretary to copywriter, thanks to her quick, quotable quips. “What did you bring me, Daddy?” for Mohawk Airlines – that was Peggy. And, she was even bold enough to ask for a $5 dollar a week raise from $35 a week to $40. That would still leave her with only the equivalent of $14,560 to spend a year. Yikes! We think you’re worth more than that, Peggy. Fortunately, today, a young copywriter at a Big Apple advertising agency can expect to earn closer to $48,200 – which is still barely making it in the big city.

Art Director
Salvatore Romano
Though Salvatore doesn’t get any extra income for the stress of hiding his sexual orientation from his homophobic colleagues, he should earn a fair amount for his hand-drawn sketches and tasteful designs. Plus, he just looks so good with that tan and colorful hanky in his suit pocket. Today, a senior art director with 10 plus years of experience who’s working near Midtown usually rakes in an impressive $99,356 per year. And, their salary can range into the high $100,000s. That’s good, because any art director probably likes to dress up and look sharp as much as Salvatore.

Secretary
Jane (Siegel) Sterling
Roger’s second wife served as Don Draper’s secretary, and eye candy, for a short time. Her secretarial skills certainly didn’t pay her bills, but maybe her college degree helped boost her earnings. It sounds like most of the secretaries and typists on the show earn about $35 a week which would be like having $13,104 in your pocket for a whole year’s work. Ouch. Fortunately, incomes have improved for the hard-working, well-organized secretaries of New York. The median annual salary of a secretary in Manhattan with less than two years of experience is $40,000.

Source: Salary data from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median annual salaries for full-time employee in New York, New York in a 200 person company with 1-10 years of experience, depending on the character, and include any bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing.

10 Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

By Bridget Quigg

When it comes to your career, you may worry about your commute time, benefits and your company’s chance of surviving. But, do you ever worry about your own survival?

Believe it or not, a good number of folks work dangerous jobs for big money each day.  They work in occupations that place them close to high-speed traffic, in front of bullet-toting criminals or high atop shaky structures.

So, which workers put their lives on the line and how well are they paid for that risk? Take a look at this list of 10 dangerous jobs.

Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

1. Construction laborer. What do you see when you look at a construction site? Lots of activity. Cranes move heavy loads, backhoes push huge piles of dirt and concrete trucks unload as quickly as possible. You can bet that the people in this environment move very carefully.

Annual salary of a Construction Laborer = $36,329 2. Structural steel worker. The world’s soon-to-be tallest building, Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to rise over 2,650 feet in the sky – just over half a mile – when it’s completed. How would you like to be at the top, soldering the last bits of rebar?

Annual salary of Structural Steel Worker = $34,388
 
3. Horticultural farmer. Getting hundreds of acres of crops to grow year after year requires some large, dangerous machinery and exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Annual salary of Horticultural farmer= $29,500

4. Ranch worker. Whether forcing a herd of unruly cattle into a pen or trying to brand them, ranch workers constantly expose their arms, legs, heads and hands to crushing forces.

Annual salary of a ranch worker = $31,343

5. Police / sheriff’s patrol officer. While the rest of us run from trouble to save our lives, these brave souls head straight for it. They may be well trained, but the people they face are unpredictable and very dangerous.

Annual salary of police officer / sheriff = $46,467

6. Fishing vessel deckhand. If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, The Deadliest Catch, just imagine trying to hold on to a slippery, ice-covered deck while 40-foot waves crash over you in a Bering Sea storm – frigid and frightening. Annual salary of deckhand= $46,978

7. Roofer. Since over one-third of fall-related deaths involve roofs and ladders, it’s easy to understand why these nimble-footed folks are at great risk every day they’re on the job.

Annual salary of a roofer = $42,116

8. Coal miner. Sadly, because of several tragedies in recent years, most Americans are well aware of the dangers present in this line of work. Fortunately, the number of deaths in private mines decreased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Annual salary of coal miner= $53,500

9. Highway maintenance worker. We get frustrated when they slow down our morning commute. But, the truth is, this group of essential laborers – from asphalt layers to sign holders – gets closer to distracted, speeding drivers than any of us ever should.

Annual salary of maintenance worker = $33,685

10. Journeyman lineman. In the cruelest storms and thickest snows conditions, these tough and highly-skilled people scale electrical poles to help us keep our lights on. With risks ranging from falls to voltage, they must move quickly but cautiously to stay safe.

Annual salary journey lineman = $53,461 per year

If you’re curious, here are some more facts about fatal work accidents in the U.S. from a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study.

• Men make up 54 percent of the workforce but experience 92 percent of fatal work accidents
• Women die more often from highway incidents and homicides than men.
• Latinos are the ethnic group most often involved with fatal work accidents
• Construction has the highest number of fatalities total, but agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining have the highest rates of fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Highways incidents alone accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries in 2007.
• Workers over 65 years of age are over twice as likely to die on the job (9.9 per 100,000) than the national average (3.7 per 100,000).

Source: All annual salary data is from PayScale.com. The annual salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

Other sources: PayScale.com http://www.payscale.com; Skyscraperpage.com http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008 http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0006.pdf; The Discovery Channel “The Deadliest Catch” fansite http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html.

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

Celebrity Photographer Salary

Celebrity Photographer: A Paparazza Confession

Is a photo what motivates people to read celebrity gossip magazines?

By Tiffany Miller

If there were a list of most hated professions, paparazzi might earn the top spot. Few people besides telemarketers earn wrath like these professionals.

But Julie Smith doesn’t have the cold heart you’d expect.

The freelance photographer and sometimes paparazzi member fell into the job on accident. She was working for a now defunct entertainment magazine when she suggested they start covering more movie premieres and celebrity parties. Suddenly she was fighting for a spot with the rest of the paparazzi.

“It was just a few years ago when celebrities were just starting to be hunted,” she said.

Celebrity photographer is the sort of profession where you truly are baptized by fire, at least less so than her previous photojournalist career. She said you’re forced to yell at the celebs to get their attention.

