I recently had the opportunity to attend Indeed Interactive, in Austin, Texas. Indeed.com is the world’s largest job website. It’s like the Google of job searches. Indeed Interactive is the annual conference where thousands of human resources professionals come together to learn about the latest updates to the website and to job seeking this year.
Indeed’s biggest announcement for 2018 was Indeed Assessments. In short, it will allow employers to add testing to their hiring process. So, in addition your application, resume, and job interviews, you may also be asked to take a quiz at some point along the way.
This testing technology was born out of a 2017 acquisition of a company called Interviewed. The technology can be used to screen candidates for a number of different jobs and departments, from technology to sales and customer service.
The purpose of the assessments is to try to make the hiring process more fair. Raj Mukherjee, SVP of Product at Indeed said, “Assessments helps to democratize hiring by giving job seekers an equal opportunity to showcase their qualifications when applying for jobs, so they are able to find the right opportunities faster and easier.”
This logic makes sense. When it comes to jobs, that’s one of the top goals of the internet: to level the playing field of hiring a bit. Never before have we had so much information at our finger tips. Job seekers can find out just how much companies are paying. They can look at employer reviews before they ever step in the door. And, they can connect with company employees through various networking websites.
In fact, Indeed also expanded their company pages this year. Job seekers will now be able to learn more about their prospective employers before applying. Paul Wolfe, SVP of Human Resources at Indeed shared that, “online company reviews are second only to salary information when considering a job offer.” It’s also important to note that Indeed does not allow companies to edit their reviews – even the negative ones. This helps you to ensure that you’re getting the honest scoop on the company before you decide whether or not you want to work there.
Hiring is a complex process. The decision to hire you is typically based on a number of factors, including the content of your resume, how well you interview, and now, how well you’re able to showcase your skills on an exam.
But, as you’re searching, you should remember this. Job searching is a two way street. It’s great for a company to want to hire you for a particular role. But, the job should be right for you too. While the company is evaluating you through job interviews and assessments, evaluate them right back through online company reviews and pay data. The very best fit is one that works well for both sides. Lining up the interests of both sides is part of searching for greatness.
Angela Copeland, a career coach and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.
Today is truly a historic day in the world of job seeking! Job search giant Glassdoor.com has just announced that they have been sold to Recruit Holdings for $1.2 B.
Glassdoor CEO Robert Hohman announced the deal in a tweet, stating, “Excited to announce Glassdoor is joining together with Recruit Holdings.”
Recruit Holdings is a large company based in Japan that primarily focuses on HR-related businesses. For example, they own a number of global staffing firms. But, the one company that’s already in their portfolio that you have definitely heard of is Indeed.com. Glassdoor is the world’s fastest growing job website, while Indeed is ranked as the largest.
Glassdoor and Recruit Holdings cite the following benefits that will come from the acquisition:
Enhance the ability to deliver better solutions to job seekers and employers over the long term
Expand further into the growing HR technology industry
Strengthen capabilities of their HR technology platform with one of the strongest brands in the industry
Brings an experienced and talented Glassdoor management team into Recruit
If you are like most job seekers, you probably don’t remember a time when Glassdoor wasn’t a household name. But, this iconic job website just got its start ten years ago – in June of 2008 – in Mill Valley, California. In this relatively short time, Glassdoor has helped to push the needle of transparency in the workplace – in terms of both pay and company ratings and reviews. They have also provided job seekers another resource for both applying online, and for researching the interview processes within companies.
The transparency created by sites like Glassdoor opens the doors for professionals on both sides of the hiring desk to have more frank and honest conversations about issues, such as equal pay.
Over the last ten years, Glassdoor has grown to now include visitors from more than 190 countries and 770,000 companies. They have participation from more than 160,000 companies — and have received more than 40 million company reviews from employees. This all adds up to 59 million unique visitors per month.
As you can imagine, this is some pretty big news for those job seekers looking for a new career. Glassdoor and Indeed are both incredible sites with unique strengths. It will be exciting to see what the two can create for the future, together.
For the full press release about the Glassdoor acquisition by Recruit Holdings, visit Glassdoor.com: https://www.glassdoor.com/press/new-chapter/
Diversity is one of the most important issues companies are focused on today. LinkedIn recently found that over half of companies say they are very or extremely focused on diversity. This is good news, especially when you consider this. The World Economic Forum recently estimated that it will take 217 years for women to reach complete equality in pay and employment opportunities.
It should be noted that one of the key tools we have available today that was not available years ago is the internet. The transparency now available, especially as it relates to employment, is a gold mine for job seekers. Sites such as Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and Indeed.com provide important data points, including how much workers are paid and how employees rate their workplaces.
To further the mission of diversity, Indeed.com recently announced a partnership with three other websites that focus on inclusiveness in the workplace. This partnership with Fairygodboss.com, InHerSight.com, and Comparably.com will help to provide additional information to job seekers.
The information will show up on the Indeed “Company Pages.” It will allow job seekers to better evaluate the diversity and inclusiveness of an organization. Today’s Company Pages include ratings for work/life balance, compensation/benefits, job security/advancement, management, and culture. In the future, there will also be scores from InHerSight, Comparably, and Fairygodboss that will rank the companies from one to five stars and as a number from one to 100.
