What Kind of Raise Should Office Admin, IT, Legal, and Finance Personnel Expect in 2007?

Most employers “anticipate a less-than-4-percent base pay increase” for the vast majority of their workers in 2007, according to Sibson Consulting. “For someone earning $40,000 a year, a pay hike of 3 to 4 percent works out to as little as $100 per month before taxes, which is not exactly a reason to break out the bubbly,” writes Anne Fisher of Fortune Magazine. Here is more information on four specific areas:

Office administration:

• Senior executive assistants’ pay range in 2007 is expected to rise 6.5 percent
• Senior office managers’ salaries are projected to run 8.2 percent higher than in 2006, reaching $52,000 a year at the high end.
• The salary guide also suggests ways to boost your market value: Add 9 percent to the salaries listed in the guide if you are bilingual, up to 10 percent if you hold a Microsoft Office Specialist certification, and 10 percent if you are a senior assistant supporting a C-level honcho in a large company.
• Salary Guide – Office Administration - www.officeteam.com/portal/site/ot-us 

Information technology:

• Windows administration (Server 2000/2003) tops the list of the most wanted skills, according to a Robert Half survey of 1,400 chief information officers, with 79 percent of CIOs.
• Network administration (Cisco, Nortel, Novell) at 76 percent (most wanted skills).
• Database management (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2) comes third at 69 percent (most wanted skills).
• 57 percent of CIOs say they’re looking to hire people skilled in wireless network management and firewall administration.
• 41 percent of these employers said they are more interested than ever before in hiring techies with “knowledge of business fundamentals, such as accounting, finance and general operations.” The IT salary guide shows that pay for experts in applications development, systems integration, and database administration has been climbing over the past couple of years, and in 2007 will rise well into six figures.
• Salary Guide – IT – www.roberthalftechnology.com/portal/site/rht-us

The law:

• First-year legal associates’ pay up 6.2 percent at big firms and 7.9 percent at midsized ones.
• Office managers at law firms will make 6.3 percent more than in 2006.
• A senior paralegal, meaning one with at least 7 years’ experience, will pull down 7.6 percent more in 2007, earning as much as $78,250. A midlevel paralegal (4-6 years’ experience) at a small law firm can expect a 7 percent bump, to somewhere between $40,500 and $55,500.
• Salary Guide – Legal - www.roberthalflegal.com/portal/site/af-us

Accounting and finance:

• Sarbanes-Oxley and a plethora of related new rules and regulations have pushed companies to increase their finance staffs by 68 percent since 2002, according to one study.
• At large companies, average pay for chief compliance officers will jump 14.4 percent in 2007, to as much as $181,250, while compliance officers at midsize firms can expect to make 9.2 percent more than last year, or up to $97,750.
• Salary Guide – Accounting – www.roberthalf.com

How big will your raise be in 2007? [Fortune Magazine - Anne Fisher]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Above Average Paying Jobs with a High Volume of Openings

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) the following jobs have above average pay and projected number of openings through 2012.

Above-average paying jobs with openings

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Employment Confidence Statistics

According to the Spherion Employee Confidence Index, fueled by a more optimistic outlook on the strength of the economy and number of jobs available, U.S. workers’ confidence hit new highs in November.

Do you feel that your ‘career confidence’ is in line with the following statistics?

• 66 percent of workers believe the economy is strengthening or stabilized.
• 64 percent of U.S. adult workers feel confident in the future of their employer, showing no change from October.
• 16 percent of U.S. adult workers have no confidence in their own ability to find a new job, up three percentage points from October.
• Only 35 percent of U.S. adult workers believe that fewer jobs are available, down three percentage points from October.
• 26 percent of U.S. adult workers believe the economy is getting stronger, compared to 24 percent in October.
• 79 percent of the U.S. workforce believes that it is unlikely that they will lose their jobs in the next 12 months, virtually unchanged from October.

Spherion Employment Report. [Spherion]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Improve Your Career Fitness

Althea DeBrule, of Extreme Career Makeover, provides the following 10 Career Fitness Tips:

1. Set Goals You Know You Can Reach. Keep your goals realistic. Unrealistic goals leave many people feeling like a failure even after a career success. Rather than feeling good about what has been accomplished, many feel dissatisfied because they have not yet attained their dream career. To manage your expectations, set reasonable goals, that can be worked on and achieved.
2. Divide your career goals into manageable pieces. Bite off only what you can chew at any given moment. Resist the urge to multi-task when working on your career goals. If you overdo it and push yourself by trying to accomplish everything at once, you will become discouraged and lose your motivation.
3. Work On Your Goals One At A Time. Prioritize your career goals and then work to achieve the first one. Continue to tackle each subsequent goal by completing it before starting the next one. Before you know it you will have accomplished all of your career objectives.
4. Make Modest Changes To Your Work Habits. There are a number of “baby steps” you can take to advance your career. Instead of fantasizing about the perfect career, apply creative thinking and implement a few “quick wins” to boost your career.
5. Develop A Career Roadmap. A career roadmap helps you find the best route or direction to take to achieve your career objectives. List the actions you will take to ensure an interesting, challenging and rewarding career that uses your best strengths and natural talents.
6. Increase Your Focus. To stay challenged and to progress towards your ultimate career goal, gradually increase the intensity and focus your efforts as you follow your Career Roadmap.
7. Make It A “Whole-Person” Experience. Your career is more than just one or a series of jobs. A well-rounded career includes a balance of healthy personal relationships, work, and recreation (fun). To avoid boredom, make sure you include others who have a stake in your career and activities you truly enjoy.
8. Celebrate. Whenever you achieve a goal, do something nice for yourself. Make sure it’s more than just a pat on the back or verbal acknowledgement; make it worthwhile.
9. Consult A Career Management Specialist. If you’re serious about advancing your career, hire a professional to help you get the most from your career activities and to motivate you to stick with your plans.
10. Get A Career Fitness Partner. Find a mentor or colleague who is willing to be your career fitness partner. Choose someone who will motivate and challenge you when you want to quit. Or, form a support group with co-workers who share similar career interests.

[Althea DeBrule- Extreme Career Makeover]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

Using Resume Videos to Stand Out from Other Candidates

Tens of millions of VC dollars went into building video interview/resumes website’s during the late 1990s. It seems that this idea is becoming popular in the grassroots with job seekers now making their own career videos and posting them online.

Anjali Athavaley, of the Wall Street Journal Online, writes:

Though the practice is still in its early stages, young job hunters are starting to make a video clip part of their job application, sometimes even posting them on sites like Google Inc.’s YouTube and Google Video. Jobster.com, a Web site for job seekers, is exploring the possibility of enabling users to add short video clips to online member profiles. At the same time, smaller companies hoping to ride the popularity of online video are rolling out services that make it easier to create a video resume.

This practice should become more popular if not standard for resume based hiring. If you are looking for work, and you can put together a professional video, why not differentiate yourself from other applicants by including a video?

Here is a sample online video resume

Posting Your Resume on YouTube to Stand Out from the Competition. [The Wall Street Journal Online - Anjali Athavaley]

More Education = More Earnings

The more education one receives the more money they are likely to earn. The following chart shows how average weekly earnings are effected by educational milestones.

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

CareeRSS Roundup

Roundup of interesting career blogs and writings for December 5th, 2006.

5 Great Tips For Conducting The Best Job Search Ever! - Finding a new job can be a daunting task. You need to make sure your job search involves positions you’re qualified for, but you also want to land a position that pays well and comes with some benefits. And, since it wouldn’t hurt to do a job search for companies that treat their employees right, the stakes can be pretty high.

Are Hidden Beliefs Creating A Lackluster Career? – How close are you at creating your dream career? What is holding you back? Are you afraid of success or failure? Have you lost your career passion and don’t know why?

Get recruiters to call you with great jobs – What’s the best way to get headhunters to call you the next time a terrific new opportunity crosses their desk? It helps to always take – and return – their calls. Headhunters remember people who make their own jobs easier.

Put Your Glasses On – Change in your career (and your circumstances) can’t take place unless you are aware of what needs to be changed. You won’t get a new job unless you understand why you are staying in a job that no longer serves you. If you know that it’s time to change careers, you cannot do so unless you tap into your inner voice that wants to show you the way. If you have wanted to make a shift within your company for a while, you cannot do so unless you understand what is preventing you from moving forward.

Losing A Career Can Feel Like Getting A Divorce – Job loss can be extremely painful because we have to start over and create a new
identity. Clients tell me their feelings are similar to what they experienced during a bitter divorce — a special form of the midlife crisis

Get the Most From Working At Home – The overall key to success when it comes to working from home is to remember your home is set-up for personal life, not professional. So, if you’re new to working from home, or if you’re feeling burn out, about.com offers these ideas to stay on track.

Top 7 Reasons Your Career Has Dried Up - Is your career all dried up? Do you feel as if you are wandering in a professional desert? If this describes you and your career, then this article was written for you. You are a desert traveler. There are seven reasons your career has dried up, and there are seven solutions.

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com

How Companies Find Candidates to Hire

A CareerXRoads study presents information on how employers are finding candidates to fill their jobs. The chart below shows that Employee Referrals and the Internet make up over 50% of all hires. College hires are gaining momentum as is Direct Sourcing from competitors and other companies.

From this information one can see that networking online (through social networking sites and blogging) and off (through co-workers and friends) is critical to your next career move.

CareerXRoads Sources of Hire Survey. [CareerXRoads]

Also see:

Look Within Your Current Company for Job Openings. [Careerhacker - Bill Inman]
Small Talk, Big Career. [Careerhacker - Bill Inman]
Blogs ‘Essential’ to a Good Career. [Careerhacker - Bill Inman]
Workers Not Using Social Networking to Find Jobs but Employers are Looking. [Careerhacker - Bill Inman]

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Career Hacker * www.careerhacker.com * By Bill Inman * www.billinman.com