“I once yelled at Matthew Broderick, calling him Andy on accident,” she said. “At least it got his attention. He thought it was funny."

The rest of the paparazzi weren’t so amused, telling her to ‘Get it together!’

She learned to use her wit and sense of humor.

“They do respond to jokes,” she said.

While she doesn’t mind packing in with the press on the red carpet, she gets butterflies when she goes undercover.

But that didn’t stop her from photographing a well-known recovering alcoholic at a party with her girlfriend in the Hampton’s.

“I was jumping over tables to get a good shot,” she said.

The picture is still circulating more than a year after it was taken. For a little insight into a celebrity photographer’s salary, Smith gets a check every time it’s used, about $50-$100 each month. That’s the residual from just one photo.

She admits it’s not a flattering photo.

“It makes her look like she’s wasted. But I’m not sure she was even drinking,” she said. Such is the life of a celebrity photographer.

Smith said it was once easy for celebrity photographer to make a good salary at the profession, simply following the big names around.

“It’s much harder now. So many kids go out to LA and get into it. There are so many more people following the stars,” she said.

So Smith has just decided to pursue a nobler career as a photojournalist at a magazine. She says she may sell photos again, but for now she sleeps better at night.

What do photographers make?

Salary of a freelance photographer    $35,728

Salary of a photojournalist   $37,403

Salary of a news photographer  $43,001

Salary of a fashion photographer  $48,710

Salary of a sports photographer  $44,686

*Salary data is from PayScale.com. Salaries listed are for full time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses or profit sharing.

For more information from PayScale.com:

Detailed info on a photojournalist career

A journalist describes his job in detail.

Feeling sorry for celebrities? You won’t after reading “The Wealthiest Celebrities vs. Regular People: Top 5 Overpaid Celebrities & CEO’s”

Visit our salary calculator to find out what your dream job pays.

Mad Men: Are They Making Mad Money?

By Bridget Quigg

From naughty secretaries in tight, red dresses to sexist, chain-smoking account executives, the TV drama Mad Men has fans all a flutter about 1960s culture. Right down to single malt scotch during meetings, Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper ad agency gets wide acclaim for re-creating the ‘60s Madison Avenue scene almost flawlessly.

But, what about all that money they’re making? Raises, bonuses, merit increases – Peggy, Pete, Don and the gang are hungry for them. Don Draper rakes in an impressive $45,000 a year. What would that mean in today’s dollars? And, what do big-time advertising execs in Manhattan make today?

Let’s take a look at some of the salary we have picked up from the show and adjust it for inflation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index calculator. This index tells us how much spending power each 1962 income would give its character in today’s market. We’ll also check out typical salaries in 2009 for the same agency jobs, according to online salary database, PayScale.com, and see if the TV characters seem over- or under-paid compared to today.

Creative Director, Advertising
Don Draper
Don is Sterling Cooper’s golden boy. After threatening to leave, his annual salary jumped from about $35,000 per year to around $45,000. Plus, he became a partner. In 1962, that would be like having $315,000 to spend every year. That’s a lot. In fact, your average creative director in a New York advertising firm today, with about 10 years of experience, would likely earn less than Don, at a median annual salary of $126,400. Even the highest paid “golden” guys and gals in Don’s position come in around $220,200. But, hey, he’s Don Draper.

Account Executive, Advertising
Pete Campbell
Pete had a love-child with Peggy Olson but he and his wife can’t conceive. While the stress of childlessness makes their marriage bumpy, at least his wife Trudy’s family affords them a comfy lifestyle. Pete doesn’t quite rake in the big dollars yet with only $75 a week, or $3,900 a year. That would be like having $27,300 to spend a year. Thank goodness for his honey’s money. By comparison, an account executive at a New York City advertising firm today, fresh out of college, would do a little better, making about $46,000 per year.

Office Manager 
Joan Holloway
This racy redhead keeps Roger’s heart pumping and the girls in the office fearing for their jobs. Her modern day counterparts likely live less glamorous lifestyles and wear more comfortable shoes. What do they earn? An office manager with over five years of experience in Manhattan today makes about $57,400 per year. Maybe not enough to dress quite as exquisitely as Joan, but it’s likely that her many admirers help her wardrobe stay so fabulous.

Senior Copywriter
Paul Kinsey
A lead copywriter and social activist, Paul is an office Romeo who is certainly making more than his fellow, female copywriter, Peggy Olson. Just how much, we are not sure. His bohemian lifestyle and progressive social views make it seem like he’s not a money guy like Don or Roger. But, it turns out that, today, a senior copywriter like Paul makes a better salary than most folks in the office at $86,000 per year.

Copywriter
Peggy Olson
The Brooklyn broad has made the bold leap from secretary to copywriter, thanks to her quick, quotable quips. “What did you bring me, Daddy?” for Mohawk Airlines – that was Peggy. And, she was even bold enough to ask for a $5 dollar a week raise from $35 a week to $40. That would still leave her with only the equivalent of $14,560 to spend a year. Yikes! We think you’re worth more than that, Peggy. Fortunately, today, a young copywriter at a Big Apple advertising agency can expect to earn closer to $48,200 – which is still barely making it in the big city.

Art Director
Salvatore Romano
Though Salvatore doesn’t get any extra income for the stress of hiding his sexual orientation from his homophobic colleagues, he should earn a fair amount for his hand-drawn sketches and tasteful designs. Plus, he just looks so good with that tan and colorful hanky in his suit pocket. Today, a senior art director with 10 plus years of experience who’s working near Midtown usually rakes in an impressive $99,356 per year. And, their salary can range into the high $100,000s. That’s good, because any art director probably likes to dress up and look sharp as much as Salvatore.

Secretary
Jane (Siegel) Sterling
Roger’s second wife served as Don Draper’s secretary, and eye candy, for a short time. Her secretarial skills certainly didn’t pay her bills, but maybe her college degree helped boost her earnings. It sounds like most of the secretaries and typists on the show earn about $35 a week which would be like having $13,104 in your pocket for a whole year’s work. Ouch. Fortunately, incomes have improved for the hard-working, well-organized secretaries of New York. The median annual salary of a secretary in Manhattan with less than two years of experience is $40,000.

