Relocating for work can be a good move for your career. If you’re planning to relocate, it’s important to remember that not every company offers relocation assistance. Understanding what to do if it’s not included in your signing offer or benefits package can help you find other ways to make your move easier to afford. In this article, we discuss what relocation assistance is, review what the package typically includes and give suggestions for approaching a situation where a company doesn’t offer this assistance.

What is relocation assistance?

Relocation assistance is a potential item in a business benefits package. It offers compensation to help an employee move to a new city, state, or country to work for a specific company. Organizations may offer relocation assistance to employees who are a good fit for the company but may have to move away from their current homes to join the team.

Companies may try to pay as little as possible for this type of assistance while still providing the necessary compensation to help an employee live near the office and get settled in a new place. Only certain items may fall under the acceptable expenditures for relocation assistance. These can vary depending on what type of move you’re making.

When to ask for relocation assistance

Situations where it’s acceptable to ask for relocation assistance from an employer include:

If you’re moving to a new city

To qualify for most in-state city-to-city relocation assistance packages, your new city must typically be over 50 miles, or over an hour’s drive, from your current location using highways or toll roads. If both cities have connecting public transportation, such as subway systems or bus services, you may not be eligible. It can still be appropriate to ask for assistance in a city relocation situation because it may cost the company less than moving someone across the country, and they may be more willing to hire someone closer to the job.

If you’re moving to a new state

Moving to a new state for a job requires logistical planning and strategy to make it happen. It may also cost more than moving within your current state. Consider asking for relocation assistance in this situation to help offset the costs of your move. As with a city-to-city move, there may be some exceptions to this situation.

For example, those working in a place like New York City, which offers direct train and light rail transporting to other nearby states like New Jersey and Connecticut, may ask for transportation assistance instead. Another exception may be employees who live near state borders, working in one state but living in another. People near the Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio borders may do this and have less than a 50-mile commute, even if they cross state lines.

If you’re moving to a new country

Moving to another country is one of the biggest moves you can make for work. It requires not just travel costs for you and your family but also shipping costs of personal possessions, such as cars. Ask for relocation assistance in this instance. You may try to get more than just monetary payments from the package. Consider requesting help with services such as securing visas or coverage of travel visits to explore your new country before the move.

If you have a quick start date

If the company asks you to start your job in a new location less than a month after your interview, it may be appropriate to request relocation assistance. This is because there are many steps that go into moving, including selling your current home or getting out of a lease, packing and shipping your possessions, and securing a new place to live. It may take longer than one month to complete the full process.

Consider sharing these concerns with the company’s human resources (HR) department. They may either provide relocation assistance or delay your start date to give you more time to complete moving tasks.

What does relocation assistance typically include?

The exact details of a relocation assistance package may vary by company and the type of move you’re making. Some potential items in your package could include:

·         Reimbursement for moving costs

·         Temporary lodging, such as hotel payment

·         Travel expenses, such as airfare or payment for a rental vehicle

·         Home sale help for a current residence

·         Classes to learn a new language

·         Loading and unloading of moving trucks or shipping containers

·         Visa application guidance

·         Travel, home, or moving insurance

·         Full packing services

·         Storage

·         Spousal employment assistance

·         Rental guidance

·         Pre-move visits to your new city, state, or country

Lump sum

A lump sum is a one-time payment provided by the company for moving-related expenses. You negotiate this amount with HR before your move. You can decide where and how to spend the money based on the type of move you’re making and the services it requires.

Reimbursement

A reimbursement is when the company pays you back for moving expenses you charge to your own accounts. You pay for the services initially, then receive payment from the company after you’ve completed the move. Most organizations cover a reimbursement up to a certain dollar amount. The HR or finance departments may ask for receipts, proofs of purchase, and other documentation of services rendered to approve the reimbursements.

Direct bill

With a direct bill, the company pays for some or all of the relocation expenses without your intervention. Moving companies and services send the bills to the company’s accounting department instead of coming to you. Another way an organization may cover direct billing is by providing you with a company credit card to charge travel expenses. Some may also combine direct billing with a lump sum or reimbursements to cover more of your moving expenses.

Third-party relocation

With third-party relocation, the company hires an outside organization to provide all your relocation assistance. This advisory team coordinates with you to set the logistics for the move. It also coordinates with your company to receive payment for services.

Tips for what to do if a company offers no relocation assistance

There are several actions you can take if your company does not initially offer relocation services. Here are some tips to consider:

Request it

If a company is used to hiring employees within its geographic area, the HR department may not consider that you’d like relocation assistance unless you ask. Be polite but direct when speaking to a company representative. Be clear about how you’re excited to work for the company, but that you may need help to make the move and live close enough to work for them. Making this claim may be enough to encourage HR to put together a relocation package for your approval, which you can accept, reject or negotiate.

Ask for an advance

If the company doesn’t offer a relocation package, you can ask for an advance in your earnings to cover some of your moving expenses. If HR agrees, you earn more money at the beginning of your tenure, either as a lump sum or in installments, to help supplement the immediate costs of moving. Asking for and accepting this type of offer means you may make less money later in the year, something to remember when creating your household budget. Another option could be accepting a lower base salary for a relocation package.

Ask for a bonus

If an advance isn’t available, ask HR if you could work together to create an incentivizing goal program to earn bonuses in your new position. Together, you can set certain criteria or performance standards to reach within a certain period to earn more money. This could be an option to help you cover some moving costs without actually calling it a relocation assistance package. When making this suggestion, communicate that it’s to help compensate for your move.

Do your research

If your company doesn’t offer relocation assistance, HR may not understand just how much it costs to move from one place to another. Research moving costs from your current location to that of the new job. Compare facts like costs of living, price of moving all your belongings, taxes in the new location and any other monetary expenses to prepare for the move. You can use this information when making your case with the company to show why a relocation package is necessary.

Practice your negotiation skills

Even if your company offers some relocation assistance, you may negotiate to get certain aspects of your move covered. Doing your research can help, but so can practicing your persuasive skills. Learn how to construct a factual argument and how to negotiate for compensation you think you deserve. This can help you feel more confident when approaching HR and also makes it more challenging for the company to refute your claim. One negotiation tactic may include leveraging other job offers that provide relocation assistance to convince your company to create a competitive package.

This article is for information purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Consult with an attorney or lawyer for any legal issues you may be experiencing.

