Salary Negotiation Tips to Bargain For Salary Increase

Do you have the feeling that your employer is continually taking advantage of you? It maybe the right time to plan for a salary negotiation if you feel that you’re constantly contributing good value to your company and not getting the pay that you deserve. Effective negotiation helps to resolve situation like this and find solutions that are acceptable to both parties.

Most people are very uncomfortable discussing on the topic of salary increase. This kind of feeling is very common as we are all having fear of being rejected or worry to upset someone during the negotiation. To demand for the right salary that you deserve, you’ll need to learn some negotiation fundamentals.

Asking for a salary increase has to begin with a strategic plan, and preparation is the key to be successful in any form of negotiation. You can get a pay increase even if your company is under salary freeze. Here are some effective salary negotiation tips and tactics you can use to fight your case without fear.

1) Assess the situation and know what to target for Before asking for a salary increase, you need to explore your company’s policy on salary. Check out if there is any established range for your position. Find out if there are other people in your organization doing similar work, and how much they are being paid. If there is no constraint from the pay policy and you’re indispensable, you should feel optimistic and confident with the salary negotiation.

You can bench mark “job search” web sites on the internet to determine how much other companies in the same industry are willing to pay for a comparable position. Different organization may use different job title for the same work. Therefore making comparison of the job scope maybe needed. Understanding the current market value for your position will determine how much you’re worth. This allows you to set a figure in mind to shoot for during the salary negotiation session.

2) Be confident with the negotiation If you are a key person in your organization making good contribution, you are armed with bullets, and you can ask for more during the negotiation. Don’t worry of losing the job. At the end of the negotiation session, you’ll either get a salary increase or you’ll figure out you’re not in the right organization that can meet your salary expectation. You may want to start to explore other job opportunities.

3) What else besides monetary rewards you should negotiate The remuneration package needs to be evaluated as an overall deal. Don’t leave out rewards such as share options, leave passage, pension plans, bonuses, subsidies, etc. The negotiation can be for a raise of any of these rewards. Other non monetary rewards you can demand are the medical coverage, insurance coverage, annual leave, flexible working hours and company car.

4) Draft a letter to request for a meeting on salary increase Never discuss you salary matter with the boss in an ad hoc manner such as after a meeting. If you want to get good result, write a formal letter to your boss by declaring your purpose and arrange suitable time for a discussion. If you’re having difficulties to get started, you can seek professional help or refer to the proven pay raise letter examples for ideas on the appropriate format and contents.

5) Prepare a package to sell your contribution You need to package and sell your special skills, accomplishments and contributions for your job objectives, and not to forget to emphasize your special achievements.

6) Build good credibility and demonstrate your value The discussion will be very much smoother if you have built good credibility with the company. Holding the meeting at the right time, for example after delivering some good value to the company, will lower the resistance in getting approval for a salary increase. Attend the meeting with confidence and discuss the case as professional as possible. Personal needs such as “I require more money because of my eldest kid is going to college next year” should not be used as a reason to support the pay raise.

7) Ask smart questions and let the employer do the talking Ask intelligent open-ended questions and lure the employer to do the talking. Be a good listener and let the employer bring about giving you what you want. The employer always thinks that their decision is the best, and they strongly believe in it. Don’t challenge their viewpoint, but make them convince your worth and get them to approve your raise.

8) Start negotiation by setting an aggressive goal One of the tactics often use in salary negotiation is to “demand for higher and compromise for lesser.” Get the employer to make the first offer to you before you tell them your target. They may offer more than what you expect by surprise. If you’ve done your homework well on the pay range, you can set your target slightly higher then the upper range. Explain and justify why you’re an outstanding employee.

9) Be prepared to move on for a better job If you can demonstrate to the employer that you are prepared to walk away should the negotiation fails, you have created tremendous power and pressure to make the employer compromises. Never show the employer that you are desperate for the job.

Conclusion The objective of a salary negotiation is to find solutions that are win-win for both parties. To ensure the negotiation is successful, you need to prepare all necessary information, learn negotiation tactics for effective bargaining and set up a face-to-face session to discuss the case professional. If you can show the employer that you are willing to move away, you will have more leverage on your bargaining. If you’re not easily replaceable in your organization, you should feel confident with the negotiation. If you wish to learn more on salary negotiation tips and tactics, visit our website for more info on all aspects of career resources.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1602644

Virtual Database

A virtual database, also called a federated database, is a way to view and query several databases as if they were a single entity.

The goal of working in a virtual database is to be able to look at data in a more unified way without having to duplicate it across multiple databases or manually combine the results from multiple queries. In a homogenous environment, virtual databases can help distribute the load of very large databases.

Each component database in the system is completely self-sustained and functional. When an application queries a virtual database, the system figures out which of its component databases contains the data being requested and passes the request to it. The biggest challenge to building a virtual database is that the developer needs to first build a universal data model. The data model serves as a map to every source of data within the company. Finding a single schema that can address all of a company's data needs can be difficult, particularly if data is dirty.

Integrating disparate databases under a centralized console offers several benefits. First, federated databases offer an alternative to merging databases together, which can be a tedious task. Second, they help programmers avoid the tight coupling of applications with legacy databases by eliminating vendor and schema lock-in. Applications can be written to target the intermediary layer - the virtual database - as opposed to a specific database by a specific vendor. Finally, applications need only to be connected to the virtual database in order to work with data from multiple databases.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a social curation website for sharing and categorizing images found online. The site's name is a portmanteau of the words "pin" and "interest."

Site members can add a "Pin it" button to their browser and then select and "pin" online images to virtual pinboards, which are used to organize categories. Visitors can browse or search for image content and can follow the boards of other users and can "like" or repin other users' pins. Current Pinterest categories include architecture, art, DIY and crafts, fashion, food and drink, home decor, science and travel.