Source: Salary data from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median annual salaries for full-time employee in New York, New York in a 200 person company with 1-10 years of experience, depending on the character, and include any bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing.

10 Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

By Bridget Quigg

When it comes to your career, you may worry about your commute time, benefits and your company’s chance of surviving. But, do you ever worry about your own survival?

Believe it or not, a good number of folks work dangerous jobs for big money each day.  They work in occupations that place them close to high-speed traffic, in front of bullet-toting criminals or high atop shaky structures.

So, which workers put their lives on the line and how well are they paid for that risk? Take a look at this list of 10 dangerous jobs.

Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

1. Construction laborer. What do you see when you look at a construction site? Lots of activity. Cranes move heavy loads, backhoes push huge piles of dirt and concrete trucks unload as quickly as possible. You can bet that the people in this environment move very carefully.

Annual salary of a Construction Laborer = $36,329 2. Structural steel worker. The world’s soon-to-be tallest building, Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to rise over 2,650 feet in the sky – just over half a mile – when it’s completed. How would you like to be at the top, soldering the last bits of rebar?

Annual salary of Structural Steel Worker = $34,388
 
3. Horticultural farmer. Getting hundreds of acres of crops to grow year after year requires some large, dangerous machinery and exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Annual salary of Horticultural farmer= $29,500

4. Ranch worker. Whether forcing a herd of unruly cattle into a pen or trying to brand them, ranch workers constantly expose their arms, legs, heads and hands to crushing forces.

Annual salary of a ranch worker = $31,343

5. Police / sheriff’s patrol officer. While the rest of us run from trouble to save our lives, these brave souls head straight for it. They may be well trained, but the people they face are unpredictable and very dangerous.

Annual salary of police officer / sheriff = $46,467

6. Fishing vessel deckhand. If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, The Deadliest Catch, just imagine trying to hold on to a slippery, ice-covered deck while 40-foot waves crash over you in a Bering Sea storm – frigid and frightening. Annual salary of deckhand= $46,978

7. Roofer. Since over one-third of fall-related deaths involve roofs and ladders, it’s easy to understand why these nimble-footed folks are at great risk every day they’re on the job.

Annual salary of a roofer = $42,116

8. Coal miner. Sadly, because of several tragedies in recent years, most Americans are well aware of the dangers present in this line of work. Fortunately, the number of deaths in private mines decreased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Annual salary of coal miner= $53,500

9. Highway maintenance worker. We get frustrated when they slow down our morning commute. But, the truth is, this group of essential laborers – from asphalt layers to sign holders – gets closer to distracted, speeding drivers than any of us ever should.

Annual salary of maintenance worker = $33,685

10. Journeyman lineman. In the cruelest storms and thickest snows conditions, these tough and highly-skilled people scale electrical poles to help us keep our lights on. With risks ranging from falls to voltage, they must move quickly but cautiously to stay safe.

Annual salary journey lineman = $53,461 per year

If you’re curious, here are some more facts about fatal work accidents in the U.S. from a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study.

• Men make up 54 percent of the workforce but experience 92 percent of fatal work accidents
• Women die more often from highway incidents and homicides than men.
• Latinos are the ethnic group most often involved with fatal work accidents
• Construction has the highest number of fatalities total, but agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining have the highest rates of fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Highways incidents alone accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries in 2007.
• Workers over 65 years of age are over twice as likely to die on the job (9.9 per 100,000) than the national average (3.7 per 100,000).

Source: All annual salary data is from PayScale.com. The annual salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

Other sources: PayScale.com http://www.payscale.com; Skyscraperpage.com http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008 http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0006.pdf; The Discovery Channel “The Deadliest Catch” fansite http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html.

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

Mad Men: Are They Making Mad Money?

Mad Men: Are They Making Mad Money?

By Bridget Quigg

From naughty secretaries in tight, red dresses to sexist, chain-smoking account executives, the TV drama Mad Men has fans all a flutter about 1960s culture. Right down to single malt scotch during meetings, Mad Men’s Sterling Cooper ad agency gets wide acclaim for re-creating the ‘60s Madison Avenue scene almost flawlessly.

But, what about all that money they’re making? Raises, bonuses, merit increases – Peggy, Pete, Don and the gang are hungry for them. Don Draper rakes in an impressive $45,000 a year. What would that mean in today’s dollars? And, what do big-time advertising execs in Manhattan make today?

Let’s take a look at some of the salary we have picked up from the show and adjust it for inflation using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index calculator. This index tells us how much spending power each 1962 income would give its character in today’s market. We’ll also check out typical salaries in 2009 for the same agency jobs, according to online salary database, PayScale.com, and see if the TV characters seem over- or under-paid compared to today.

Creative Director, Advertising
Don Draper
Don is Sterling Cooper’s golden boy. After threatening to leave, his annual salary jumped from about $35,000 per year to around $45,000. Plus, he became a partner. In 1962, that would be like having $315,000 to spend every year. That’s a lot. In fact, your average creative director in a New York advertising firm today, with about 10 years of experience, would likely earn less than Don, at a median annual salary of $126,400. Even the highest paid “golden” guys and gals in Don’s position come in around $220,200. But, hey, he’s Don Draper.

Account Executive, Advertising
Pete Campbell
Pete had a love-child with Peggy Olson but he and his wife can’t conceive. While the stress of childlessness makes their marriage bumpy, at least his wife Trudy’s family affords them a comfy lifestyle. Pete doesn’t quite rake in the big dollars yet with only $75 a week, or $3,900 a year. That would be like having $27,300 to spend a year. Thank goodness for his honey’s money. By comparison, an account executive at a New York City advertising firm today, fresh out of college, would do a little better, making about $46,000 per year.