The post What To Do When an Employer Offers No Relocation Assistance appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

These days, phone interviews are an unavoidable part of the job interview process, and for good reason: They save everyone involved time and effort. But that doesn’t mean that phoners require zero energy on the part of the candidate. Yes, you should spend more time preparing for an in-person interview, but many companies treat phone screens as the official first round of the hiring process. That means candidates are expected to go into them prepared with as much information about the company, position, and their own skills and strengths as possible.

We asked HR pros about their top phone interview pet peeves, they had no shortage of advice to offer. Apparently, it’s quite easy to mess up your phone interview. But here’s the thing; it’s also not hard to come across well if you keep some key things in mind.

1. Never Take The Interview Somewhere Noisy
It might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised what interviewers say they can hear in the background of their phone interviews—everything from barking dogs to screaming children. “Prepare for the interview by securing a quiet space in advance, even if it means escaping to your car parked in the garage,” advises Chere Taylor, founder of Fulcrum HR Consulting. “If you can lock your home office door, by all means, do it. We’ve all been there and sometimes things just happen, but the more time spent anticipating what could go wrong, the better prepared and organized you will appear to the interviewer and the greater likelihood of success.” That doesn’t mean that if your washing machine beeps once in the background all hope is lost, but the more effort you put into being in a quiet place, the more focused you’ll be.

2. Don’t Talk About Your Personal Life
…Unless you’re directly asked a question about what you like to do in your off hours. “The point of a phone interview is to focus on getting to know a candidate’s professional experience and goals,” says Mckenzie Roark, campus talent specialist at Lithko Contracting. “A recruiter is trying to qualify them to see if they are the best fit for a role, and learning about their personal life doesn’t help. For example, when asked where you see yourself in five years, we don’t want to know that you hope to be married or that you want to buy a new house. That is nice but that isn’t relative to anything professional.”

3. Resist The Urge to Multitask
It might be tempting to cross something off your to-do list while on a phone interview, but recruiters and hiring managers can easily tell if your attention is elsewhere. “My number one pet peeve is people who decide to multitask while on the phone interview,” says Dan Krupansky, Talent Acquisition Manager at PrimePay. “I have heard candidates washing dishes, making lunch in the microwave, going for walks, letting their dog out, and grocery shopping during the interview. I even had one person use the bathroom and flush the toilet while speaking with me.” Needless to say, this doesn’t reflect well on your level of interest in the position you’re interviewing for.

4. Skip The Money Conversation
To put it bluntly, it’s simply too early in the process for you to be the one who brings up salary expectations. “Chances are if a candidate is participating in a phone interview, this is the first time they have talked with the company, and the first call isn’t the appropriate time to talk about ‘what’s in it for you,’” says Justina Strnad, the Talent Acquisition Manager for Shiftgig. “Trust me, if you are a great candidate and make it to the next steps, the hiring team is going to be very transparent about what’s in it for you later on!”

5. Never Put Your Interviewer On Hold
Phone interviews don’t take that long, and there probably isn’t anything else going on that is really truly so urgent that you need to pause your interview. “Do not put me on hold to take an important call that just beeped in,” advises Jeremy Payne, head of people operations at Remote Year. “I am your important call. If you are expecting extremely urgent news (like information about a family illness), be sure to preface that in the early minutes of the interview, so the recruiter is aware of the situation and so you can work with them to reschedule if that interruption does occur,” he says.

6. Never Skip The Q&A
“After wrapping up a phone interview, it is typical that the interviewer will ask the candidate if they have any questions. I can’t stress this enough: ALWAYS ask questions,” says Roark. “If we have had a great phone interview and then we wrap up and they don’t have any questions for me, it pretty much ruins the whole interview. It tells me that the candidate is uninterested in the role, which in reality, might not be the case at all,” she notes. But surely, if you’re interested in a job, you can think of something to ask your interviewer.

7. Don’t Be Late
It seems basic, but surprisingly, many people are late to phone interviews. “About a quarter of the people with whom I schedule phone interviews aren’t on time,” says Sophie Cikovsky, who handles the U.S. recruiting for Infinite Global. “While this bothers me personally, it’s also indicative of someone who isn’t very detail-oriented,” she explains. “In order to identify this early in the hiring process, I started asking all candidates a few years ago to call me as opposed to calling them at an agreed-upon time. That way if I hear from them at 1:13 pm or 12:49 pm instead of our planned 1:00 pm interview time, I have an early indicator that they might not be a great fit.”

8. Don’t Assume Reception Is Good
“Make sure you test your headset and connection before dialing in,” recommends Payne. “There is nothing more frustrating for a recruiter who has a structured interview guide in place having to repeatedly ask the same question over and over because they could not understand your answer due to static or dropped signals.” Test call a friend beforehand or even call yourself from a landline if necessary; it will take less than a minute.

9. Never Talk Over The Interviewer
You might be eager to get your point across or talk about your experience, but interrupting the interviewer is awkward and rude when you’re speaking on the phone, even more so than in face-to-face interviews. “Interviewing can be stressful and sometimes that stress manifests itself in speaking too fast, speaking too loud, talking over the interviewer, or attempting to answer the interviewer’s question before they have actually finished asking the question,” says Taylor. “Don’t do this.” There’s a big difference between being assertive and being aggressive, and interviewers can always recognize it.

10. Skip Filler Words
It’s tough not to say things like “um,” “uh,” and “like” in everyday speech, but these verbal habits become much more pronounced when speaking on the phone, says Chris Dardis, a recruiting expert and HR professional with Versique Executive Search. “In face-to-face interviews, they’re not as noticeable because there are other things like your hair, suit, or body language to distract people,” he explains. But in a phone interview, the only thing you have to go on is what you say and how you say it. “That’s why it’s so important to eliminate these words from your speech when doing a phone interview.”

11. Don’t Go In Blind
Not knowing anything about the company or job you’re interviewing for is way more obvious than you’d think. “Many people think that a phone interview means they’re getting away with something, that they don’t have to put as much effort into researching the role or company,” says Steve Pritchard, HR Consultant for giffgaff. And if you have your laptop in front of you during the interview to do a few quick searches, they won’t know the difference, right? Not exactly. “Seasoned interviewers will know whether an interviewee is researching while on the phone; they will take too long to answer the question and punctuate their answers with a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ as they type. The interviewer can often even hear the typing as they ask the question,” he adds.

