Career Tips

Getting a bigger paycheck is easy, as long as you know how to ask. Negotiate yourself a Pay Raise!

If you're looking for a job you'll have to know how to write a clear and concise Cover Letter.

Can you be fired for any reason or no reason at all? Without notice? Find out at Dismissal Rights. 

Only 38% of college graduates who entered the job market between 2012 and 2015 said they negotiated their salary with their employer, according to a new survey from personal finance site NerdWallet and Looksharp, a company that helps recent graduates find jobs. While some of the nearly 8000 young workers reported being too “anxious” to negotiate a salary, many believe that it will make them appear arrogant to employers. The opposite is true, 84% of the 700 surveyed employers said entry-level candidates wouldn’t be putting their offers at risk by asking for a pay bump. And there’s room to get more money. Three-quarters of employers said they could boost salary offers by 5% or 10% during negotiations. Of the men and women who negotiated their first salary, 80% were successful. Find more tips to negotiate a pay raise.

You would think that some of us are born to be a low wage worker, or not? Here some people who couldn't have dreamed at age 18 that they would become as rich and famous as they are now:

• Carrie Underwood (Musician)
• Tim Cook (CEO Apple)
• 44th President Barack Obama
• Johnny Depp
• J.K.Rowling

Dog walkers could earn more than the highest $15 minimum wage rate per hour while working less. Depending on the state/city they live in, dog walkers charge from $9 to $25 per dog walk. Let's assume they would ask $14 and walk 192 dogs per month, which adds up to annual earnings of roughly $29.000. That is less than the £31,200 a worker would make annually with a $15 hourly minimum wage rate. However, according to research in the UK, taking other people’s pets for a stroll is not a full time job, as most dog walkers take several dogs out at a time and typically take about 13 dogs per day, which means the full month’s work of 192 dogs is completed within 15 days. Adding 5 days more work and 65 dogs to walk extra, the annual earnings of a dog walker would be about $36,000, $4,800 more than a full time annual minimum wage with an hourly rate of $15. Dog walkers in cities as L.A. or Boston charge up to $25 dollars per hour and could earn up to $60,000 a year, That is more than the salary of a full time nurse, bank employee or real estate agent. Check your salary to see if you earn more than a dog walker.

Employment benefits can be worth 40% or more of your total compensation package - think of health care coverage, child care, paid leave and so on - it's important to know exactly what benefits you will be provided with, before you say 'yes' on a job offer.

Casual Friday is the day of the week you may be allowed to dress down a bit in anticipation for the weekend, but sometimes this freedom comes with a lack of common sense. Shorts, leggings, bikini tops, cutoff jeans, flip flops, a G-string peeping over the top of pants, sports wear; it's all considered casual, but probably not the dress down look for an office. The same applies for shirts with questionable slogans, think of colleagues, the text might offend them, so don't go there, keep it casual, but classy.

• USA: Cost of Living Survey
• USA: Living wages
• USA: Living wages compared with actual wages and minimum wages
• USA: Living wages compared with minimum wages
• USA: National poverty lines
• USA: World Bank poverty lines
• USA: Housing, food and transport costs
• USA: Consumer prices for food

Veterans have years of job experience and skills. They drove heavy equipment, supervised troops or did computer programming.  All useful skills in the civilian workforce. The best jobs for them in 2015 according to Forbes: training and development manager, software engineer, construction program manager, administrative services manager, personal finance manager. But what are the salaries in those sectors? Find out with our salary calculator.

Massachusetts was the first state in 2016 to bar employers from asking about applicants’ salaries before offering them a job. Since then around 20 or more states have jumped on the bandwagon, including California, Philadelphia, New Orleans and New York. The law will require hiring managers to state a compensation figure upfront — based on what an applicant’s worth is to the company, rather than on what he or she made in a previous position. 

Ask anyone to name the most stressful jobs and they might guess neurosurgeon, bomb diffuser, or even stockbroker. Think again, it is waitressing, say scientists. A new study suggests that it is menial, thankless jobs that leave people suffering the most stress, and are consequently the most damaging to health. Chinese scientists have found that low paid jobs with a high work-load, such as waitressing, leave employees at far greater risk from heart problems. Find here the Minimum Wage for Waitresses and other Tipped Workers.

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Keep it short & sweet! Keep your resume on 1 page. How? See our 12 tips for writing your resume.

New college graduates hoping to make their resume stand out from the masses should demonstrate how they’re a leader and supporter. 79% of employers said they want prospective employees to be team players, second only to the 80% of employers who said they look for evidence of leadership skills, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2016 survey. Other important abilities employers said they looked for on a resume include: written communication skills (70%), problem-solving skills (70%), verbal communication skills (69%), and strong work ethic (69%).