Office Manager 
Joan Holloway
This racy redhead keeps Roger’s heart pumping and the girls in the office fearing for their jobs. Her modern day counterparts likely live less glamorous lifestyles and wear more comfortable shoes. What do they earn? An office manager with over five years of experience in Manhattan today makes about $57,400 per year. Maybe not enough to dress quite as exquisitely as Joan, but it’s likely that her many admirers help her wardrobe stay so fabulous.

Senior Copywriter
Paul Kinsey
A lead copywriter and social activist, Paul is an office Romeo who is certainly making more than his fellow, female copywriter, Peggy Olson. Just how much, we are not sure. His bohemian lifestyle and progressive social views make it seem like he’s not a money guy like Don or Roger. But, it turns out that, today, a senior copywriter like Paul makes a better salary than most folks in the office at $86,000 per year.

Copywriter
Peggy Olson
The Brooklyn broad has made the bold leap from secretary to copywriter, thanks to her quick, quotable quips. “What did you bring me, Daddy?” for Mohawk Airlines – that was Peggy. And, she was even bold enough to ask for a $5 dollar a week raise from $35 a week to $40. That would still leave her with only the equivalent of $14,560 to spend a year. Yikes! We think you’re worth more than that, Peggy. Fortunately, today, a young copywriter at a Big Apple advertising agency can expect to earn closer to $48,200 – which is still barely making it in the big city.

Art Director
Salvatore Romano
Though Salvatore doesn’t get any extra income for the stress of hiding his sexual orientation from his homophobic colleagues, he should earn a fair amount for his hand-drawn sketches and tasteful designs. Plus, he just looks so good with that tan and colorful hanky in his suit pocket. Today, a senior art director with 10 plus years of experience who’s working near Midtown usually rakes in an impressive $99,356 per year. And, their salary can range into the high $100,000s. That’s good, because any art director probably likes to dress up and look sharp as much as Salvatore.

Secretary
Jane (Siegel) Sterling
Roger’s second wife served as Don Draper’s secretary, and eye candy, for a short time. Her secretarial skills certainly didn’t pay her bills, but maybe her college degree helped boost her earnings. It sounds like most of the secretaries and typists on the show earn about $35 a week which would be like having $13,104 in your pocket for a whole year’s work. Ouch. Fortunately, incomes have improved for the hard-working, well-organized secretaries of New York. The median annual salary of a secretary in Manhattan with less than two years of experience is $40,000.

Source: Salary data from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median annual salaries for full-time employee in New York, New York in a 200 person company with 1-10 years of experience, depending on the character, and include any bonuses, commissions, and profit sharing.

10 Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

By Bridget Quigg

When it comes to your career, you may worry about your commute time, benefits and your company’s chance of surviving. But, do you ever worry about your own survival?

Believe it or not, a good number of folks work dangerous jobs for big money each day.  They work in occupations that place them close to high-speed traffic, in front of bullet-toting criminals or high atop shaky structures.

So, which workers put their lives on the line and how well are they paid for that risk? Take a look at this list of 10 dangerous jobs.

Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

1. Construction laborer. What do you see when you look at a construction site? Lots of activity. Cranes move heavy loads, backhoes push huge piles of dirt and concrete trucks unload as quickly as possible. You can bet that the people in this environment move very carefully.

Annual salary of a Construction Laborer = $36,329 2. Structural steel worker. The world’s soon-to-be tallest building, Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to rise over 2,650 feet in the sky – just over half a mile – when it’s completed. How would you like to be at the top, soldering the last bits of rebar?

Annual salary of Structural Steel Worker = $34,388
 
3. Horticultural farmer. Getting hundreds of acres of crops to grow year after year requires some large, dangerous machinery and exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Annual salary of Horticultural farmer= $29,500

4. Ranch worker. Whether forcing a herd of unruly cattle into a pen or trying to brand them, ranch workers constantly expose their arms, legs, heads and hands to crushing forces.

Annual salary of a ranch worker = $31,343

5. Police / sheriff’s patrol officer. While the rest of us run from trouble to save our lives, these brave souls head straight for it. They may be well trained, but the people they face are unpredictable and very dangerous.

Annual salary of police officer / sheriff = $46,467

6. Fishing vessel deckhand. If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, The Deadliest Catch, just imagine trying to hold on to a slippery, ice-covered deck while 40-foot waves crash over you in a Bering Sea storm – frigid and frightening. Annual salary of deckhand= $46,978

7. Roofer. Since over one-third of fall-related deaths involve roofs and ladders, it’s easy to understand why these nimble-footed folks are at great risk every day they’re on the job.

Annual salary of a roofer = $42,116

8. Coal miner. Sadly, because of several tragedies in recent years, most Americans are well aware of the dangers present in this line of work. Fortunately, the number of deaths in private mines decreased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Annual salary of coal miner= $53,500

9. Highway maintenance worker. We get frustrated when they slow down our morning commute. But, the truth is, this group of essential laborers – from asphalt layers to sign holders – gets closer to distracted, speeding drivers than any of us ever should.

Annual salary of maintenance worker = $33,685

10. Journeyman lineman. In the cruelest storms and thickest snows conditions, these tough and highly-skilled people scale electrical poles to help us keep our lights on. With risks ranging from falls to voltage, they must move quickly but cautiously to stay safe.

Annual salary journey lineman = $53,461 per year

If you’re curious, here are some more facts about fatal work accidents in the U.S. from a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study.

• Men make up 54 percent of the workforce but experience 92 percent of fatal work accidents
• Women die more often from highway incidents and homicides than men.
• Latinos are the ethnic group most often involved with fatal work accidents
• Construction has the highest number of fatalities total, but agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining have the highest rates of fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Highways incidents alone accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries in 2007.
• Workers over 65 years of age are over twice as likely to die on the job (9.9 per 100,000) than the national average (3.7 per 100,000).

Source: All annual salary data is from PayScale.com. The annual salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

Other sources: PayScale.com http://www.payscale.com; Skyscraperpage.com http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008 http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0006.pdf; The Discovery Channel “The Deadliest Catch” fansite http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html.

