How to Get Paid What Youre Worth

How to Get Paid What Youre WorthHow to Get Paid What Youre WorthWant to love your job? Make sure youre being paid fairly. While the relationship between actual pay and job satisfaction isnt as strong as you might think, feeling like your pay is appropriate for your skills and abilities is key to feeling appreciated at work. PayScale research shows that 75 percent workers who feel theyre paid at or above the market rate report high job satisfaction, compared to 59 percent of workers who feel that theyre paid below market. The problem is that most people have no idea how much they should be paid. That makes it difficult to negotiate salary when they take a new job or contemplate a promotion at their current employer. And in most cases, it pays to negotiate, especially when taking a new job. Most hiring managers expect candidates to negotiate, once a job offer is on the table. Fail to do so, and you could cost yourself $1 million in lost earnings over the course of your career. 5 Ste ps to a Salary Negotiation That Pays Of course, theres a right way and a wrong way to go about negotiating salary. To get paid what youre worth, make a plan thats based on data, notlage secondhand information from your braggy coworker. 1. Research Salaries Why shouldnt you base your salary assessment on what you hear from others in your field? Well, for starters, theres no guarantee that theyre being truthful. Buy their fish story, and you could wind up dissatisfied at work for no reason or trying to negotiate a raise based on the wrong information. Beyond that, youll never get the whole picture from a lunchroom conversation about pay. Your colleague might have skills or certifications that boost their salary, or experience in another area that levels up their compensation. The best way to set your personal salary range is by using a salary calculator based on anonymous surveys from thousands of workers with your job title, skillset, education, and geographic location. There a re several free salary calculators out there that can provide this information. Spend a few minutes entering your information and get a report with a range thats based on data, not hearsay. (Best of all, getting the facts about your pay means that youll have a way to counter any attempts to base your compensation on salary history.) 2. Choose the Right Time When it comes to negotiating salary, patience is a virtue. Dont bring up compensation until the employer makes an offer, and try to avoid getting locked into a range early on in the process. Let the employer make the first move. If you are asked what your salary requirements are, say that they are flexible, based upon the lage and the total compensation package including benefits. An alternative is to tell the employer youd like to know more about the job responsibilities prior to discussing salary. You can also give the employer a salary range based upon salary research youve just completed and cite the research you have don e. Keep in mind that there may not be much flexibility. If the employer has a budget or an established salary structure, the best you might get is the top of the range for that particular position. 3. Have a Backup Plan Dont limit yourself to salary alone. If the employer cant afford to pay more, ask about the possibility of salary reviews sooner rather than later, extra vacation, or even a bonus based on performance. Regardless of where you are in the negotiating process, remember to remain positive and continue to reiterate your interest in the position. Let the employer know that the only issue is the salary and you are really excited about the job and the company. Then, if the position does sound like the perfect job, consider whether the company culture, including the benefits and flexibility, as well as the job itself are worth it regardless of the salary. If they are, it might just be worth accepting the position and taking a chance that the salary increases will follow 4. Leave Emotion Out of It Never let an employer know you need money. It wont help, and it might make you look desperate and unprofessional. Instead, let your data do the talking. Salary negotiations are about what the market will bear. Your personal life shouldnt come into it. However, always be honest during the job interview process. If youre forced to divulge your salary history, dont fudge the numbers. Be truthful about job titles, experience, and other job offers that are on the table. Lies have a strange way of coming back to haunt the person who didnt tell the truth. 5. Dont Feel Pressured to Accept Right Away Once youve received the offer, plan on taking some time to think about it. There is no need to accept or reject it right away. A simple I need to think it over may get you an increase in the original offer. One candidate, who had decided that they really didnt want the job after all, said no three times only to get three higher offers Be aware that this coul d also have the opposite effect the hiring manager could decide that you are asking more than he is willing to pay and accept the no response as final. So, its important to know your bottom line for each position. If the salary isnt enough for you to live on, be prepared to pass on the job.