12. Nix Long-Winded Answers
“The key to success during a phone interview is clear and concise answers,” says Dardis. “People’s attention spans tend to be shorter over the phone. You don’t want your future employer to lose interest in the conversation.” He recommends practicing answers to questions you know will be asked ahead of time in order to be clear on what you’re going to say. That way, you can prevent rambling before it starts.

The post 12 Things to Never Do During A Phone Interview appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

These days, phone interviews are an unavoidable part of the job interview process, and for good reason: They save everyone involved time and effort. But that doesn’t mean that phoners require zero energy on the part of the candidate. Yes, you should spend more time preparing for an in-person interview, but many companies treat phone screens as the official first round of the hiring process. That means candidates are expected to go into them prepared with as much information about the company, position, and their own skills and strengths as possible.

We asked HR pros about their top phone interview pet peeves, they had no shortage of advice to offer. Apparently, it’s quite easy to mess up your phone interview. But here’s the thing; it’s also not hard to come across well if you keep some key things in mind.

1. Never Take The Interview Somewhere Noisy
It might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised what interviewers say they can hear in the background of their phone interviews—everything from barking dogs to screaming children. “Prepare for the interview by securing a quiet space in advance, even if it means escaping to your car parked in the garage,” advises Chere Taylor, founder of Fulcrum HR Consulting. “If you can lock your home office door, by all means, do it. We’ve all been there and sometimes things just happen, but the more time spent anticipating what could go wrong, the better prepared and organized you will appear to the interviewer and the greater likelihood of success.” That doesn’t mean that if your washing machine beeps once in the background all hope is lost, but the more effort you put into being in a quiet place, the more focused you’ll be.

2. Don’t Talk About Your Personal Life
…Unless you’re directly asked a question about what you like to do in your off hours. “The point of a phone interview is to focus on getting to know a candidate’s professional experience and goals,” says Mckenzie Roark, campus talent specialist at Lithko Contracting. “A recruiter is trying to qualify them to see if they are the best fit for a role, and learning about their personal life doesn’t help. For example, when asked where you see yourself in five years, we don’t want to know that you hope to be married or that you want to buy a new house. That is nice but that isn’t relative to anything professional.”

3. Resist The Urge to Multitask
It might be tempting to cross something off your to-do list while on a phone interview, but recruiters and hiring managers can easily tell if your attention is elsewhere. “My number one pet peeve is people who decide to multitask while on the phone interview,” says Dan Krupansky, Talent Acquisition Manager at PrimePay. “I have heard candidates washing dishes, making lunch in the microwave, going for walks, letting their dog out, and grocery shopping during the interview. I even had one person use the bathroom and flush the toilet while speaking with me.” Needless to say, this doesn’t reflect well on your level of interest in the position you’re interviewing for.

4. Skip The Money Conversation
To put it bluntly, it’s simply too early in the process for you to be the one who brings up salary expectations. “Chances are if a candidate is participating in a phone interview, this is the first time they have talked with the company, and the first call isn’t the appropriate time to talk about ‘what’s in it for you,’” says Justina Strnad, the Talent Acquisition Manager for Shiftgig. “Trust me, if you are a great candidate and make it to the next steps, the hiring team is going to be very transparent about what’s in it for you later on!”

5. Never Put Your Interviewer On Hold
Phone interviews don’t take that long, and there probably isn’t anything else going on that is really truly so urgent that you need to pause your interview. “Do not put me on hold to take an important call that just beeped in,” advises Jeremy Payne, head of people operations at Remote Year. “I am your important call. If you are expecting extremely urgent news (like information about a family illness), be sure to preface that in the early minutes of the interview, so the recruiter is aware of the situation and so you can work with them to reschedule if that interruption does occur,” he says.

6. Never Skip The Q&A
“After wrapping up a phone interview, it is typical that the interviewer will ask the candidate if they have any questions. I can’t stress this enough: ALWAYS ask questions,” says Roark. “If we have had a great phone interview and then we wrap up and they don’t have any questions for me, it pretty much ruins the whole interview. It tells me that the candidate is uninterested in the role, which in reality, might not be the case at all,” she notes. But surely, if you’re interested in a job, you can think of something to ask your interviewer.

7. Don’t Be Late
It seems basic, but surprisingly, many people are late to phone interviews. “About a quarter of the people with whom I schedule phone interviews aren’t on time,” says Sophie Cikovsky, who handles the U.S. recruiting for Infinite Global. “While this bothers me personally, it’s also indicative of someone who isn’t very detail-oriented,” she explains. “In order to identify this early in the hiring process, I started asking all candidates a few years ago to call me as opposed to calling them at an agreed-upon time. That way if I hear from them at 1:13 pm or 12:49 pm instead of our planned 1:00 pm interview time, I have an early indicator that they might not be a great fit.”

8. Don’t Assume Reception Is Good
“Make sure you test your headset and connection before dialing in,” recommends Payne. “There is nothing more frustrating for a recruiter who has a structured interview guide in place having to repeatedly ask the same question over and over because they could not understand your answer due to static or dropped signals.” Test call a friend beforehand or even call yourself from a landline if necessary; it will take less than a minute.

9. Never Talk Over The Interviewer
You might be eager to get your point across or talk about your experience, but interrupting the interviewer is awkward and rude when you’re speaking on the phone, even more so than in face-to-face interviews. “Interviewing can be stressful and sometimes that stress manifests itself in speaking too fast, speaking too loud, talking over the interviewer, or attempting to answer the interviewer’s question before they have actually finished asking the question,” says Taylor. “Don’t do this.” There’s a big difference between being assertive and being aggressive, and interviewers can always recognize it.

10. Skip Filler Words
It’s tough not to say things like “um,” “uh,” and “like” in everyday speech, but these verbal habits become much more pronounced when speaking on the phone, says Chris Dardis, a recruiting expert and HR professional with Versique Executive Search. “In face-to-face interviews, they’re not as noticeable because there are other things like your hair, suit, or body language to distract people,” he explains. But in a phone interview, the only thing you have to go on is what you say and how you say it. “That’s why it’s so important to eliminate these words from your speech when doing a phone interview.”

11. Don’t Go In Blind
Not knowing anything about the company or job you’re interviewing for is way more obvious than you’d think. “Many people think that a phone interview means they’re getting away with something, that they don’t have to put as much effort into researching the role or company,” says Steve Pritchard, HR Consultant for giffgaff. And if you have your laptop in front of you during the interview to do a few quick searches, they won’t know the difference, right? Not exactly. “Seasoned interviewers will know whether an interviewee is researching while on the phone; they will take too long to answer the question and punctuate their answers with a lot of ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ as they type. The interviewer can often even hear the typing as they ask the question,” he adds.