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

10 Dangerous Jobs for Big Money

10 Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

By Bridget Quigg

When it comes to your career, you may worry about your commute time, benefits and your company’s chance of surviving. But, do you ever worry about your own survival?

Believe it or not, a good number of folks work dangerous jobs for big money each day.  They work in occupations that place them close to high-speed traffic, in front of bullet-toting criminals or high atop shaky structures.

So, which workers put their lives on the line and how well are they paid for that risk? Take a look at this list of 10 dangerous jobs.

Dangerous Jobs That Pay Well

1. Construction laborer. What do you see when you look at a construction site? Lots of activity. Cranes move heavy loads, backhoes push huge piles of dirt and concrete trucks unload as quickly as possible. You can bet that the people in this environment move very carefully.

Annual salary of a Construction Laborer = $36,329 2. Structural steel worker. The world’s soon-to-be tallest building, Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is expected to rise over 2,650 feet in the sky – just over half a mile – when it’s completed. How would you like to be at the top, soldering the last bits of rebar?

Annual salary of Structural Steel Worker = $34,388
 
3. Horticultural farmer. Getting hundreds of acres of crops to grow year after year requires some large, dangerous machinery and exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Annual salary of Horticultural farmer= $29,500

4. Ranch worker. Whether forcing a herd of unruly cattle into a pen or trying to brand them, ranch workers constantly expose their arms, legs, heads and hands to crushing forces.

Annual salary of a ranch worker = $31,343

5. Police / sheriff’s patrol officer. While the rest of us run from trouble to save our lives, these brave souls head straight for it. They may be well trained, but the people they face are unpredictable and very dangerous.

Annual salary of police officer / sheriff = $46,467

6. Fishing vessel deckhand. If you haven’t seen Discovery Channel’s reality TV show, The Deadliest Catch, just imagine trying to hold on to a slippery, ice-covered deck while 40-foot waves crash over you in a Bering Sea storm – frigid and frightening. Annual salary of deckhand= $46,978

7. Roofer. Since over one-third of fall-related deaths involve roofs and ladders, it’s easy to understand why these nimble-footed folks are at great risk every day they’re on the job.

Annual salary of a roofer = $42,116

8. Coal miner. Sadly, because of several tragedies in recent years, most Americans are well aware of the dangers present in this line of work. Fortunately, the number of deaths in private mines decreased by 43 percent between 2006 and 2007.

Annual salary of coal miner= $53,500

9. Highway maintenance worker. We get frustrated when they slow down our morning commute. But, the truth is, this group of essential laborers – from asphalt layers to sign holders – gets closer to distracted, speeding drivers than any of us ever should.

Annual salary of maintenance worker = $33,685

10. Journeyman lineman. In the cruelest storms and thickest snows conditions, these tough and highly-skilled people scale electrical poles to help us keep our lights on. With risks ranging from falls to voltage, they must move quickly but cautiously to stay safe.

Annual salary journey lineman = $53,461 per year

If you’re curious, here are some more facts about fatal work accidents in the U.S. from a 2008 Bureau of Labor Statistics study.

• Men make up 54 percent of the workforce but experience 92 percent of fatal work accidents
• Women die more often from highway incidents and homicides than men.
• Latinos are the ethnic group most often involved with fatal work accidents
• Construction has the highest number of fatalities total, but agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting and mining have the highest rates of fatalities per 100,000 workers.
• Highways incidents alone accounted for nearly one out of every four fatal work injuries in 2007.
• Workers over 65 years of age are over twice as likely to die on the job (9.9 per 100,000) than the national average (3.7 per 100,000).

Source: All annual salary data is from PayScale.com. The annual salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

Other sources: PayScale.com http://www.payscale.com; Skyscraperpage.com http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=7787; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, 2008 http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfch0006.pdf; The Discovery Channel “The Deadliest Catch” fansite http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/deadliestcatch/deadliestcatch.html.

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

Motivating After a Layoff

Motivating After a Layoff

By Bridget Quigg

Reggie Case* doesn’t need a regular paycheck to make him feel secure. He’s already decided he can survive this recession. But a stable income and benefits were nice while they lasted.

Reggie, 42, husband, father of two, and a construction project manager with only a high-school degree, left the comforts of a company job behind in May 2008. Reggie saw his layoff coming. In fact, he even helped his boss decide it was time to let him go.

For 16 years Reggie was at the center of a small construction and manufacturing company in a suburb of Cleveland. Reggie’s duties matched those found in a construction project manager description, plus more - from leading construction projects to managing commercial property spaces. “I was deep in the business. I knew all their clients, bankers, everyone,” he explains. So it was easy for him to see a shift was underway. “I knew a year in advance,” he notes. “It wasn’t discussed. But anyone smart enough could see that the business they were getting was getting smaller.”

He responded at the first sign of trouble. “I always have had something on the side. So I would take on more side work. I was preparing for a transition,” he says.

When spring 2008 arrived and no big summer construction gigs were on the docket, Reggie gave himself and his close friends, the owners, a chance to make a smart decision.

“I brought them into my office and said, ‘How long are we going to pretend I have something to do?’” he explains. While they were surprised by his honesty, the owners admitted they had fretted for months over when and how to let him go. Reggie departed soon after their candid conversation.

Reinventing: A Sense of Self

Reggie’s side work quickly turned into a small construction firm of its own. There are pros and cons, he says, of going solo.

“Business is tough, but it’s there,” Reggie says. “A lot of getting a job is just about showing up.” Regarding the state of the construction industry, he says,

“Big business will not be there, like it was, because no one is spending on big construction.” He’s developed an optimistic response to losing his seat on the gravy train. “I call myself the ‘King of the Bottom Feeders.’ The only way to make money is to be out there, using word of mouth and taking the little [jobs],” he says. Reggie will take nearly any job -- any time, any size. He makes money from the small projects most construction managers won’t consider and in the process learns the ins and outs of how to run a small construction firm.

