Salary Expectations for specific titles

Question

I am struggling to find specific salary ranges, the roles I am targeting are Construction Project Manager, Sr. Facilities Project Manager, Healthcare Construction Manager and I find very little info, the ranges are $100k or well below what so think is accurate.  I don’t want to undersell myself but I don’t want to get eliminated before I get in the door. This role is generally with a project management firm, construction company or similar.  I have tried the salary job sites without luck and my industry group doesn’t have it other than in the huge data range.

Anonymous · Answer

I should add that in such a male dominated industry, I am not sure women are always paid the same as our male counterparts because we don’t ask for enough.

Lady Pele · Answer

Besides this site, check out Glassdoor.com, Payscale.com, Salary.com and Indeed.com for ranges.  Be sure to look for your state or region.  Then when asked the salary question, you can say 'I know the range is X to Y for this area, and I would be looking for Z' where Z is where you think your experience lands you (low/middle/high end of the range).

Lydia Frank · Answer

One thing I'd call out for PayScale is that there's very high level data on public-facing pages for different jobs, but if you fill out a survey and provide more details, the range gets narrower. I'd give that a shot if you haven't already. https://www.payscale.com/wizards/choose.aspx

Keri Wilson · Answer

At the risk of sounding glib, if the range you're seeing is '$46K to $146k' than that can be your answer when they ask you.  I would always suggest giving a range, starting with the number you won't go below.  You can also respond with the 'total comp' answer , for example:  'I'm looking for something in the range of X and Y, and I'm willing to consider a lower pay rate depending on the  benefits and bonus package you're offering'.

Anonymous · Answer

I personally like to flip the question back to a potential employer- if asked what are your salary expectations, I usually respond with, what is the range you're looking to pay for this role? Then you can decide whether that range is satisfactory to you, and if not you can inquire about more senior titles and the ranges associated with those.

Sweet Caroline · Answer

Apologies, I wrote the post on my phone and cannot seem to edit.  I am currently looking for a job, transitioning from a role I am no longer finding challenging and I have had a few phone screens asking.  All of the sites I have consulted (payscale.com, monster, indeed, salary.com, glassdoor etc) place the pay scale from $46,000-$235,000.  That's far too broad for me.  My current role is for a non profit performing some construction related work, but also many other roles which are unrelated such as corporate travel, cafeteria management etc...  I was a PM earlier in my career but at a more junior level.   Before putting myself out of the running for jobs when recruiters ask the question, I want to know what someone in the role can reasonably expect to make, is it $46K or is it $146K or $246K and I can't seem to narrow it down.  Thanks for the articles/videos above, I will check them out!

Six Figure Salary Coach · Answer

Hey! I am assuming you're asking because you're interviewing for a job? I'm sorry, it was a little unclear in your question.

Assuming that you are going through the interviewing process, and you are wanting to align your salary expectations, I have a couple of articles I would recommend that you read. The first one in particular will help you answer the salary related questions during the interview. I totally understand how it's difficult to communicate a value and potentially put yourself out of the running if your potential employer thinks he will be too expensive. This article has a video to outline the perfect way to answer this question. It is a good combination between ensuring you don't undersell yourself or over sell yourself.

https://www.liberatedtribe.com/articles/2019/3/30/what-are-your-salary-expectations

This second article is mostly around house salary market research can hurt us. I totally understand needing to validate your salary expectations but sometimes third-party information leaves a lot of gaps that we're not aware of. We can very easily be leaving money on the table by relying solely on this type of information.

https://www.liberatedtribe.com/articles/2019/6/24/why-salary-market-research-doesnt-work

So I'm sure your next question is if I can't find the right to market data, what do I do to validate my salary expectations? This all comes down to your contributions, your experience, and what you can bring to the table to a new organization. No one person is unique. No company is unique. So you really have to tailor your expectations to what you want out of an employer along with what you can accomplish for them. Companies will pay more if they know that you can be more efficient or more profitable. But all that information is left out of third-party data.

I know this is lengthy! If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to let me know! To me, getting your ideal salary is all about strategy and how you present yourself during the interview and offer letter negotiation.

Melissa

Salary Expectations for specific titles

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