Book review: Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute

My latest read in preparation of my upcoming annual performance review was Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute by Jack Chapman. It was a very easy read at only 170 pages. While it focus mostly on negotiating for a beginning salary, there was a whole chapter about raises. And it was fairly easy to see how to apply the rest of book to a raise situation.

The raise chapter discussed how to keep a "job journal" to track your accomplishments. That is the first step, which you can start at any time, and easily maintain.

The second step is all about making your boss aware of your accomplishments, and getting them to acknowledge them. I never really thought about it, but the book points out "...bosses who allow efficient workers the freedom to do a good job are less likely to be aware of workers' accomplishments. Such bosses are so trusting of your work that they naturally pay attention to their problems instead of your performance."

Once your work is acknowledged, then you discuss a possible raise, using the techniques discribed in the rest of the book.

Overall, I was impressed with this book. It had lots of useful information for both new jobs, and raise situations. I am working on creating my job journal to help with performance review. Hopefully all my research into salary negotiations will pay off in the end.

Cross-stitch project update

No picture tonight, but I finally had a chance to work some more on my cross-stitch project. I went all gong-ho and worked for an hour. Then thought the spot I just finished looked a little close to the basting marking the edge of the page. I counted, and was off by 5 stitches! Not cool! I ripped out everything I stitched tonight. Then counted again, and it turns out everything I have stitched so far is 2 columns to the left!

Luckily, I started with a swirly spot in the top right corner, so I plan to just eliminate 2 columns from the that section. Wouldn't affect the rest.


I could just stitch the whole thing 2 columns over, but that would be too hard to remember, and then my lovely basting would be off. Nope, losing two columns will be easier. So tonight was not a good stitching experience.

How many is too many?

I think I have a blog addiction. Not to writing my own (obviously), but to following other people's blogs. My Google Reader is getting quite large. Some mornings there are so many new posts to read, I have to pick and choose what order to read in. Cause I can't just read a few at a time. Oh no, that list of unread items that appears on my homepage is just calling to be read.

So how many is too many? I have 41 blogs on my list right now. And that doesn't include the 10 or so on my RSS reader at work. Should I stop adding? But when I want to read something, and there is no new posts, I don't know what to do. Except find a new blog to follow, of course. I guess I really need to find something more productive to do... like school work... ugh... Why is is so depressing to say I have schoolwork when I'm almost 30? Isn't schoolwork supposed to be for all the little kidlets? I think I need to find a new, adult name for it.

Cold and flu season

Cold and flu season appears to have arrived already. In my household, all 3 of us are feeling under the weather today. The runny nose, stuffy head, body aches, and general "yuckiness" seems to have popped up over night. Makes for an unhappy household. Here's hoping that it passes as quickly as it came.

New look

So you may notice a slightly new look to the blog today. Since fall is now here, I thought I'd change to a slightly more fall-ish colour. It's so easy to do. Just click and save.

I've been thinking about giving myself a new look too. Dye my hair. I haven't done it in a long time, like pre-baby. Not sure what colour though. Either dark red or black. I've had both colours before, and liked them both. Either way, it will be darker. Which matches the season change.

Speaking of darker, how I miss the sun already. Getting up early is so hard since it is pitch black out. If only Mr Magoo would learn to sleep in a bit. Heck, if he learned to sleep at all I'd be happy. He's still up every 2-3 hours during the night. It drives me crazy, and makes me super exhausted. And leads me to hate everyone who says "oh, my son/daughter sleeps all the way through, and has since they were a wee baby". Well good for you. I haven't experienced that yet. The longest he's slept in a row is 5 hours, and that was a while ago, and only a few times. But if you'd like to know how it feels to have a child who doesn't sleep, I'd be more than willing to trade for a night or two. Or you could just take him for a weekend since your child wouldn't affect anything anyways. Then I'd get to sleep for the first time in over 16 months. Sound like a deal?

Book Review: Banker to the Poor

As mentioned in my previous post about giving to charity, I was reading Banker to the Poor: Micro-lending and the battle against world poverty by Muhammad Yunus. It is the biography of the creation of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

I didn't realize it was a biography when I picked it up; I apparently never looked at the spine where my local library had placed a biography sticker. I don't usually read biographies, but I found this book very interesting. I was particularly intrigued by the first half of the book, the very beginning of the creation of the Grameen Bank.

The later half of the book was harder to follow as related, child and parent companies were founded and explained. I skipped a few overly detailed paragraphs as I wasn't that interested, and they just confused me.

But the stories of the borrowers really intrigued me. I think I'll find and read Give Us Credit by Alex Counts, which is about the founding of the Grameen Bank, and is filled with stories of the borrowers. I was amazed at the resiliency and resourcefulness of the women who became borrowers. They have so many ideas of how to improve their lives, and their families' lives, and it usually only requires a bit of upfront capital. Their lives are transformed by being able to access credit without needing collateral, and the amounts are paltry by Western standards. The original loans given out totalled $27, and that was spread over 42 people! That's less than $1 a person! What could you do with a $1?

The book really made me think about poverty, which is not something I usually think about. I think I'll take the lesson and reduce my complaining about not having any extra money. At least I have a roof over my head, food in my belly, and the security of a full-time job that is unlikely to disappear tomorrow. And I will try to remember my gratititude for these things and donate money to causes like this occasionally.

Giving to Charity

I don't donate to charities on a regular basis. It is something I occasionally think I should do, but I never seem to get to it, or have the funds for it.

