Do you know what your worth is? Well, no offences intended, but the fact is unless techies know their worth, it’s always a hard bargain unless one is in tune with the market. Since the day IT outsourcing began, India has grown. And has brought pitfalls with it. Salaries have been rising, attrition rates are high and companies find it difficult to retain talent, let alone find new which gives the Silicon Valley of the East even more headaches.

iGate Global Services CEO Phaneesh Murthy said, “It’s better for us to handle this issue as soon as possible. Leave alone individual companies, even the industry would be faced with this challenge as it would be difficult to sustain business given such levels of attrition.” As the industry is growing, salary profiles are outpacing the required experience for any particular job leading to increased attrition rates and the rise in the cases of false experience claims.

If the Nasscom-McKinsey projections for technology sector are any thing to go by, a potential mismatch in the demand-supply scenario will emerge soon. On the demand side, the business looks good but from the supply side, there will be a mismatch. This is a typical case of killing a goose that lays golden eggs. Its high time engineers demand salaries with maturity and know their worth in the industry before negotiating for higher pay.

Now how does one do that? It is important for the techies to know their worth in the technology arena. Techies should always look up at salary surveys. They should ask experts or others in their field; should do an informal survey of people in the profession.

They can also enquire about the present salary trends from hiring-staffing and consultancy companies and employment agents. A more tricky way of knowing the salary trend is by calling similar companies directly and asking their salary ranges for the similar job or position.