12. Nix Long-Winded Answers
“The key to success during a phone interview is clear and concise answers,” says Dardis. “People’s attention spans tend to be shorter over the phone. You don’t want your future employer to lose interest in the conversation.” He recommends practicing answers to questions you know will be asked ahead of time in order to be clear on what you’re going to say. That way, you can prevent rambling before it starts.

The post 12 Things to Never Do During A Phone Interview appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

When you sit down for a job interview, it’s perfectly natural to want to know how you’ll be compensated now and in the future. After all, the average job candidate in the United States stays in the job for which they were hired for about four years. After that, it’s time to move up or move on.

But how do you ask about promotions in an interview without making it look like you’re going to move on quickly? Or without coming across like you think you deserve a better job right from the start?

It can be an uncomfortable conversation, but there’s no opting out. In order to choose the opportunity that best fits your career plans, you need to have accurate information about the position. That conversation must involve a glimpse of what promotions and raises might look like if you were to accept a job offer.

Here are three effective questions to help you ask about promotions in an interview without looking presumptuous:

1. Ask, “How do you help good performers grow in this position?”

Companies attract competitive candidates by offering growth opportunities. It’s very likely that the company you’re interviewing with will want to highlight its efforts to help employees grow and evolve through professional development, education, or experience opportunities.

Since “growth” can be a codeword for future promotions, asking this question will give the interviewer an opportunity to talk about people who started out in this position and grew into promotions or raises. If they don’t bring it up, follow up by specifically asking if anyone within the company got started in a similar position.

2. Ask, “Can you tell me how you’d compensate the person in this position if they went above and beyond your expectations?

Start by asking the interviewer to identify what achievements would indicate success in the position. Not only will this give you an idea of what kind of work you’ll be focusing on, but it will also show the interviewer that you understand that each position is part of a bigger picture.

Then, ask what happens if an employee completes all of those milestones and then achieves even more. If it’s a good opportunity, that will naturally lead to a conversation about the company’s compensation structure, including promotions and raises.

3. Say, “Your company culture values X. Can you tell me how that plays out in compensating and promoting employees within your organization?”

Because company culture influences the work you do and how you do it, it also impacts future earnings. Therefore, be on the lookout for culture fit when you interview for a new job. For example, if you’re really good at specialized, individual work, but you’re interviewing with a company that values teamwork above all else, there might be a fundamental mismatch. if the company flat-out says it values one skill over another, it’s not going to invest promotions and raises in someone with those unvalued skills.

As you learn more about the company, ask follow-up questions to see how the company’s culture impacts compensation and promotion. This question, in particular, will give the interviewer a chance to share examples of skills they value and how they have compensated and promoted individuals with those skills in the past.

Don’t shy away from a conversation about promotions and raises in an interview. It’s important information you need to be able to make an informed decision. But remember: no matter how strategically you ask about promotions in an interview, no promotion is guaranteed. Once you get the job, use these tips to set yourself up to get those promotions.

The post Is It Presumptive to Ask About Raises In a Job Interview? appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

Discussing your strengths and weaknesses can be one of the most difficult parts of the job interview. Avoid interview paralysis with our advice.

You probably immediately noticed your heart racing if you’ve ever been asked the question “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” in a job interview. How do I say what I’m not good at without looking terrible and say what I am good at without bragging? Yep, this is a toughie. But there’s a secret formula that can help you succeed: Emphasize a positive quality or skill that’s needed for the job, and minimize—but be truthful about—the negatives.

Let’s say two candidates—we’ll call them Francine and William—have job interviews for a customer service manager position. As always, one of the interview questions they’ll be asked is about their strengths and weaknesses.

First up is Francine. When she’s asked, “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?” Francine responds, “My strength is that I’m a hard worker. My weakness is that I get stressed when I miss a deadline because someone else dropped the ball.”

This answer is unimaginative, a no-brainer. Most people think of themselves as hard workers—who would actually admit to not being a hard worker? Also, Francine’s weakness is technically not a weakness, plus she passes the buck: Someone—not her—drops the ball, which causes her to get stressed.

Now it’s William’s turn. He also has difficulty with the question. “I really can’t think of a weakness,” he begins. “Maybe I could be more focused. My strength is probably my ability to deal with people. I am pretty easygoing. I usually don’t get upset easily.”

This answer leads with a negative and then moves to vague words: maybe, probably, pretty, and usually. William isn’t doing himself any favors.

So what is the best way to answer this common interview question?

Assessing your weaknesses
Let’s get the hard part out of the way first—your weaknesses. This is probably the most dreaded part of the question. Everyone has weaknesses, but who wants to admit to them, especially in an interview?
Some examples of weaknesses you might mention include:

• Being too critical of yourself
• Attempting to please everyone
• Being unfamiliar with the latest software

The best way to handle this question is to minimize the trait and emphasize the positive. Select a trait and come up with a solution to overcome your weakness. Stay away from personal qualities and concentrate more on professional traits. For example: “I pride myself on being a ‘big-picture’ guy. I have to admit I sometimes miss small details, but I always make sure I have someone who is detail-oriented on my team.”

Assessing your strengths
When it comes time to toot your own horn, you need to be specific. Assess your skills to identify your strengths. This is an exercise worth doing before any interview. Make a list of your skills, dividing them into three categories:

• Knowledge-based skills: Acquired from education and experience (e.g., computer skills, languages, degrees, training, and technical ability).
• Transferable skills: Your portable skills that you take from job to job (e.g., communication and people skills, analytical problem solving and planning skills)
• Personal traits: Your unique qualities (e.g., dependable, flexible, friendly, hard-working, expressive, formal, punctual, and being a team player).

Some examples of strengths you might mention include:

• Enthusiasm
• Trustworthiness
• Creativity
• Discipline
• Patience
• Respectfulness
• Determination
• Dedication
• Honesty
• Versatility

When you complete this list, choose three to five of those strengths that match what the employer is seeking in the job posting. Make sure you can give specific examples to demonstrate why you say that is your strength if probed further.

Scripting your answers
Write a positive statement you can say with confidence:

“My strength is my flexibility to handle change. As a customer service manager at my last job, I was able to turn around a negative working environment and develop a very supportive team. As far as weaknesses, I feel that my management skills could be stronger, and I am constantly working to improve them.”