I do try to help kids who are selling candy for fundraising. Benefits for me and them. I remember trying to sell stuff as a kid, and how hard it was. So I try to find the change, provided I want the product.
I recently "found" $28 in my paypal account that I forgot I had, and decided to donate it instead of buying myself a treat. I am reading a book about micro-lending (Banker To the Poor by Muhammad Yunus, review to come when I finish), and how it has a huge impact on helping poverty-ridden women around the world. I had previously looked into a website about it, but had never gotten around to donating. So I located the website (Kiva - not the same company from the book I am reading. That one is Grameen.), signed up, and donated. What you are doing is really lending the money, provided the recipient repays. Once they have repaid, you can re-lend the money. I like this website especially since you chose the exact person you are lending to. It's not just you giving to a company who disburses the money as needed.

Book Review: Get Paid What You're Worth

In preparation for my upcoming annual performance review, I've been trying to find books on how to complete my self evaluation, and how to negotiate a raise. Surprisingly, it has not been easy to find books about these topics.
I just finished Get Paid What You're Worth by Robin L. Pinkley and Gregory B. Northcraft. Unfortunately, I found it not very hopeful. It is more about negotiating your salary and benefits when you are first hired. It barely mentions raises or re-negotiations.

There were some good points, such as "anchoring" your requests with facts, and learning to see negotations as a team effort, not as one person pitted against another. There was a lot of emphasis placed on research: research about the employer and what their "usual" offers include, what current employees get, what similar positions in other companies get, what your skills are worth in the market, etc. Lots of research that would not be easy to do, particular in the modern culture of keeping salary and compensation information private.

Overall, the book was an easy read, with the important information stated clearly and concisely. Each chapter had a point-form summary at the end, to help wrap it up. I did find it got very reptitive though. It was a short, 180 page book, but if even half the repetition was removed, it could probably be half that length.

I was not overly impressed, mainly because it didn't really focus on the topic I wanted to read about, and expected to read about. After all, people usually deal with many more salary reviews than they do with initial job offers.

library

I love my local library. Where else can you get just about any book you want, without shelling out money you probably don't have? I used the library a lot when I was a kid, then again when I first moved out on my own. I have recently gone back after I decided that I didn't really want to buy books that I was only going to read once. So I renewed my library card, and have been flying through the books.

I find the best part is that if I know what book I want, like the next in a series I am reading, I just go to their online catalog, place a hold, and pick it up when it's ready. So easy and convenient.

My little monkey is a huge fan of books, so I've been picking him up books too. He seems to love books about animals, pictures of babies and kids, and textured books. And I'm happy to provide them to him. We own quite a few, but it is always nice to have a variety. How often can you read the same book? Apparently endlessly if you are a kid.

Cross-stitch project update

So I have now put 5 1/2 hours into my project. I have found it really hard to find time to do it. There are so many factors involved: I feel I can only do it after my son is in bed (cause who wants a 16 mth old around their project), on nights when he goes to bed at a reasonable time, and I feel energized enough to work on it, and I don't have schoolwork that I need to it, and I feel like working on it. So many things to consider...


But I do enjoy working on it when I do it, and I am happy to see some bit of progress.

Exam

I had an exam last night for my CGA schooling in business communications. I found it went okay. The most noteable thing is the fact that I don't get stressed out over my exams. Based on comments from my course forum online, it seems like I am in the minority for that.

Personally, I really remember getting nervous or anxious over exams ever. If you prepare ahead of time, and know your stuff, the best thing to do before an exam is to relax. I always try to sleep well (as much as I can nowadays with my non-sleeping tornado), eat properly, and not cram. I listen to music or an audio book on my way to the exam.

I find that if I am relaxed going into it, I can concentrate better, and remember my stuff better. Which obviously leads to better grades.

Of course, my exam last night was different from most that I have taken in that it was just three written answer questions. I obviously should have practiced more writing beforehand. My hand was cramped so bad by the time I was done. Nowadays, who handwrites for hours at a time? Not me, I'm definitely part of the computer generation. Here's hoping my handwriting was still legible at the end...

Budget Jars

I am a huge fan of Gail Vaz-Oxlade, who is a Canadian personal finance guru. She used to have a tv show called Til Debt Do Us Part on Slice (it is still showing repeats), and she has a new show Princess on the same network. She has a tough love approach, and really helps couples to take control of their finances and debt.

One concept she employs is budget jars. My SO and I are currently trying this. We seem to be having problem deciding what amount should go into each jar, and definitely differ on what jars are more important. He thinks personal allowance and entertainment should be high, while I prefer to have more in the transportation jar. Right now our transportation amount will barely cover gas for my car, let alone regular maintainence and a possible bus pass for him. We also differ over saving vs debt repayment. I think we should save a little, but concentrate on debt repayment. But he wants to get a house asap, and thinks we should save for a down payment.

This is a process, and hopefully we will be able to get things sailing smoothly. We will see if the budget jars idea works for us.

Book Review: Child Sense

In my everlasting goal of finding ways to be a better parent, I stumbled on Child Sense by Priscilla Dunstan. This book is all about determining which sense is dominant in your child, and using this knowledge to better interact, and make your life easier. It is geared towards young children under age 5.

I found it very interesting, and very informative. The lists provided to help determine which sense your child is were detailed enough that it made my choice easy. I very easily figured out that my little monster is a tactile child. This means he experiences the world physically.

There was a whole chapter devoted to each sense type (tactile, auditory, visual, taste/smell), and gave some good advise about how to approach both everyday events (like eating, sleeping and dressing) and extraordinary events like moving, having another child, starting school and dealing with death. The book divided each type down further into age ranges (birth-1 year, 1-3 years, 3-5 years), which me see not only where my son was, where he is now, and what I can expect in the near future.

I'd definitely recommend this book to other parents. Any insights that make your life as a parent easier, and your child's life smoother, are well worth hearing about.