Successfully Predicting Disasters

Successfully Predicting Disasters Successfully Predicting Disasters Its nice to know when its going to rain. But it would even nicer to predict earthquakes, fires, and hurricanes. Forecasting such disasters, though, proves more difficult. A disaster is a dynamical system that can, in principle, though not always in practice, be modeled.Certain types of disasters are, predictably, more predicable than others. Earthquake prediction, for instance, is far from satisfactory, but is seriously attempted nevertheless. The accuracy of predicting volcanic eruptions lies somewhere between those of earthquakes and severe weatherdepending on the volcano. Scientists are able to forecast the eruptions of Italys Mount Etna using seismic tomography. The method yields time photographs of the three-dimensional movement of rocks to detect their internal changes. The success of the technique is in no small parte due to the fact that Etna, Europes biggest volcano, is equipped with a high-quality monitorin g system and seismic network, tools not readily available for most other volcanoes.An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 hit Kashmir in 2005. Success in efforts to predict earthquakes has remained elusive.For disasters that involve fluid transport phenomena, such as severe weather, fire, or the release of a toxic substance, the governing equations can be formulated subject to some assumptionsthe fewer, the better. Modeling is usually done in the form of nonlinear partial differential equations with the appropriate number of initial and boundary conditions. But those field equations are typically impossible to solve analytically, particularly if the fluid flow is turbulent, which unfortunately is the norm for the high Reynolds number flows encountered in the atmosphere and oceans.Initial and boundary conditions are required for both analytical and numerical solutions. Computers have their practical limits, so numerical integration of the instantaneous equations (direct numerical simulations ) for high Reynolds number natural flows is prohibitively expensive, if not outright impossible.Modeling to the RescueModeling comes to the rescue, but at a price. Large-eddy simulations, spectral methods, probability density function models, and the more classical Reynolds-stress models are examples of closure schemes that are not as computationally intensive as direct numerical simulations. But they are not as reliable either. This type of second-tier modeling is phenomenological in nature and does not stem from first principles. The more heuristic the modeling is, the less accurate the expected results.Satellite photographs show the same island before and after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and its tsunami. Advance warning might have reduced the death toll.Together with massive ground, sea, and sky data to provide at least in part the initial and boundary conditions, the models are entered into supercomputers that come out with a forecast. It may be a prediction of a severe th understorm that is yet to form, the future path and strength of an existing hurricane, or the impending concentration of a toxic gas that was released in a faraway location some time in the past. For other types of disasters such as earthquakes, the precise laws are not even known, mostly because proper constitutive relations are lacking. Additionally, deep underground data are difficult to gather.The important issue is to precisely state the assumptions needed to write the evolution equations, which are basically statements of the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy, in a certain form. The resulting equations and their eventual analytical or numerical solutions are valid only under those assumptions. This seemingly straightforward fact is often overlooked and wrong answers readily result when the situation we are trying to model is different from the one assumed.The prediction of weather-related disasters has had spectacular successes within the belastung few decades. The pa instaking advances made in fluid mechanics in general and turbulence research in particular, together with the exponential growth of computer memory and speed, contributed immeasurably to those successes. Imagine what we might do for the world if we could engineer systems as accurate as that to predict earthquakes, hurricanes or wildfires.Adapted from Engineering vs. Disasters by Mohamed Gad-el-Hak, ASME Fellow, for Mechanical Engineering, August 2008.The prediction of weather-related disasters has had spectacular successes within the last few decades.

The Small Things You Can Do to Leave Work at Work

The Small Things You Can Do to Leave Work at WorkThe Small Things You Can Do to Leave Work at WorkWith never-ending to-do lists and mounting tasks to take on, you might find your work invading mora of your life than youd like. While its easy to work longer hours just to get everything done, its definitely hard to do day in and day out, and could make you less productive the hours that you are working. Inspired by Frances recent move to encourage employees to stop working after 6 PM, were on a mission to help you leave work at work, too. Turns out, unplugging from your job (or your phone) isnt so hard when you keep these tips in mind. If you find yourself always working, heres a reason why disconnecting from it all is more important than you think. (Harrison Barnes)If you want your weekends to be work-free, heres how to tell your managers just that (in a nice way). (Lifehacker)The way you think about disconnecting from work can be just as critical in making it actually happen. (Medium )These are some quick things you can change today to avoid becoming a workaholic. (Lifehack)Stopping work and going home at night shouldnt be too much to ask for- and heres how you can really do it. (Lifehacker)What you do at the end of the day can make a big difference. (Crew)Try some of these 14 things to do before your day ends that will help you unplug. (Forbes)Small things like using your commute to unwind could be an easy tweak to your daily routine. (Apartment Therapy)Why having an always on mentality isnt doing you or your company any good- so no matter how you do it, its time for a change. (Inc)Cant get enough on how to disconnect? Read our articles below to get more inspiration.37 Tips for a Better Work-Life BalanceHow Do I Find a Job With Less Stress?13 Ways for the Chronically Connected to DisconnectPhoto of businessman unplugging courtesy of Shutterstock.