When confronted with this interview question, remember the interviewer is looking for a fit. She is forming a picture of you based on your answers. A single answer will probably not keep you from getting the job, unless, of course, it is something blatant. Put your energy into your strengths statement—what you have to offer. Then let the interviewer know that although you may not be perfect, you are working on any shortcomings you have.

Keep on the strong side
Job interviews are among the most nerve-racking part of the job-search process, which is why being prepared makes all the difference.

The post List of strengths and weaknesses: What to say in your interview appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

Quantifying your accomplishments tends to catch people’s eyes, including recruiters. Learn how to use numbers effectively on your resume.

Suppose you’re a hiring manager looking at resumes. Which of the following statements would impress you more?

• Wrote news releases.
• Wrote 25 news releases in a three-week period under daily deadlines.

Clearly, the second statement carries more weight. Why? Because it uses numbers to quantify the writer’s accomplishment, giving it a context that helps the interviewer understand the degree of difficulty involved in the task.

Numbers are powerful resume tools that will help your accomplishments get the attention they deserve from prospective employers. With just a little thought, you can find effective ways to quantify your successes on your resume. Here are a few suggestions:

Think Money
Organizations are and always will be concerned about money. So as you contemplate your accomplishments and prepare to present them on your resume, think about ways you’ve saved, earned or managed money in your internships, part-time jobs, and extracurricular activities so far. A few possibilities that might appear on a typical resume:

• Identified, researched, and recommended a new Internet service provider, cutting the company’s online costs by 15 percent.
• Wrote prospect letter that has brought in more than $25,000 in donations so far.
• Managed a student organization budget of more than $7,000.

Think Time
You’ve heard the old saying, “Time is money,” and it’s true. Companies and organizations are constantly looking for ways to save time and do things more efficiently. They’re also necessarily concerned about meeting deadlines, both internal and external. So whatever you can do on your resume to show that you can save time, make time or manage time will grab your reader’s immediate attention. Here are some time-oriented entries that might appear on a typical resume:

• Assisted with twice-monthly payroll activities, ensuring employees were paid as expected and on time.
• Suggested procedures that decreased average order-processing time from 10 minutes to five minutes.

Think Amounts
It’s very easy to neglect to mention how much or how much of something you’ve produced or overseen. There’s a tendency instead to simply pluralize your accomplishments—e.g., “wrote news releases” or “developed lesson plans”—without including important specifics—e.g., “wrote 25 news releases” or “developed lesson plans for two classes of 20 students each.”
Don’t fall into the trap of excluding numbers. Instead, include amounts, like these:

• Recruited 25 members for a new student environmental organization.
• Trained five new employees on restaurant operations procedures.
• Created process that bolstered production by 25 percent

The more you focus on money, time, and amounts in relation to your accomplishments, the better you’ll present your successes and highlight your potential—and the more you’ll realize just how much you really have to offer prospective employers. Add it all up, and you’ll see that playing the numbers game is yet another way to convince employers that you should be a part of their equation for success.
Calculate Your Resume’s Results

Numbers offer solid proof that you deliver results—and employers love results. Could you use a little help ensuring your resume is strong enough to attract a hiring manager’s attention?

The post Use These Numbers to Highlight Your Accomplishments appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

{Click here to read the original article on Glassdoor.}

What Do Job Titles Signify?
A job title is a very helpful tool in the professional world. Your job title provides a concise encapsulation of your position as an employee. A job title, depending on the job, can actually express not only your level in the overall organization of your business but also the responsibilities that are required of you in that position.

What is a retention bonus?
A retention bonus, also known as a retention package, retention pay, or stay bonus, is a one-time lump sum a company or organization pays an employee as an incentive to remain with the company for a specified amount of time. The amount offered within a retention bonus package varies but is usually based on a percentage of the employee’s salary, their role within the company, and the time they will remain. Larger companies use retention bonuses to retain key employees and continue to benefit from their talent and experience. Organizations typically offer retention bonuses during a company transition to help maintain a solid working foundation within the company and ensure that leadership guides employees through the change.

Reasons companies offer retention bonuses
Companies may benefit from offering retention pay in the following ways:

• To establish reliability. Bonuses help keep reliable employees happy and loyal to the company for many years.
• To boost morale. Extra pay shows employees their work is valued and they feel motivated to perform well.
• To create loyal workers. Workers who are justly compensated for their time and expertise gain respect for the company and are invested in seeing it succeed.
• To provide consistency. An outsider, such as a customer, who consistently sees the same employees views the company as consistent and reliable.
• To reward performance. Although retention bonuses aren’t based on employee performance, employees who are fairly compensated have higher job satisfaction and are more likely to take pride in a job well done.
• To keep highly skilled workers. A bonus is an investment in experience. Experienced workers are often more confident, are more consistently productive, and have honed their skills throughout the years.

How does a retention bonus work?
Employee performance is usually not a determining factor in a retention bonus. Rather, a retention package is a monetary incentive offered to keep an employee and their talent at the company for an agreed amount of time. Both the employee and a supervisor or a qualified company representative sign the written terms of the agreement. The retention bonus contract states the amount of the bonus offered, a determined time period the employee agrees to remain with the company, and how the company will pay the funds. Typically, the bonus is paid in one large sum or spread out in smaller amounts throughout the duration of the contract.

How to decide if you should accept a retention bonus
If the company you work for has offered you a retention bonus, you are a valued employee and management has noted your hard work. Your contributions and both hard and soft skills are considered valuable assets and the organizational leadership determined that losing you as an employee would negatively affect the overall company productivity and profit. Carefully consider the following factors when determining whether to sign a retention agreement or begin negotiating.

1. The reasons a bonus is offered
Companies offer bonuses for different reasons. Consider the determining factors behind your offer. The company might offer a retention bonus to secure quality employees during a time of transition or to ensure continued success and keep talented employees from going to work for a competing organization. Evaluate your thoughts about the justifications behind the offer and consider whether you agree with the company’s motivating factors or if you find the tactic questionable. It is important to evaluate these factors in order to make the best decision and work with a company you trust.

2. Your opinion of the company and your experience
Review whether your own values and priorities still match those of the company you work with. Consider your experience with the organization so far and the leadership styles you’ve encountered. Positive company culture is important to job satisfaction.