But all this hustle carries a cost. Besides not knowing where the next check is coming from, making himself constantly available requires stamina. “Instead of getting home at 5 p.m. and turning the phone off, it’s on all evening. And if you need to look at a job on a weekend or evening, you fit it in. You get it done,” Reggie says.

Why not get a new job in the role of construction project manager with a different company? Reggie is hooked on his new favorite perks: more family time and the freedom to set his own schedule. “I love that I can be with my family more,” he says. “Time with your family? That’s time you can’t get back. Having that handed to me at such a young age is getting a raise.”

Plus, his day is his own. “I decide where I go and what I can do. I don’t have the guilt of the bosses or the company when something else comes up during the day,” he says.

His family, meanwhile, has been very supportive of his small construction firm. Reggie says, “My wife? To say she’s been great would be an understatement. She’s always felt I was someone who needed to be on his own. There was a relief for her, I think.”

Reflecting on his bold decision to approach his former employer about laying him off, he says, “I wasn’t giving up anything, because there wasn’t going to be anything there next May.”

When asked if he was angry about losing his job, Reggie quickly responds, “That’s business. You do that sort of thing in business.” While he admits the situation initially irked him, he’s moved on. In fact, he ended things so well at his old company, his former bosses now send him business.

Reggie offers this advice to all who have recently lost their jobs: “They have to realize that the money that they made and the job that they had is going to be dramatically different for the rest of their lives. You’re going to have to get creative to make money. This isn’t going to change soon, either.”

*The source’s name has been changed for privacy purposes.

For More Information and Construction Project Manager Description:

• Most popular colleges for construction project managers.
• How much will you make starting out as an assistant construction project manager?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

How Long Can I Carry COBRA Insurance After My Job Loss?

10 Top To-Dos After You’re Laid Off

By Molly Hallman

“I just called you in here to let you know that -- you’re ‘getting it.’” That’s how a trusted co-worker once kindly gave me the heads-up that I was on the layoff list. However eloquently or not your pink slip was delivered, don’t panic. Get your coffee and read this:

1. Unemployment Benefits. If you don’t have another gig lined up, it’s wise to file for unemployment. You can go to CareerOneStop to find the link to your state’s unemployment benefits site. Also, make sure you’re up to date on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law on Feb. 19, a.k.a. the stimulus package. According to, “Unemployment Insurance in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR1),” published by The Urban Institute, added employment benefits from the stimulus package include:

• An extra $25 of income each week.
• No federal income tax on first $2400 of unemployment insurance income.
• A possibility for extension of unemployment benefits to 33 weeks, rather than the standard 26 week limit.

Some states offer additional coverage and extensions depending on the circumstances. Sandra Shore, senior counselor at Novadebt, offers this advice, “File for unemployment insurance even if someone else [such as an employer or friend] thinks you may not qualify.”

2. COBRA Insurance Coverage. “How long can I keep my COBRA insurance after my job loss?” you ask? About 18 months. Plus, the stimulus package enables greatly reduced fees for continuing health insurance coverage under COBRA. “The employee only has to pay 35 percent [of the total COBRA premium],” says Joshua Zuckerberg, partner at Prior Cashman LLP Attorneys at Law of New York, New York. This 65 percent savings lasts for nine months, with continuing COBRA benefits available for another nine months at full-price.

3. 401K. “Workers should avoid taking money out of a 401k plan, as they could lose a large portion of it to taxes and penalties and the amount they withdraw will be added to their income,” and possibly push them into a higher tax bracket, advises Leila Narvid, a labor and employment attorney at Payne & Fears LLP of San Francisco, California. Also, be sure to check into your 401K investment portfolio to see if you need to make any changes to reduce fees or improve returns for the long-term. If you request it from your 401K provider, you may be able to get an advisor to help you make smarter investment decisions at no extra cost.

4. Mortgage & Debt. Make every effort to protect your credit. Be sure to let all of your lenders know your new status and ask for temporary payment reductions before you get behind. If you need help on your mortgage, find out if you qualify for refinancing under the new Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.

5. Budget. Non-profits, such as AICCA or NFCC certified credit counseling agencies, can help you with your household budget. Shore advises checking into state resources if you do an assessment and think you might not be able to make ends meet. Help with health insurance premiums, utilities, food and other necessities may be available for some.

6. One-Stop Career Centers. Most states have free career centers with many ways to help you job hunt, including networking opportunities, job leads, resume writing tips, retraining and more. Job search support groups sponsored by various non-profit organizations are another great way to network and stay informed.

7. Retraining. “Many community colleges are offering unemployed workers free or heavily discounted tuition,” says Narvid. Check in with your local colleges to see what they offer and get information about college funding for unemployed people. If you lost your job because the position moved to another country, you may qualify for retraining benefits through Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program through the Department of Labor.

8. Your Final Check. You may be one of the many who didn’t get a severance check, but instead got a “Thank you very much.”  Either way, check the math on your final paystub to make sure all your vacation hours, severance or other expected items are properly accounted for.

9. Get Your BLuRB Together. BLuRB stands for business cards, LinkedIn, resume, and blog site. Get some business cards printed up to help you network. Go to LinkedIn to set up a career networking page if you don’t have one already. Put your resume together. If it’s been a while and you would like some help writing your resume, certain companies like Get Interviews may offer you a free resume critique. Also, if you have a portfolio of work, open up a blog site to feature it and add the web address for this portfolio to your resume and LinkedIn page, as well.

10. Kids Stuff. If your children have been involved in activities like baseball camp every summer, ask about a scholarship for them this year, explaining your circumstances. Sometimes money is set aside, even at for-profit organizations, just for circumstances like these. Don’t let your kids go without before asking for a scholarship or reduced fee.

More from PayScale:

Get some advice from our Career Coach on Starting Over After a Layoff.
Learn how to Be Ready for a Recession with a Backup Career Plan.
Before you interview be sure you know what the job is worth with our Salary Calculator.

