Have you ever wondered or investigated what your salary is worth in the marketplace? That is one thing that compensation managers have to know - what is the "going rate" for particular positions within a given market. I learned this important fact while working in human resource management: each job contains a particular price tag with a low and high range. No matter how hard I work, how much extra time I give, and how good my work is, it is highly unlikely that a company will pay any more for my position than the top of the range for that position in the marketplace. That is what led me to go back to school to earn my masters!

So now it's your turn to do some basic salary survey research. For this assignment, please assist me in:

1. Choosing three jobs that you are considering or considered moving into once you finished your MBA

2. Choose three places in the world that you might like to work each of these jobs

3. Go to SalaryExpert.com, and in the "Free Salary Calculator", enter each job and location for each job. Note that if you want to research a location outside of the U.S., you must click on the International Data link just below the "select a location" field.

With this basic information in hand, please do the following:

1. Describe the three jobs and three markets, and the key differences and similarities you notice among them.

2. Discuss the types of compensation that are most important to you, and that you would look for in one of these positions. Be sure to talk about any differences that would be important to you based on location or on the nature of the work.

3. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your current compensation plan (without specific numbers, please).