3. The current job market within your industry
Research current job openings that match the qualifications and responsibilities you currently hold. You can begin by searching based on your specific job title. Determine the status of the job market and how easily you would find a position with pay and responsibilities comparable to your current position. Knowing your available options and whether your current salary is fair will inform your judgment in deciding if a retention bonus is right for you.

4. Your tax responsibility
Retention bonuses are considered taxable income. However, because they are supplemental wages, your tax responsibility may differ from that of your annual salary. Consider the tax rate when contemplating if you should accept a retention bonus. A tax professional can answer your questions regarding things like aggregate tax or percentage tax. It may be financially beneficial to request a raise over a bonus.

5. Your career path
The retention agreement will show the amount of time you will commit to the company. Think about how the decision to remain will impact your career path and ability to move up. If upward mobility is important to you, understand whether there are opportunities for you to do so within the company and how a role shift will affect your agreement.

Tips for salary negotiation
When deciding if a retention bonus will work for you, you may ask for more funds or negotiate for a shorter amount of time to commit to the company. Use the list below for help with your salary negotiations and to understand your stay bonus plan.

1. Request a copy of the contract to review.
You will want to review the terms and conditions of the agreement when you are clear-headed and relaxed. An office setting, with work obligations looming, may not be conducive to understanding the details. Ask to take home an unofficial copy. Although some companies may not allow it for privacy purposes, they may give you other options.

2. Pay close attention to the language used.
Retention bonuses are often large sums, and companies may use vague language within the contract. If there is a shift in management or another unforeseen event, you want to be sure that you and the promised incentive are protected from policy loopholes. Look for phrases such as, “actively employed” and “sole discretion.” Read the clauses carefully and ask that the contract includes specific details. Check that concrete language is used throughout and that the company clearly defines terms like “termination causes” and “conditions I cannot control.” You may also want to look at asking the company to agree to keep your role relevant during the specified retention period (or negotiate a severance package) should there be a restructuring.

3. Take your time.
Because you are potentially committing one or more years to working with a company, take your time to review the conditions and clauses. Communicate with the human resources manager or your supervisor and let them know when you will be ready to discuss the terms and conditions.

4. Consider declining.
Although monetary incentives are attractive, if you were already considering leaving the company because of a lack of culture fit or job insecurity, a quick lump sum may not be enough to satisfy you in the long term. Be sure to weigh your options carefully and be ready and able to commit to the role and job environment for the negotiated time period.

5. Request a meeting.
When you are ready, request a meeting to sit down and discuss the terms with a supervisor or individual authorized to make changes. Know what your conditions are and clearly express your needs politely.

6. Propose adjusting the time period.
You may wish to negotiate a shorter time frame, especially if there are few opportunities for advancement.

7. Contemplate asking for a raise instead.
Based on your tax rate, pay scale, and the actual amount of the offer, you may want to consider requesting a raise in salary instead. Consult with a tax professional, but it may not cost the company extra money and could decrease your income tax responsibility.

8. Be flexible and patient.
Most companies and managers are willing to make adjustments, but they may need time to consider your proposal and possibly to check with others to see if they are acceptable. Remain respectful and understanding and be aware of your options. A shorter retention period may not be workable, but perhaps they can offer extra vacation time. Negotiation is a process.

Being well-informed when discussing your agreement and stay bonus can help you feel more confident when deciding if you should accept a retention bonus. Do your research to know if remaining loyal to your current company is the right decision for your personal and professional life.

The post Know What a Retention Bonus Is to Expertly Negotiate appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

Prepare for interview success
An interview is an opportunity for you to impress a hiring manager. Although there are many types of interviews, knowing you are going to participate in an unstructured interview can help you prepare and provide quality answers to establish that you are a good candidate for the position. Unstructured interviews are often more relaxed and give you the opportunity to interact more and guide the conversation. Learn what characterizes an unstructured interview, the ways it differs from a structured interview, the scoring system used to evaluate candidates, the benefits, and review some example questions with tips to help you prepare.

What is an unstructured interview?
An unstructured interview is a meeting with a potential employer in which the flow of the conversation affects the structure of the interview. An unstructured interview rarely has a list of predetermined questions but focuses on a time limit and the candidate. More informal than the traditional structured interview, the relaxed atmosphere of an unstructured interview allows for easy communication and establishes a candidate’s attitude and personality as a priority during the exchange. Because the nature of unstructured interviews mimic a regular conversation, as a candidate, you may feel more at ease and produce responses that are genuine and informative.

Differences between a structured and unstructured interview
Employers use interviews to gauge a candidate’s qualifications for the job and understand how well a person’s character will fit with the company’s established culture. With a structured interview, a hiring manager poses a set of standard questions to each candidate and evaluates them based on their responses and composure during the interview. An unstructured interview’s major difference is that as a candidate, you can guide the conversation to detail your skills, qualifications, background experience, and education that makes you a fit candidate. Because you are in control of the conversation, you can highlight traits and abilities you may not typically be able to during a structured interview.

Purpose of an unstructured interview and scoring system
Although some experts have criticized the unstructured interview as an inadequate indicator of employee productivity and performance, many hiring managers and employers favor the dynamic of an unstructured interview. This interview structure allows for more autonomy and reveals a candidate’s personality in a way that a question-and-answer method does not. Interviewers can get a better grasp of a candidate’s attitude toward the company and their understanding of the job requirements. An unstructured interview also allows for the interviewee to display their ability to communicate effectively daily in an informal environment. The outcome of the interview is largely based on the interviewer’s opinion and is therefore often used as a last interview step to determine a candidate’s culture fit and ability to work with others.

Benefits of an unstructured interview
A candidate benefits from the dynamic of an unstructured interview in the following ways:

• Flexibility: The exchange between interviewer and interviewee during an unstructured interview is more natural and allows for a fluid conversation. Although this makes the interview last longer, the hiring manager can gain greater insight into a candidate’s qualifications using this method.
• Comfort: The setting is comfortable and relaxed, which allows for individual personalities to shine.
• Autonomy: The candidate is empowered using this structure and can best reveal their character traits and use the time to convey their fit for the job responsibilities.
• Allows elaboration: The fluid exchange gives you an opportunity to provide complete details about your prior experiences and background that make you a qualified candidate. When giving a response, consider using the STAR technique to provide important information.
• Interactive: The interaction allows you to ask questions and communicate your continued interest in the position and company. Ask insightful questions to understand your potential role and how well you like the company climate.
• Removes communication barrier: Because the roles in this interview are less constricting, the conversation allows for an honest and spontaneous exchange that is informative for both parties involved.

