Valuing Your Worth: Separating Budget from Your Professional Value
One of the most popular questions when helping individuals negotiate is, “How much salary should I ask for?”. I would put this question on my top five frequently asked questions list. This question is important but it often comes up prematurely. This is because, I believe that before you answer this question, the most critical question you should ask and ruminate on is What am I worth? Or What is my value? Getting clear about your value allows you to comfortably deal with the “how much should I ask for?” question.
Why?
Questions about salary and income do not actually dictate worth. For example, I know many valuable faculty members who are paid significantly less than their counterparts. Yet, they deliver more value and more value consistently to their universities, students, and communities. I have witnessed some faculty being recognized for their value while other faculty go unrecognized for their value. Although some professors are paid significantly less, I would argue that this lower pay does not dictate their value.
Consider this…
Salaries reflect many things. Sometimes, salaries reflect budgets, prior salaries, an organization’s history (e.g., working in a place where there are cohorts of faculty who never bothered to negotiate), environmental factors (e.g., cost of living), the level of negotiation skills an applicant has, how many favorable votes an applicant received post the interview, degrees, educational experiences, among other things. Salaries sometimes represent everything but what you are really valued. I would argue that often one’s salary at a university is significantly lower than the value that the faculty brings to the university.
This is why I encourage individuals not to solely focus on the salaries of others when trying to figure out their desired salary. Instead, first, you want to come to terms with the value you bring to the university. In other words, you need to come to terms with your talents, skills, vision, gifts, past accomplishments, and the qualities that make you unique. You also have to come to terms with the idea that a school’s budget does not dictate your value. In fact, their budget and your worth are independent of one another. Even if you decide to do a job at a discount, your value remains the same.
I would also argue that if you really dig deep about all that you have to offer to this world, your family, your community, and your profession, you might recognize that you are priceless.
Before creating Academe180, I would tell people, “you are worth millions,” but you want to be open to negotiating. I would throw out this figure to get people in the mindset to shift the focus from dollar amounts to helping people spend more time considering the value they bring to the table.
Here is an activity that may help you and further illustrate my point:
Activity
Pretend you have just completed your Ph.D. and someone approaches and tells you that you are worth a million dollars. Write down all the reasons why you believe this individual believes you are worth one million dollars. You can start by answering the following questions:
How do you show up in the world?
What innovative ideas do you have? What problems do you solve?
What have you accomplished so far?
What is your vision for the future?
How will your perspective of science or the social world improve the future?
What notable activities have been recognized in the past by others?
What do your letters of recommendation/references say about you?
How do your friends, colleagues, peers, and loved ones describe you?
What skills, gifts, and talents do you have?
What are your personal and professional strengths?
What impact do you hope to make on your family, community, and world?
What are you passionate about?
Once you reflect on and honor your unique qualities, strengths, ideas, assets, and traits, you should recognize that you are not only worthy, but your value is more significant than what anyone has to offer. Your value can not be quantified. Your value will always be greater than what someone has to offer.
My hope for you is to become comfortable with having a conversation about the gap between your value, your needs, your desires, and what the employer has to offer.
Negotiating is about having a conversation about closing the gap between what you want and what is being offered. But, in order to close the gap, you must be able to articulate and verbalize what makes you unique and valuable.
Thinking about numbers and salary is important. I believe we should ask for what we need and want, but not before we have come to terms with our value and purpose(s) on this earth.
The importance of you understanding the value you bring to the university first will help you prepare for the following question that comes up during negotiations:
“Why should we give you ____ (you fill in the blank with your request) ____?”