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

Salary Negotiation Tips: What Not to Do

Top 5 Salary Negotiation Mistakes

By Bridget Quigg

If you want to make adults squirm like kindergarteners, broach the subject of salary negotiation. Talking money makes most workers uncomfortable. And while they want such talks to succeed, they make plenty of blunders. If only they had some basic negotiation guidelines.

So what’s the best way to avoid stumbling and also boost your confidence? Rebecca Warriner, a job search coach and owner of Woodland Recruiting, a Seattle-based recruitment and outplacement firm, has some salary negotiation tips when pursuing a win-win situation for you and the employer—rather than starting out defensively, assuming you’re going to get a low offer. Warriner notes, “Salary negotiation is a dialogue that the company and the candidate should be having throughout the hiring process. It should not be a one-time conversation at the end.” She says to embrace your power and how it relates to the negotiation.

Warriner, who’s been on both sides of salary negotiation for over 15 years, offers a handy list of negotiation mistakes to avoid, noting they’re more important than ever because, nowadays, employers have plenty of candidates to choose from.

1. Being unprepared. “I get pretty frustrated as a recruiter when I ask somebody, ‘What are your expectations as far as pay goes?’ [and they do not have an answer],” says Warriner. She suggests doing some homework, and then determining what you’d like to earn. Warriner recommends several methods, including using salary information Web sites, talking to recruiters, asking friends who work in human resources, or connecting with local professional organizations that have salary information.

Once you have a solid answer, practice it. Get in front of the mirror, look yourself in the eye and say, “I earned $55,000 at my last job and I am targeting the $60,000s in this job search.” If you feel you were underpaid in your last gig but aren’t sure about bringing it up, Warriner advises raising the topic in a positive light, underscoring that you’d like to increase your earnings as you make your next career move to better reflect your skills and experience. It pays to be confident with your salary negotiation counteroffer, she adds.

2. Playing games. Telling a prospective employer what you think they want to hear is risky business. “Oftentimes, a candidate will say that they are very flexible; that they are willing to take a step back in pay. Don’t say you’re really flexible if you’re not,” Warriner says. She points out that this approach assumes the company will be more invested in and attached to you at the end of the interview process, and therefore willing to offer you more money than you first asked for—but they won’t be..
br> The key, she says, is to be confident in the salary range you want, and walk away from jobs that aren’t offering it. More than anything, “don’t go through the [hiring] process to have compensation be the reason it doesn’t work,” she says.

Warriner also discourages pitting offers against each other, such as going to your current employer and saying, “I’d like to stay here, but this other company is offering me more.” She says “companies, especially these days, are not interested in candidates that are only interested in pay.” Warriner believes this will likely result in a lost job offer, and lost respect for you from all companies involved in the process.

3. Comparing apples to oranges. If you’re changing careers or moving into a different industry, Warriner says you should tailor your salary expectations. For example, a person moving from a larger company to a smaller organization, or from a corporate outfit to a nonprofit, should expect lower pay. She suggests looking at factors beyond salary in these cases, such as the commute, benefits, the team you’ll work with and industry experience you’ll gain.

4. Stringing a company along. When the time comes to say yes or no, you need to be ready. Warriner believes that “the comp package is something that should have been talked about during the entire process,” so you shouldn’t encounter any big surprises. If it really is the first time you’re seeing the offer and you need time to review it, say something positive, such as, “I’m really happy to receive this offer. I am happy to work for this company. I just want to make sure I am seeing everything and would like tonight to think about it.”

5. Following bad advice. “A lot of advice on salary negotiation is really old fashioned,” says Warriner. “It is based on power plays and assumes that the company is being dishonest.” Some examples include delaying the salary conversation as long as possible, not giving a salary range/figure, or delaying your response to an offer for a week. Taking this power-play approach may cause the company to be turned off by you.

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

What Are Frequently Asked Interview Questions?

Be Interview Savvy: How to Ask Critical Interview Questions

By Siri Anderson

You just landed an interview. You’re excited. You’re nervous. And, your head is full of questions about how to come across as the perfect candidate: What should I wear? What should I say? What are the frequently asked interview questions are they may throw at me?

Most of these first questions revolve around marketing yourself to the company and answering the question, “What does an employer expect in an interview?” But, hang on a second. Take a moment and remember, it's also important to use the interview process to answer the most important question of all: Is this the job I want?

To answer that crucial question, you must pay close attention during the interview and actively engage your potential employer. That doesn't mean you should throw all your hard-hitting questions out at the beginning. The key is to strategize by asking questions that fit in with the goals of the various stages of the interview process.

So, how do you know what to ask and when? Mark Stevens, CEO of marketing and public relations firm MSCO and author of 25 books, including Your Marketing Stinks, suggests viewing the stages of an interview like different stages of dating – falling in love, going steady and engaged to be married. As with dating, you don't jump in asking about finances or other uncomfortable topics. After all, putting the cart before the horse can kill a good thing. Keep in mind the company’s concerns as well as your own when asking questions and you might find yourself getting swept off your feet by the perfect new job.

Initial Interview: The Falling in Love Stage

Asking for and discussing a bureaucratic checklist of benefits or responsibilities is no way to entice a new employer to fall in love with you. The goal of the first interview is mostly to figure out if you like the company and if they like you and could use your skills. Also, this is a time to look for subtle clues about the workplace – take note of the office mood, corporate culture, and how you are treated. Did anyone offer you a coffee or water? Do people make eye contact or say, “Hello”? Can you hear laughter anywhere?

Once the interview starts, the questions you pose to your interviewer should open up dialogue on broader topics such as your professional values and goals, and how they all might align with company goals. Keep the tone personable and look for ways to convey your passions. Doing so will help you come across as confident and knowledgeable, and that can set you apart from other candidates. Furthermore, the depth of information you’ll be able to discuss will leave the interviewer with a much clearer picture about who you are every day.

