Making a job change is a big decision, and I’m humbled to be intimately involved in such an important part of someone’s life. I’ve also noticed that making this decision is challenging for some people. So, I devised a calculator to help you quantify if making a job change, even for equal compensation, is worth it. I call it the Job Change Calculator.
Some of the ideas shared in this article are piggybacking off an earlier article called Why People Change Jobs.
The Job Change Calculator has four columns. Populated in the first column are the letters of the acronym CLAMPS from the above article. I would recommend reading the article to get the most out of the Job Change Calculator. In column two, we assign a dollar value to each letter. The dollar values will vary per person, and only you can assign how valuable each category is to you. For instance, some people might heavily weight the “A” or chance for advancement, whereas other people might assign no dollar value to that.
The third and fourth columns are where you decide where the value gets allocated. For instance, please look at “L” or Location/Travel. Let’s say you assign the dollar value of your territory to $10,000. Since your current territory is slightly better than the new company’s territory, you might allocate $6,000 to your current company and $4,000 to the new company.
After you go through each Key Issue and assign/allocate, total up the numbers into the subtotal. Then plug in your current compensation and either your offer or projected offer. Add the subtotal with the compensation to get the Real Number where you can more clearly see what the better opportunity is.
If you look at the above example, notice the offerings at each company. This is a very little increase in pay. On the surface, this alone might not be enough to make a job change. When you look at it through the Job Change Calculator, you can see that the new company is a better situation. The Real Number helps you evaluate each offering holistically. The key to using the Job Change Calculator is to be honest. Remember, you assign the values.
