She Works Hard for the Money

Salary is always a touchy subject. A few years back, I talked with Yahoo! Finance about best practices for asking for a raise. Back then, I recommended looking at Glassdoor as a starting point - today, I would probably start with Salary.com to find salary comparison data. At that point, the salary transparency laws weren't in place, so it was a little harder to gauge what was appropriate for salary by industry/field.

That discussion was almost 5 years ago and the job market looked a lot different then. Companies were fighting to land top talent after the COVID disruption. We were seeing folks securing double-digit raises on a regular basis.

It's a completely different market now. Really, it's almost a perfect storm working against job seekers. Meta is the latest big name rumored to be cutting substantial numbers of its workforce to pay for the billions of dollars that it will be spending on AI technology. It seems like every week there's another Fortune 500 company with a similar plan.

I talked with The Wall Street Journal last week about what I'm seeing in my practice. Yes, I have had a number of clients who have landed great jobs - I had a client land a $600K role recently (with a $235K raise) and another land a 40% raise in a 5-week job search.

But I've also talked with folks who have had to make really difficult decisions after a prolonged job search. Here are just a few of the stories that I've heard in the past few months:

• Fortune 50 VP who took a five-figure job to pay the bills
• CMO client who landed a job within 2 months, but took a lower base salary (she was able to stay remote)
• Fortune 500 Sales VP who was out of work for 14 months and took a 50% pay cut because he needed a job with benefits
• Worker in Florida with 35+ years of experience who can’t land a job making more than $20/hour

I just had a talk with a friend of a friend yesterday. He lost his Fortune 500 job about 6 months ago and has rewritten his resume numerous times. He has had some interviews, but they keep telling him that they can't afford him. He's willing to take a slight pay cut, but a 40% drop in pay for similar work just doesn't feel right.

The hard truth is that there's no magic answer here. Some people will have to make difficult short-term decisions to stay afloat. But I've also seen people land incredible roles even in this market. With my clients who have landed, some were in growing industries. Others pivoted to smaller companies that are hiring at a rate 50x that of larger firms. Some were in the right place at the right time.

Wherever you find yourself today, I just want to say that I see you. Take care of yourself and have a wonderful weekend.

This week's LinkedIn posts:

​"I'm exhausted by this roller coaster."​

​"I really want this to be my last job."​

​"I'm scared - I may never be able to retire."​

​Poll 1: What are your thoughts on these layoffs/hiring freezes? (1200+ votes)​

​Poll 2: What is the biggest challenge Gen Z faces with remote work? (950+ votes)​

​Headline: “The resume is dead.”

​My discussion with The Wall Street Journal on pay cuts ​

One more thing before I go:

A lot of folks in this community have been asking me whether going out on their own is actually viable after a long corporate career.

It’s a big question. And I wanted to bring in someone who could answer it honestly.

On March 25 at noon ET, I’m hosting a free live session with my friend Amanda Northcutt. She helps experienced professionals build their own consulting practices — and she’s going to walk us through what’s actually possible.

Free. Live. No pitch.

​[Register here → link]​

As always, thank you for being part of this community.

Best -

Colleen​
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