What Are You Worth?

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Most IT people have only a vague idea what they're worth. They may realize that pay scales vary all over the map, but they have little idea how much. This applies to everyone on the corporate ladder--tech support specialist and low-level programmer to project manager and CIO. When it comes to the nasty green stuff, most people have a problem talking about it. If Freud were alive, he'd tell us why.

But there are guidelines that can give you a pretty good idea what you're worth to an employer. It's often not just what someone else with an identical skill is being paid, but what you bring to the table.

Start with your background and experience. Many large companies are impressed by school credentials. A computer science degree from MIT, Stanford or Carnegie Mellon carries more clout than the same degree from a small unknown college.

Yet, most small aggressive start-ups are not particularly impressed with where you went to school. In fact, some don't even care if you graduated college. They're more interested in where you worked and what you know.

As important as education is, ultimately work experience is the clincher in deciding salaries. Project managers with a bunch of household name companies on their resume have a leg up on their competition and have a good shot at securing a preliminary screening interview. If they logged …

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