This has been frequently requested of me ever since my earlier post about ‘The Six Month Conversation’ resonated with so many people. This follow up is about the framework Alexis and I devised with hopes of guiding our life journey together independently and as a couple. I know this post is arriving several years late, after tons of requests, so thanks everybody for your patience!
This has been frequently requested of me ever since my earlier post about ‘The Six Month Conversation’ resonated with so many people. This follow up is about the framework Alexis and I devised with hopes of guiding our life journey together independently and as a couple. I know this post is arriving several years late, after tons of requests, so thanks everybody for your patience!
As I've been pushing hard on pursuing new opportunities lately and working through a handful of challenging projects, I've been pondering the question, "What is truly worth striving for?" in considering how to allocate my limited resources of time and energy.
This is the list of things I keep circling back to:
Excellence
Integrity…
It is important to know one's value/worth as a worker.
A quick reality check of evaluating oneself in the broader organization is to ask the question: Do I Add, Subtract, Multiply, or Divide value to the social fabric which I am woven into? Do not be a subtracter and divider. Best is to be a multiplier (Note on multipliers: they amplify their environment, so they make sense in positive constructive environments).
Your compensation needs to be relative the value you provide for a business and you need to take ownership of negotiating the compensation you want. Nobody knows your situation as well as you do and nearly everybody is more worried about their situation than yours.
A few rules of thumb:
In the public sector:
Ones 'market value' increases by between 3k-5k per year for the majority of roles
Individual Contributor roles cap at 75k-110k, depending on skills requirements
For specialist roles, compensation is usually 70-80% of private market rate
In the private sector:
Ones 'market value' increases by between 3k-7k per year
For specialist skillsets, market value increases by between 8k-15k per year
Individual Contributor roles cap at 90k-130k, and then one is required to contribute to business development (i.e. originating sales, generating net new revenue, fundraising)
The sectors that do not subscribe to the above are those which contribute value in a scalable manner or are poorly understood (note: this is fleeting): Business Development, Management Consulting, Capital Markets, and Technological Specialists (non-operational roles).
I'm sharing some of the advice* to pay it forward, in hopes that it will contribute positively to your life, love, business, and other pursuits.
This is the second of three (3) posts about this experience, and it will be written in a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) format. If you aren't familiar with Vipassana, I suggest first taking a look at Part 1 (general overview, some logistical questions). If you find yourself interested after reading the first two posts, you can see Part 3 (advice for people who'd like to give it a go).
My partner did Vipassana together with me; here's Part 1 and Part 2 of what she wrote about her experiences.
I first heard about Soylent while regularly browsing Hacker News, and found the concept to be interesting as well as appealing for potential time savings. I must admit that I also pondered how exactly "neutral" would taste...
