3 Tools to Help You Research the Salary You Should Ask For
As a college student or graduate, you may not be aware of the salary ranges for your field based on a person’s experience, education, and skills. However, an essential aspect of starting a new career is getting paid the right amount for your hard work and effort. Avoid undervaluing yourself on the job hunt by using these three tools to get the best salary for you.
Salary.com
A great starting place for researching your desired career’s salaries is Salary.com. This website provides information on every position within a career field. In addition, Salary.com offers a cost-of-living calculator, pros and cons of a job, personal salary reports, tips on how to negotiate your salary offer, job listings, and much more.
The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics
Another excellent resource for understanding salary ranges is the United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics website. You can find statistics on thousands of jobs across the nation, which you can narrow down to a specific field. In addition, in September 2021, they released their annual Occupational Outlook Handbook, which provides extensive data on different occupations. You can search by median pay, educational level, on-the-job training, growth rate, and projected number of new jobs.
The HBCU Career Center’s Career Insight Tool
The HBCU Career Center’s job board includes the Career Insight Tool. In addition to researching salaries, HBCU students and graduates can look at a whether an industry is growing or shrinking, wages, education requirements, and overviews of skills and abilities needed to advance in a particular field. HBCU students and alumni can search for any profession by job title and location.