The internet still remains an unlikely place to land your next job. But, the data available will help you to decide whether or not you want to accept a job offer from a particular company.
Salary data will also help you to know what is considered fair pay in your industry. In corporate roles, employers setup pay bands. It can be surprising to know that for one job, the pay band can sometimes vary as much as $40,000 or more. That means that one person doing the job may make $65,000, and another person doing the same job may make over $100,000. In theory, this range allows companies to compensate employees based upon experience. In reality, how much you make is often tied to how skilled you are at negotiation.
Using the data available online will help you to ensure you’re getting a fair deal. It will allow you to verify that your future employer is a healthy place to work. And, it will give you a view into your employer’s values and priorities.
This sort of valuable feedback is often not something you can typically find out during a job interview.
Long story short, we still have a long way to go on issues related to diversity and pay equality for all people, including women and men from all backgrounds. But, this level of increased transparency will help you to be your own advocate. Perhaps together, we can shorten the time it will take to reach complete equality in the workplace.
Angela Copeland, a career coach and founder of Copeland Coaching, can be reached at copelandcoaching.com.
You know that negotiation is one of my favorite things – especially when you’re switching companies! A job transition is the perfect time to negotiate your salary up. When it comes to a successful salary negotiation, one of the most important things you can do is salary research. Take the time to find out what a competitive salary is for your new role, and for particular companies.
Especially in the corporate world, different companies pay very differently for the same position. Even within a company, pay can vary significantly. Companies use pay bands to determine how much employees may make. It may not sound like a big deal, but some positions have pay bands that span a range of $50K or more. In theory, you will be paid more for more experience and more education. In reality, these things do matter – but, so does your ability to negotiate.
You may wonder where to begin your salary research. There are many different sources online where you can do salary research – too many to cover here. I will touch on just a few that will be the best sources of information for beginning your salary research – including a new way to research salary that rolls out later this week!
Glassdoor.com
Glassdoor has two options for salary research. The first is researching what a particular company pays for a certain role. In other words, search for a company that you like – by name. Then, enter a location (or you can leave location blank) and select the dropdown for “Salary.”
This simple search will give you a list of different roles at the company, and the pay range for each. You should search through the list to find jobs that are the most similar to the one you hope to interview for. Notice that each job will have both a pay range (shown as min and max), and the number of people who have reported their salary. Glassdoor provides self-reported data, so the data coming out is only as good as the data going in. Honestly though, the data going in appears to be pretty solid.
Their second option for salary research is a tool called the Know Your Worth Tool. It allows you to track your value over time, compared to the others in your area.
Salary.com
Salary.com has been around for years, but still provides basic salary information that can be helpful to your search. The site allows you to search by job title and city or zip code.
It provides a bell curve that will share with you what people with your title are making on average – and at the top and bottom ends of the curve. You can also compare base salary to base and bonus.
Because Salary.com isn’t industry or company specific, the data provided can be a bit vague, but I would argue that it’s still a decent data point to collect during your salary research.
Indeed.com
You may never have thought much about it before, but Indeed also offers salary data. When you visit their site, click the “Find Salaries” tab. You will be taken to a screen where you can search by job title or company. If you search by job title, you’re taken to a second screen where you can narrow down your results by city and company. If you search by company, you will be taken to a screen where you can narrow it down based on job title within that company. Indeed provides a range, similar to both Glassdoor.com and Salary.com.
LinkedIn.com
Today, you can find estimated salaries on LinkedIn by clicking on the “Jobs” tab and then clicking the link for “LinkedIn Salary.” You can search both by job title and by city. LinkedIn provides a range for both median base salary and median total compensation. And, you can narrow the results down by industry and years of experience.
But, even better than this — LinkedIn is adding a new feature to their site this week that will allow you to access the salary for a specific job posting you’re interested in. They want to help bring more transparency to conversations about salary. You know that I love this.
Here’s how the new “Salary Insights” will work. For many (but not all) jobs, you will begin to see a salary for each job posting. It will be listed as either “Expected” salary or “Estimated” salary. Expected is the salary that is provided by the company. Expected salary is LinkedIn’s estimate based on other data they have that matches the title, company, and location.
This new feature goes live later this week. Try it, and let me know what you think! I’m so excited to see increased pay transparency as part of the application process.
Salary Research Summary
Your ability to negotiate for the best salary will be determined by the hard work you put in to research what you’re worth. But, lucky for all of us, this process is getting easier and easier! The more salary research you do, the more likely you are to be able to ask for what’s fair. And, that’s all we really need, right? To be paid fairly, and to be treated with respect – those two things are key!
Good luck with your salary research! Let me know what you think about these methods.
I hope these tips have helped you. Visit CopelandCoaching.com to find more tips to improve your job search. If I can be of assistance to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to me here.
Also, be sure to subscribe to my Copeland Coaching Podcast on iTunes or Stitcher where I discuss career advice every Tuesday! If you’ve already heard the podcast and enjoy it, please consider leaving a review in iTunes or Stitcher.
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