Ever felt your pay cheque does not favourably compare with those of your peers? Maybe you are on the wrong track.

What kind of a lifestyle should you lead? How much of your salary should you save? The answers to these questions are simple when you are well settled in your career and know your liabilities. But for someone just beginning his career, this is a difficult call to make, considering that there are high-growth careers where salaries go up by 200 times in the course of a career while there are others where salaries go up by less than 20 times. Are you on the right track? It just takes a few steps, an action plan and constant review to find out.

MAKE APPROPRIATE COMPARISONS

For instance, if you had completed your MBA five years ago, you could check with your batchmates working for the same sector to get an approximate market valuation. You can make a more accurate comparison with a friend working for the same company. Making wrong comparisons with a friend working for a different sector or job profile would be misleading. Often employees make wrong comparisons across industries or sectors and feel they are underpaid in the existing job. "You should talk to 2-3 prospective employers to assess your market value. Depending on his realistic demands, chances are that either or both the employers would take him on board. If neither of them is keen to hire that employee because of his own pre-determined value, he will get his answer," says Shiv Agrawal, CEO of ABC Consultants.

MONEY MATTERS

Salary is the sole indicator of market value. Designations have no meaning. They can be misleading because designations change from company to company. An individual could be a vice-president of a Rs 100-crore company. On the other hand, you would be an area manager of a large MNC or a large FMCG company. The only common thing is salary. There are various portals that provide benchmark salaries. This data is based on the sector, company and your work experience. Sites like payscale.com customise the search by asking questions on your current employment status, employment details, etc, to give you an approximate salary quote. But you can not base your decisions just on these portals. You have to back it up with your own research.

THE INDUSTRY FACTOR

"Salary scales for engineering companies are much lower than those of financial services companies. If an IIM graduate takes up a job in Maruti and his classmate takes up a job in P&G, in 10 years, the salary of the P&G staffer is double of his classmate from Maruti. It's nothing to do with the company, but the sector. But job satisfaction is a more important criterion for certain individuals," says Kris Lakshmikanth, CEO and MD, HeadHunters India.

UPGRADING TECHNICAL SKILLS

This could be an additional qualification or a specialisation that could put you in a more commanding position. For instance, PhD for teachers, MD, or Masters, for doctors and other healthcare professionals would help in their career growth. Initially, when you enter an organisation, you may be treated on par with lesser qualified professionals, but these degrees, or specialised courses, come in handy during promotions and salary hikes.

Take some time off from a full-time job. This, however, has to be worth the buck. You have to factor in the salary loss and an opportunity cost attached to the decision. "If you take a year's break to do a oneyear MBA from ISB or Great Lake even then it pushes you up by one or two levels of seniority. Even if you spend Rs 20 lakh for the course, you will earn it back in 3-4 years. I have seen sales people getting into managerial positions after doing such courses. Even if you don't want to do a full time or don't get through even a part-time MBA programme should help if not as much as a full-time programme," Mr Lakshmikanth adds.

CHEQUE MATE

Have you realised your growth in an organisation has reached a plateau. However, your other comparable classmates or colleagues are enjoying a bigger slice of the pie. Here are few tips that could be instrumental in ap-preciating your market value.

TAKE AN OFFSHORE POSTING

People are obsessed with taking up projects in well-known and devel-oped countries such as the US, UK or Australia. But consultants have seen some inertia in people to choose offshore locations such as China, Korea or even Japan. Because of fewer takers, the salary levels are very attractive in such places. You should grab any such opportunity.

LOOK BEYOND THE METROS

This also applies to tier-II or tier-III towns within India. A profes-sional, who resides in metro, is not keen to shift to a smaller town be-cause of lifestyle issues or for family reasons.

PICK UP A RARE SKILL

It could be about going back to college and shaping up your academics, learning a new software package or a foreign language. It helps to pick up skills such as a rare foreign language. It's an added advantage to know the local language such as Mandarin or Japanese in countries such as Japan and China. It gives you an upper hand to get posted at good projects in these countries, which could be a turning point for your career. The idea is to broaden your horizon and add an extra di-mension to your career that could fuel the career growth.

PACKAGING IS THE NORM

You have to flavour your technical skills with some soft skills, which is a crucial factor today. Right from you attitude to your dress code or even your mental make up could earn you some brownie points

Source: The Economic Times, dated 2nd June 2010, Page No: 19.