Related stories

Top 10 Tips for Your Trip to Disneyland Springtime Blossoms to Lift Your Heart Beijing to Raise Water Prices Database to Be Available For Parents to Name Babies David Seto's column: Time to find your PEARLS

Idenifying Springboards to Sucess: Raise Your Earning Power and Marketability

For these people, rather than pursuing opportunistic, short-lived situations, they seek jobs that will likely result in accruing broader skill sets, more responsibility and at least a possibility for the kinds of successes that will open a door to even more attractive opportunities and better long-term career prospects. 

Value Rewarded

It is more important now than ever to identify jobs and companies that can help you improve your marketability and earning power in China. Just a few years ago, some employees were overvalued and overpaid, as companies hired aggressively to keep pace with their business growth. But, today, people are more often paid in-line with their appropriate market value and worth. Hiring and promotion practices are more disciplined, accompanied by tighter compensation structures and policies. As a result, there are fewer and smaller disparities in compensation paid by same-industry companies for comparable positions than ever before. Companies are paying for actual capabilities and value on delivery.   

A recent case involving a job candidate who was seeking a 40 percent increase in her salary may serve as an example. Our client was offering a 15 percent increase. When the negotiations reached an impasse, the GM made his position clear: “I’m more than willing to pay that higher amount: that’s not the issue,” he said, “but only for someone who has a demonstrated track record in the areas we are concerned about, which this person does not have. For her, we are offering an opportunity to take on a challenging, high profile project to show what she can do. If she’s as good as she thinks she is and is able to perform, I’ll be happy to revisit the topic of compensation with her later on.”

Seeking Strong Springboards

So what kind of company can serve as the springboard you need? You want to identify an environment that offers you exposure to quality situations and opportunities that will allow you to develop you capabilities and acquire some achievements. A high growth company in a growth industry, a strong management team that you will be working closely with, access to international resources and best practices, and exposure to a high quality client base may meet your needs. It may also involve new and challenging responsibilities, participation in key decision-making situations, and an overall chance to plan, manage, and build things.

Be Flexible and Realistic

Choosing the right company and situation may not bring immediate financial gains, and your decision may be hard to justify, but merely getting an increase in salary when making a move may not be the best thing in the long run for you. A view on compensation that is too inflexible and short-sighted can lead to missed opportunities that could greatly enhance your overall value and future earning power. 

Many of the most reputable companies are not market leaders in compensation, yet they are attractive for an employee to work for. We often see job seekers move to such companies for comparable or even less money, because the companies offer access to world-class resources and an international-calibre operating environment. Likewise, start-up and mid-size companies tend to be conservative on base salaries, but more flexible and generous on variable, performance-based incentives. Although they are a higher risk, they can offer higher growth and upside potential, as well as excellent chances to standout, since individual contributions and achievements are more easily recognized.

Can You Attract the Best Opportunities?

With today’s active hiring market in China, the key issue for most professionals is not about the ability to find a job. It is whether your background is outstanding and competitive enough to capture those positions most attractive to you.

So how does a person pass on an opportunity that offers to double his salary? Actually, according to our candidate, it wasn’t even a very difficult decision for him. Being in his early 30s and at a middle management stage in his career, what he was seeking most was a broader role with more direct responsibilities that could help him to develop towards his goal of becoming a general manager someday. The position he was being offered, however, was a high-level, individual contributor one that for the most part repeated a role that he had already done extensively before. So although financially attractive in the short-term, the position would add few new skills and achievements that would get him closer to his GM objective. 

Instead, he took a position that offered a more modest pay package but that gave him the kind of responsibilities that he was looking for.

“There was nothing wrong with the opportunity that I turned down; there was nothing wrong with the company,” he explained. “It was a very established, attractive one. I know I could have been paid well over the next couple of years, but what about later? I’d still be in same situation I was trying to improve on. The company I’m with now is smaller, but fast-growing. As importantly, its senior management team are top-notch and their client base top tier. Ultimately, this is the right situation at this time in my career to help me grow in other areas that a GM needs to handle. If I can attain that level in the future, then I am confident that the financial benefits will take care of themselves and far exceed whatever amount of money that I may have passed up in the short-term.”