Unstructured interview example questions
Below are some typical unstructured interview questions that prompt engaging discussion. They are similar in nature to behavioral questions. Consider using the STAR method to provide a strong and informative response. STAR is an acronym that stands for situation, task, action, and results. It is a method of answering where you provide the details of a situation, indicate the task or objective you needed to complete, explain the actions you took, and relate the results of those actions. When possible, use numerical data to provide stronger evidence of the impact of your work. Included are example answers to guide you as you craft your own responses and prepare them.

Can you tell me about yourself?
Unstructured interviews typically focus on the use of open-ended questions to allow room for explanation and elaboration. In this question, the hiring manager is asking about your characteristics and talents in relation to the job qualifications. Capitalize on this opportunity by responding in a way that shows you have done your background research on the job specifications and on the company and are prepared to join the organization as a good fit.

Example: Customer service representative
“I enjoy a challenge and am most happy when I have a lot of things to do. Because I don’t like to stay still long, the role of a customer service representative fits me well. I am a natural helper and am skilled at conversing with customers to discover their needs. I learn quickly, so I am typically up-to-date on new products. As an active listener, I can connect well with clients and gain their trust. I am also very observant, and my impatience creates a sense of urgency in me that compels me to take the initiative. 

At my previous company, I noticed that we were not getting a lot of returning customers. I started a customer survey response procedure to gain insight into this issue. We discovered that customers were unaware of many of our products. Along with the marketing department, we implemented different methods to reach customers and educate them about what the company had to offer. My initial observation and our joint efforts resulted in an increase in customer loyalty and a 14 percent rise in net profit for the company.”

What is your greatest accomplishment?
Hiring managers use this question to gain a deeper understanding of your values as an employee and how you measure success. Your response reveals where your priorities lie in relation to your job responsibilities and performance. Provide a genuine answer and contextualize by explaining what the accomplishment means to you.

Example: Marketing manager
“I value the opinions of my colleagues and the team I work with. Two years ago, my supervisor put me in charge of my first product launch. I worked long hours and dedicated my efforts to lead my group to meet project deadlines and produce quality work for our client. They were all very supportive and focused on our aim. I prioritized expressing my appreciation of each individual and their contributions. Each team member had an amazing quality that strengthened the team. We built a mutual trust and felt like a family. 

I eventually got a promotion at a different company and had to leave. Before I left, the company held a banquet for me, and my team awarded me with a “Most Inspiring” certificate. Being recognized as a good leader and knowing that I impacted my team in a positive way was very fulfilling and is the reason I love my job. I am inspired by the people I work with, and their well-being motivates me to be a better leader and a friend at work. That “Most Inspiring” certificate goes with me to every office and is my badge of honor.” 

Additional unstructured interview questions
Review this list of unstructured interview questions to help you practice and prepare some of your own unique answers.

• What is your current professional goal?
• What attracted you to this industry and career?
• What is your greatest weakness?
• Please discuss a time when you overcame an unexpected challenge. What steps did you take?
• How do you handle conflict with a coworker?
• What is your approach to criticism?
• Can you explain a time you had to work in a team to complete a project?
• How do you motivate your colleagues?
• Describe a time you encountered a difficult customer or client and the steps you took to solve the situation.
• What steps do you take to work effectively under pressure?

Tips to help you prepare for an unstructured interview

• Be genuine.
• Focus on your strengths.
• Relate your background to the job requirement.
• Model active listening skills.
• Show your communication strengths.
• Be informed.
• Prepare some thoughtful questions.

An unstructured interview offers you many advantages and opportunities to communicate your full skill set. Preparing for one will help you interview with confidence and provide the best evidence of your qualifications.

The post Learn What an Unstructured Interview Is and How to Prepare appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

If your career is in need of some shaking up, use this technique to take a look at what works and what doesn’t.

If you’re feeling stuck career-wise and want to shake things up, running a personal SWOT analysis—the popular model used to analyze businesses—on yourself can help you figure out the next steps.

And, it’s a lot simpler to do than you might think. Read on to find out what personal SWOT analysis is all about, how to do it, and what you can learn about yourself in the process.

What’s a SWOT Analysis?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

A SWOT analysis is basically an evaluation tool that can help users identify strengths and weaknesses to aid in growth, and identify areas where your competitors may have an upper hand. It’s common for businesses to perform SWOTs, but they work for individuals too. A personal SWOT analysis helps you uncover your potential. As such, you’ll need a fairly high level of emotional intelligence to do a SWOT analysis of yourself, primarily when you want to advance your career.

Personal SWOT Analysis Example

Strength
In order to define your strengths, take a look at the roles you’ve held in past and currently. Choose two or three quantifiable things that you accomplished. From there, you have to unpack that further and ask, “What did it take to achieve those things?” In other words, which specific skills and talents have you accumulated to achieve those outcomes?

Gathering information on yourself can be tricky, though. Try taking skills-assessment quizzes, which can help you self-identify. You can also ask your coworkers and supervisors what they think you’re good at—they might make you aware of traits that hadn’t crossed your mind.

Weaknesses
If you’re been on an interview in the past 30 years, you’ve probably been asked about your weaknesses. The standard response is to say you’re a perfectionist, or that you work too hard, but hiring managers will see right through that, and if you’re being honest with yourself, you can probably come up with something more authentic SWOT weakness examples. Try thinking about a mistake you’ve made or a skill that you’re lacking, and what you did or are trying to do to correct it.

For example, it could be something simple like realizing that on most days, you arrived to work barely on time and exhausted and that it might be creating a negative perception of you. So you can make a commitment to get to bed earlier so you can have extra time in the morning and get to work refreshed and energized.

Another way to figure out your weaknesses is to dig back into past evaluations and feedback from co-workers, supervisors, and mentors. Perhaps you’ll discover a pattern of them telling you to be more assertive, or maybe your communication skills need some smoothing out. The most important thing is to be able to take an honest look at yourself and admit your shortcomings—everyone has something they can improve upon.

Opportunities
No matter how content you are in your current position, you should always be your own recruiter. Identify two or three aspects of a job opening that would make you pursue it.
Some things to think about include:

• What does your ideal employer look like?
• What does my next role look like?
• What attributes would I like to see from my leadership team and boss?