Pinterest requires brief descriptions, but the main focus of the site is visual. Clicking on an image will take the visitor to the original source, so, for example, if a woman clicks on a picture of a pair of shoes, she might be taken to a site where she can purchase them. An image of blueberry pancakes might point to a web page with the recipe; a picture of a whimsical birdhouse might lead the visitor to instructions for how to build it.

Pinterest was founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. The Pinterest service launched as a closed beta in March 2010. Pinterest membership was initially by invitation-only but is now open to the general public. In 2011, TechCrunch selected Pinterest as the year's top startup, and Time magazine named it as one of the top 50 websites of that year. As of January 2012, the site had 11.7 million users.

VMware Horizon Mobile

VMware Horizon Mobile is mobile virtualization and application wrappingsoftware that lets IT administrators control corporate data and applications on end users' smartphones and tablets.

VMware Horizon Mobile for Android takes a mobile virtualization approach to managing and securing corporate data and applications. Using ahypervisor installed on the mobile device hardware, it creates a custom operating system onto which only IT-approved applications may be installed. All personal data and apps remain on the device's original operating system, untouched by IT, and the user may switch back and forth between the two operating systems as needed.

VMware Horizon Mobile for iOS takes an application wrapping approach, in which software added to the application enforces policies that determine how corporate apps, and the data they contain, can interact with a device's operating system or other apps. Both technologies are part of the VMware Horizon Suite, which is scheduled to be released in 2013.

Five Whys

Five Whys, sometimes written as "5 Whys," is a guided team exercise for identifying the root cause of a problem. Five Whys is used in the "analyze" phase of the Six SigmaDMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) methodology.
The exercise begins with a facilitator stating a problem and then asking the question "Why?" (meaning "Why did the problem occur?"). The group brainstorms answers based on direct observation. Once the group agrees upon an answer, the facilitator again asks the question, "Why?"
The exercise got its name because it generally takes five iterations of the questioning process for the group to arrive at the root-cause of a problem -- but it is perfectly correct for the facilitator to ask less than five "whys" or more than five "whys" depending on the group's needs.

Here is an example of how a Five Whys exercise might proceed:
Facilitator: Our websites were down from 2pm to 2:45 pm on Saturday. Why?
Group: Because the external DNS server failed.
Facilitator: Why did the external DNS server fail?
Group: Because the central process unit (CPU) was peaked at 100% and couldn't handle outside requests.
Facilitator: Why did the CPU peak at 100%?
Group: Because the server kept trying to auto-update Windows.
Facilitator: Why did the server keep trying to auto-update Windows?
Group: Because when the administrator created the server, he forgot to uncheck the auto-update service.
Facilitator: Why did the administrator forget to uncheck the auto-update service when he created the server?
Group: Because he was in a hurry and got distracted by an alarm going off.
Once the team has agreed that they have identified the root cause of the problem - in this case, the administrator getting distracted and forgetting to turn off auto-update, the facilitator should help the group to determine corrective action.
Facilitator: How can we make sure that each administrator unchecks auto-update when he creates a new server, no matter how hurried or distracted he gets?
Group: Create a vanilla server image with auto-update turned off. Have administratorsclone this image when deploying new servers.

Five Whys originated in the Toyota Production System, where it was used for post-mortem investigations into equipment failures and workplace safety incidents. It has proved to be especially useful for helping management teams identify and fix problems that at first glance appear to be technical problems, but upon further investigation, turn out to be people problems.

Revel Virtual Touch

Reverse electrovibration, also known as virtual touch, is an augmented reality (AR) technology that facilitates electronic transmission of the human tactile sense, allowing end users to perceive the textures and contours of remote objects. The field of study involving virtual touch is known ashaptics.

Advancements in reverse electrovibration are under development by Disney Research of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Disney's system, called REVEL, imparts a low-level signal, creating an oscillating, weak electric field around the user's skin. Signal variations correspond to texture variations in the distant object. The signals are generated in such a way that the resulting sensation in the fingers mimics the sensation of sliding the fingers over the object. No gloves or specialized back-pressure-sensor-like devices are necessary. The technology delivers such a small amount of current into the user's body that it poses no health risk.

The most highly anticipated application of reverse electrovibration is one allowing a person to sense the texture of a distant object on the touch screen of a computer or tablet device. The technology can allow for the transmission of Braille characters, as well as conveying the "feel" of everyday objects.

Multipath I/O

Multipath I/O (MPIO) is a Microsoft framework designed to mitigate the effects of a host bus adapter (HBA) failure by providing an alternate data path between storage devices and a Windows operating system. MPIO enables up to 32 alternate paths to add redundancy and load balancingfor Windows storage environments.

Pathing is a networking approach used to address the specific needs of storage networks by changing the way that communication paths are managed and organized. Unlike connection failures in message networks -- which generally just require that the connection be retried -- in storage networks, a failure is more likely to cause a systemcrash. Storage networks also require faster error recovery.

Technically, MPIO represents a hybrid approach to multipathing, combining software specific to each HBA -- the Device Specific Module (DSM) -- with the MPIO features integrated into the Windows operating system. While the DSMs must be written for specific hardware and cannot be generic, Microsoft designed MPIO to be as HBA-agnostic as possible. As such, it depends on the rest of the hardware and software to work correctly in order to do its job.

MPIO requires at least two HBAs connected to the storage device. (A dual-port HBA may provide two data paths, but it still represents a single point of failure.) In a storage area network (SAN) you also need to ensure that any switches or routers laying in the data path have enough path management intelligence to handle disruptions caused by an HBA failure.