How to know what salary should I be on?

Question

I had not been working since 10 month as I haven’t been lucky to find work but I have 10 years of front end experience which I doubt is rusty now.

I been in bootcamp to upskill for last 3 months which is going to end soon. I have been contacted by recruiters, asking me What I am looking for?

My last salary was 48k in my last job but since of course cost of living, inflation and other things like rent, kids school fee had been increased etc

While talking to hiring people at my boot camp they said forget about your past, start new which means almost 15k less as a junior developer (I think they never had someone like me who had such a vast experience and who have come to upskill)

How should I know what should I am worth and not ask something that sound crazy?

Answer 1

Depending on your locale, your salary history can follow you if you let it. In the midwest US where I live, you don't have to disclose your previous salaries but you'll be asked for it as it's useful to recruiters and businesses to know what to offer you. If you're looking for a higher salary you're better off not disclosing your previous salary if you can avoid it, instead say what salary you're looking for.

Your question title says you need to know how to come up with a reasonable figure though, and that can be difficult if you're not in the market. Sites like Glassdoor have some salaries listed, and other sites have some research on positions/titles and corresponding salaries you could look at. StackExchange does an annual developer survey that can also get you some data points and averages for location and industry, but you need some healthy guesswork on top of any of these resources.

You may also be able to talk to a technical recruiter in your area and explain your situation and skills, share your resume, and ask what their assessment of your salary range is, if nothing else works. I've had good relationships with some area recruiters and they keep good tabs on local talent and salary, and could maybe even put you forward for jobs if you want to work together.

If you're not comfortable talking to a recruiter or don't want to be harassed once you express interest to a recruiter, a similar resource would be friends in your same industry and area, you may be able to find someone who could tell you a reasonable salary. This is one of many reasons professional networking is important.

Answer 2

While talking to hiring people at my boot camp they said forget about your past, start new which means almost 15k less as a junior developer (I think they never had someone like me who had such a vast experience and who have come to upskill)

This is rather alarming to be hearing, and suggests that the boot camp wasn't really giving you any added value. But it is what it is and if the course you're just completing has provided the sort of skills for jobs around the £33k mark then that's your lower bound. If your skills and experience prior to this boot camp warranted £48k ~10 months ago then there would probably normally be an increase on this and while many have taken a hit during COVID average UK salaries have actually increased by ~1.6% from 2020-2021. However, you state those skills have gone rusty, and of course you've been out of work for a time so that £48K is probably your upper bound.

Answer 3

TL;DR Accept a job offer based on whether you are happy with the offer vs the expected work. Don't accept/reject an offer because it ranks high/low on some oversimplified approximated average. That approximation cannot account for your specific circumstances nor the company's.

The question presumes that there is some sort of preset universal wage standard. There isn't. The salary for your role is defined by whatever someone is willing to pay for you to execute this role. If you can't find anyone willing to offer you more, then that's what you can get.

You can calculate averages across a group, but it doesn't really matter in the sense that it doesn't impact the interview process. The company will still offer what they're willing to offer, with a maximum cap; and you'll have a minimum cap on what you'd accept.

Additionally, there is the consideration that reported averages are biased due to opt-in reporting of salary amounts. Since salary is considered privileged information, only a subset of people willing share this information, which means that you have no possible measure of knowing whether the reported salaries are a meaningfully average sampling of the salaries that people earn.
There is a reasonable expectation that those with a lower salary are more interested in the wage scale (why look it up when you earn more than enough), which means lower wages are more likely to be reported than higher ones. This would lead to the reported average being lower than the true average, which in turn means that measuring your own salary against this incorrect average is actually to your detriment.

The matchmaking process between company and applicant remains the same regardless of what others are earning. If you're not happy with what is offered, then don't accept. This applies even if the offered salary is above average. Not every person will want to work as every company just as happily. I've interviewed with companies where I was less eager to work, and this caused me to increase my minimum cap on what salary offer I'd need to sign on for the job.

Between the company with the worst/best work environment, I would happily have taken a 5-10% pay cut in order to move from worst to best. Some of your salary should be dynamically adjusted based on how much you (dis)like the general environment you'd be working in. I don't refuse to work in certain conditions I don't like, I just ask for higher compensation in return. There is of course a limit to how much of that I'm willing to take on, but usually companies will bow out due to my wage demands rather than me having to bow out when the company somehow matches my exorbitant demand.

Don't let others decide (via a global average) what should be acceptable for you.

Answer 4

IF you are looking for a similar position to your prior work, it is reasonable to ask for 20 - 30% more, but that is usually easier when you are already employed.

If possible get a headhunter, they get more money when you get a better offer. Usually they have a pretty good idea what you can expect, but they also put like 15% extra.

For example when I was starting I was asking for about 36k, because the company I had an internship in was offering me 30k. I was thinking when I start out at 36k people would say something like 34k which would've been okay for me.

Then I was talking to some headhunters and they told me that 40k would actually be very reasonable and at my first job I actually got 43k.

In the end though you need to be happy with the place. Makes no sense working for 100k when you need to work 80hrs and you are unhappy. And since you've been out of a job for 11 month I would be happy if I get a job at all. If they are asking what you want you can start with something like 55k and they are able to tell you that it is a little much and want to offer 50k or something like that, that way you have a little more than before and a job.