Once you have those answers, you might think about starting a job search or working with a recruiter in your niche who can keep an eye out for opportunities that match.
Other ways to identify opportunities require you to be proactive. Join networking groups, take some classes, and use additional resources to nudge you outside of your comfort zone. These strategies could enhance your professional development.

Threats
As an employee, you face all sorts of threats: the company downsizing, office politics, not enough work-life balance, not enough opportunities for growth, and being let go. Those are all very real. Outside of that, there is also an abundance of candidates you’d be competing with, so you’ve got to be your own advocate and build your brand should anything happen.

You can identify potential threats to your industry or role by researching trends, certifications, or skillsets that younger generations are starting to possess so you can keep up with the new competition.
Revisit Your Personal SWOT Analysis Every Quarter

Taking the time to reflect and keep yourself marketable is a smart career move, so if a recruiter does call you out of the blue, you have current info to rely on and present (and impress them with).

Using a SWOT analysis is an extremely useful tool when it comes to identifying personal and professional goals. Putting aside time to do a SWOT analysis requires you to pause and consider where you are in your career, and ways that you can grow.

Take Action
Now that you have a pretty good grasp on what sets you apart, things you can work on, what your ideal role looks like, and some of the factors that might threaten your career advancement, it’s time to put that knowledge to good use. This is where the real work begins—figuring out what to do with that information.

But self-awareness can go a long way. Once you know the things you do well, you can do more of that. Knowing your shortcomings means you can figure out ways to close the gap, whether it’s taking a class or changing up your processes.

Take advantage of resources at your current disposal. Consider approaching your boss and working out a plan that could involve job shadowing, mentorship, or additional feedback to help you improve.

The post A Personal SWOT Analysis Can Help Your Career appeared first on Résumé Writing and Career Services.

{Click here to read the original article on Glassdoor.}

You’ve been interviewing for a while and they’re ready to make you an offer. You really want this job, and you’re excited the interview phase is finally over and it’s time to negotiate.

You just need the details of the offer and then you’ll be ready to counter offer. So you hop on a call with the hiring manager, who describes the offer in detail.

Base salary – check.

Vacation time – check.

Signing bonus – check.

Equity – … huh? “Can you run that by me again?”

Equity – … “Um, ok. Thanks for the offer. I’d like to take a few days to think it over if you don’t mind.”

You were all set to negotiate, but this equity thing doesn’t make any sense. What’s it worth? How do you negotiate something that you won’t even get until a few years from now?

And more importantly: Can you negotiate more equity shares instead of salary?
This is a big question that will be easier to answer as three smaller questions.

Let’s walk through a simple heuristic to help you decide if negotiating for more shares makes sense in your situation.

Does your job offer include shares or other equity?
If there’s not an equity component to your job offer, then shares probably aren’t in play. If your offer includes some equity component—stock options, Restricted Stock Units (RSUs), or other equity—then you probably can negotiate for more shares.

Assuming you can negotiate more shares, let’s dig into a more interesting question: Should you negotiate more equity shares instead of salary?

Can you impute a real value on the shares they offered?
First, you need to know if you can impute any sort of objective value on what they’re offering you. Here’s the key question: “How much are these shares worth today?”

If the answer to that question is, “Well, that depends on whether we go public and how many other investors we get, and what our valuation is for our next raise, and …” then that’s another way of saying, “We have no idea.” This will often be accompanied by statements like, “If we went public today, we estimate these options would be worth [big number].” It’s important to understand that they’re guessing.

To get a better sense of what I mean by “guessing”, play with the inputs on the TLDR Stock Options calculator and you’ll see what I mean.

In this case, I don’t recommend negotiating shares in lieu of pay. You’re better off negotiating for things on which you can impute a value—salary, vacation days, signing bonus, relocation stipend, etc.

On the other hand, if you are able to impute a value on the shares, then it might be worth negotiating for more. This is generally true for publicly traded companies where you can simply look at the current stock price and do some basic math to figure out what the shares are worth right now.

The most common way I see this is with RSUs, but there are lots of other flavors of shares and equity.
Even if you know what they’re worth today, that doesn’t mean you’ll know their value tomorrow, and it’s impossible to predict what they’ll be worth in four years. But at least you can get a baseline for negotiation.

Have you exhausted your better options?
The last thing to consider—and this is an important one—is whether you’ve exhausted all of your other negotiation options.

Even if you know the value of the shares being offered, they will carry some additional risk relative to your base salary, paid vacation time, signing bonus, etc. What if the market tanks? What if they go out of business before you can sell your shares? What if they’re acquired and the shares turn out to be less than anticipated?

Of course, your actual paycheck may be susceptible to these risks in some ways, but at least you’ll probably get paid for the work you already did at the salary you negotiated. You may never get paid out for the shares you negotiate.

I recommend prioritizing the available negotiable options from “most valuable” to “least valuable”. This is purely subjective and is completely up to you. Here’s what your list might look like:

1. Base salary
2. Signing bonus
3. Paid vacation
4. Relocation stipend
5. Shares

You can pay your mortgage or car payment with base salary or a signing bonus. You can impute a real value on paid vacation time. A relocation stipend will help you cover your moving expenses if you’re relocating for this job. But shares might or might not be worth something by the time you can access them, so I recommend putting them at the bottom of your list.

To make sure you get the best result in your negotiation, I recommend focusing on the top two or three things on your list. Starting with the most valuable things and work your way down.
In our example above, if you can’t negotiate base salary, signing bonus, paid vacation, relocation stipend or anything else more valuable than the shares you were offered, then you might consider negotiating shares in lieu of pay.

I’ll wrap up by sharing the method I recommend that my coaching clients use to determine whether they should negotiate more shares in lieu of pay. If you answer “no” to any of these three questions, then you probably have better negotiation options aside from more shares:

1. Does your job offer include shares or other equity? If not, then you probably can’t negotiate for more shares. If so, you might be able to negotiate for more shares.
2. Can you impute a real value on the shares they offered? If not, then you probably shouldn’t negotiate for more share in lieu of pay. If you can, then you might want to negotiate for more shares.
3. Have you exhausted your better options like base salary and paid vacation? If not, then start with those more valuable things. If you were unable to negotiate for those other things, then you might want to negotiate for more shares in lieu of pay.

I recommend negotiating more shares in lieu of pay as a last resort for my coaching clients. That might be a good strategy for you too.

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