Comment Re:22 (Score 1) 370
You say "what you're worth" as though it's an absolute value like the price of gold.
More or less, yes. A given candidate will fetch a certain price in a certain market. That's how much he or she is "worth" when it comes to asking for compensation. If you ask for more than you're "worth" then you will likely not be employed. Adjust your asking price downwards and, assuming prospective employers are aware of this fact, your odds of getting job offers increases.
Even so, a lot of the "worth" isn't in what you can do as much as it is in how much they like you, and anyone who's ever worked in an office with protected deadwood can attest that tht isn't neccesarily related to your intelligence, talent, work ethic or even what you deliver.
Agreed. Regardless, what I said stand. If your asking price is higher than a 22-year old but prospective employers deem you of equal "worth" to a 22-year old then obviously they're going to offer the 22-year old and not you. If your asking price is equal to the 22-year old's then it's a toss-up. So if you're 30 years old and can't find a job then either you're so flawed as to be unemployable at any price or your asking price is just too high.
Broadcast all you like. People believe what they want to believe when valuing candidates.
In my experience, hiring folks tend to believe what they're told by recruiters when it comes to how much a candidate expects to get paid. If a recruiter tells me, "Joe is looking for $90" then I'll assume that's actually what Joe's expecting. I may not offer him that much, but if I'm not looking to spend more than $60 then maybe I opt not to bring Joe in for an interview because he's out of my price range. Had Joe told his recruiter that he'd accept $60, and his recruiter relayed that information to me, then maybe I'd interview him and maybe he'd end up getting the job.