limbing the career ladder is no easy feat. After all, even the most experienced professionals face confusion about how to get ahead in the workplace.
However, according to bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch, there are a few key steps you can take to ease your journey and ensure that your career stays on track.
From offering year-round tips about how to negotiate, interview and excel at work, below are the best pieces of career advice Welch recommended in 2017.
1. Be honest when discussing your current salary in an interview
Discussing your salary with a hiring manager can be an uncomfortable topic. While some cities and states have banned the question from the interviewing process, other places are still placing emphasis on how much a potential employee makes.
If you’re faced with the, “What’s your current salary” question in an interview, then Welch says the best way to respond is to simply tell the truth.
“People are going to tell you that you should game this conversation,” she tells CNBC Make It, or that “you should dodge this question by talking about ranges.”
“That is no way to start a relationship,” she adds.
Instead, Welch says you should go into an interview having already done research about the job’s likely salary and how much your skills are worth in the open market. Once you know how your salary compares to people with similar jobs, she says you should be truthful with the interviewer about how much you make.
She suggests saying a simple answer like, “My salary is X, my bonus is typically Y, for a total package of just about Z.”
After disclosing your salary, she says you should then advocate for how much you’re willing to make.
“You can make a compelling case about why you’d be willing to take less for something like opportunity or growth, or why you should make more,” she says.
