Years Experience: 5-9 years (Canada)

If you are a Product Manager for software development or technology based products, get Pragmatic Marketing Certified. This organization offers, (among others) a 1.5 boot camp in Practical Product Management and Requirements That Work. Trainees also have access to a variety of other resources online and a LinkedIn community, blogs, articles, books, etc.

Even if you have worked for the company for many years be wary of managements willingness to throw you aside. Eliminating long term employees keeps managers in business as they don't have to give raises or benefits. In a ski town or similar area this is particularly bad, new crop of people come in every year, your services are not appreciated.

Don't ask for a raise after a project strikes out. Wait until you hit a nice home run. Then as the praise comes your way say, "That reminds me. I've been meaning to ask you something..."

It it a wise option to make sure you have ITIL Cerification, as well as any other Certificates you can obtain

Poeple Skills are your best asset for this type of work.

I spent 8 years honing my people skill in the hospitality industry before going back to school to get a Diploma in LAN Administration.

After a couple of years doing contract work, I landed a career at EDS Canada as a Network Analyst. In this position I was responcible for communicating directly with both clients and vendors. The whole time was used to increase my people skills. After 2 years I was moved from the Network Analyst position the the TAC (Technical Assistance Center Team Lead on a major Government contract.

As a Prodution Managr you must be will to do 24/7 on call duties, this is inparrative to success.

Explain why you were worth a higher salary.

Starting off lying in an interview has got to be the worst thing you can do. I never felt comfortable with an employer asking "How much do you make at your current job?". There is only one good answer, and that's an honest one. Here is how I played it though. I told my current employer that I was headed for an interview somewhere else, to give them to opportunity to counter before they had too. After 9 months with this company they offered me a $10K raise. Hours later I attended to the interview and when asked the salary question I was honest and told them my new salary as of 2 hours ago. I took the new job and received my second increase of the day. Honesty is the truly the best medicine, you just have to know how to use it properly.

Get data on what's elsewhere then negotiate based on how similar to the comparisons your job is.

get a job that pays your worth

Working for a previous Hi-Tech employer in Ireland, I had the opportunity to receive further education and obtain an Honours Degree. At the start of my degree certification (which took 5 years) it was made clear that I was being paid a little more than half the going rate that my colleague was. I was told when I completed my degree this would be reviewed and corrected to match or be similar to his rate.

5 years later I received my degree and waited for the review of my salary.

After 6 months of waiting I went to my HR rep to ask for a review of my salary as I had completed my degree. When I mentioned that this review was promised to me at the start of my further education, the response was "Do you have it in writing?" I said "No, but both your manager and my Director said this to me when I started out on this programme."

After the meeting my HR rep went to both of these individuals and asked about this review. Neither said they had a recollection fo ever saying this to me.

Needless to say, I did not get the promised increase.

Ever since then, I take everything spoken with a pinch of salt unless I see it in writing as well.

Referring to current job resposibilities and job market analysis I am expecting to get between 55-60K per year