For example, Stevens advises people to avoid the question, “What will my duties be?” Instead, he suggests posing a similar question this way: “I visited your Web site, and I liked what I saw. How would I be able to contribute to those values in this position?”

Changing the way you ask a rather standard question can lead to a more interesting dialogue and give you a more complete idea of the job. It also shows your potential employer that you are aware of the company goals and that you are someone who will find ways to make them happen. On top of that, by preparing ahead of time, you show the employer that you understand the importance of questions for employer during interview. This puts some of the power of the interview back in your hands.

Second Interview: The Going Steady Stage

If you're asked in for a second interview, you've obviously struck the company’s fancy, and you can begin to ask some of the more difficult questions – tactfully, of course.

Your goal in this stage is to add detail to the broad picture that was painted earlier and to answer any doubts or concerns that you may have about the job. If your research has found a black mark in the company's record, ask about how that's been corrected. If you've found that the company's financial situation is a little rocky, ask how that’s being addressed.

Keep in mind, though, that the formats of follow-up interviews vary widely. You may be meeting with more people than you did in the first interview, or you might just meet with the same people to further explore some topics previously discussed. Either way, you may be asked some of the same questions you were asked before, and you may want to ask some of the same questions as well.

If everything is going well at the end of this stage, you should feel fairly comfortable with this company and envisioning a future with them should be positive and without too many doubts or unknowns.

Job Offer: The Engagement Stage

Congratulations! They want you to join their company – and no matter how excited you may be, don’t jump too soon. This is the time to negotiate the nitty-gritty of numbers and benefits. If you have any remaining concerns, is this company willing to bend to meet them? Are you willing to compromise something in return? Explore how. To ask critical interview questions shows that you care about yourself. Don’t stop looking at this as a relationship at this point – neither party should be asked to sacrifice too much.

If negotiations begin to feel uncomfortable, ask about the larger concern of the employer. Is it that you might be earning more than a supervisor? Are they nervous about giving you the responsibility you'd like to take on? Find out the root of any concerns, ask critical interview questions, and see if there are compromises that can be made so both you and your employer feel like you’re being treated fairly.

Remember, as with dating, one interview process is never the same as the next, and you may have to trust your gut to know when the time is right to ask some of the more difficult questions. Tread softly but confidently through the sticky topics – succeeding in this will likely set you up for a rewarding relationship with your next employer. 
 

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.

Using PayScale’s Data as a Retention Tracking System of College Students

Better Pay Far Away: Which States’ College Graduates Stay or Go

By Bridget Quigg

If you graduate from West Virginia University, chances are you’ll take your education and job skills out-of-state once you’ve tossed your cap - adding to their college graduate retention problem. In fact, PayScale.com, a salary information website, completed a recent study of top public university graduates from every state in the Union and found that only 28 percent of West Virginia University graduates are working in West Virginia five years after graduation,

By comparison, if you complete your degree at the University of Washington you’ll likely be happy to work and live in the Evergreen State. UW grads stick around at a rate of 74 percent, or near three times that of West Virginia University grads. Why is there this discrepancy?
 
Jobs. Young college graduates seek careers where they can put their education and if there are none available near their alma mater they move on. If you do the math on this trend, you’ll see that some states get a great return on their higher education funding, while others lose ground. This can be a real problem, especially now that most state’s budgets for creating more jobs and funding college retention programs are strained by the recession.

PayScale director of quantitative analysis, Al Lee, Ph.D., explains the issue further, “Earning a bachelor’s degree from a leading public university gives a state’s resident options, but are the best opportunities out of state? A lot of a state university’s graduates hitting the road to find a career is not a good sign for a state’s future.” Lee goes on to suggest that states with poor retention rates might be wise to invest in programs that create more jobs rather than further subsidizing public higher education.

So which states are winning and which are losing? Here are the top five states and their percentage of college graduates who stay to work in state after completing a public university degree:

Top States for College Retention

1. Washington, University of Washington – 74% retention rate
2. Minnesota, University of Minnesota – 67% retention rate
3. Texas, University of Texas, Austin – 65% retention rate
4. New York, Binghamton University – 64% retention rate
5. Utah, University of Utah – 62% retention rate

By comparison, the following five states struggle the most to keep grads as workers five years later:

Worst States for College Retention

1. West Virginia, West Virginia University – 28% retention rate
2. Wyoming, University of Wyoming – 29% retention rate
3. North Dakota, North Dakota State – 29% retention rate
4. Delaware, University of Delaware – 30% retention rate
5. Iowa, University of Iowa – 30% retention rate

Lee highlights the dramatic difference between two neighboring states listed above, “The winners keep winning: more North Dakota State graduates (36%) work in Minnesota than in North Dakota, while less than 1% of U of Minnesota graduates find a career in North Dakota.”

Despite the dire statistics, some areas are not as bad off as they seem. For example, Delaware boasts only a 30% retention rate of workers in state from its University of Delaware graduates. But, if you consider Delaware as part of an area that includes surrounding states like Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, as well as the District of Columbia, 76 percent of UD’s Fightin’ Blue Hens choose to stay nearby and possibly live in state and commute from Delaware to another state to work. Our current vice president, Joe Biden, is an example of a University of Delaware grad who lived in Delaware but commuted into D.C. for work.

Some other interesting facts PayScale found about college graduates’ behavior include:

• California jumps into the number one slot, above Washington State, in retaining graduates when you consider all of its ranked public universities, not just UC Berkeley. UC Irvine has a worker retention rate of 83%.

• North Dakota drops to the bottom of the 50 states when all of the ranked universities in each state are added to the calculation. West Virginia gets bumped up to the second to last spot.

• When the country is divided into geographical regions, the Pacific region, which includes Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, ranks highest in keeping grads around and employed. The Middle Atlantic region of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York comes in second.

• Another important factor for keeping grads working in state can be the number of highly specialized jobs available, such as high energy physics research or fashion design. More populated states, like California and New York, offer a wider variety of job possibilities, therefore college graduates of these states’ universities have more reason to stay in-state after graduation.