How to Find A Job That Actually Pays the Bills, Without Having to Live Paycheck to Paycheck

The numbers are rolling in and, as expected, unemployment was up in July -- and the use of temp workers is increasing. Numerous factors are contributing to the uptick, with the root cause being the financial cliff America is about to go over because Congress is too exhausted -- from doing nothing -- and has decided to take a month long vacation. 

In my article, “Tips on How to Get a Job: Use Glassdoor.com,” I listed the basics using Glassdoor.com to gauge your next job experience. Glassdoor has additional useful tools that, when combined with other resources, enable you to perform to your own cost benefit analysis in order to determine if you can actually afford to live off your her next job. 

Once you have read the employee reviews, the next step is to review the interview question areas.  Interviewees are giving you – the job hunter – their insight on the questions they were asked during the job placement process. Questions range from the standard interview questions to the questions that seem to come out of left field. Glassdoor.com has also compiled a complete listing of interview questions by job to help you prepare for the big interview with any company. 

It’s important to note that some companies are more difficult to interview with. If you have an interview set-up with one of the ‘it’ companies of the year, you may want to check-out Glassdoor’s survey, “Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview” to determine if you’re in for an absolute grilling or a walk in the park. 

Additional surveys found on Glassdoor.com include the best companies to maintain work/life balance, the best companies for internships, the best CEO’s, the overall best company to work for, and the top companies to work for if you’re looking for career advancement. 

Once you have prepared yourself for the interview process, ask yourself, “If I’m offered this job, can I afford the basics?” As the economy grinds to a halt, this question is paramount in determining your personal sustainability.

One area to look at is the salary reviews provided anonymously by current and past employees.  The reviews give a range of salaries and bonuses by job title that former or current employees reported.  They are also handy tools when determining if you – the job hunter – can afford to work at the company. 

For a high-level view of salaries by job title, you can also visit Glassdoor’s “Salaries By Job” page, CareerBuilder.com’s Salary Calculator page, or Salary.com. 

Once you have all of the basics gathered, and if you’ve logged in with Facebook, you have the opportunity to network with other employees at the company. The functionality is a lot like LinkedIn yet more limited in scope. 

Finally, jobs are also posted on Glassdoor.com. Many of the jobs are posted on other job-boards that do not provide the investigative tools to start vetting your perspective employer.

As Congress places more emphasis on time off than actual legislation, job prospects may continue to dim and millennials will need to use every tool available to them to land the next job.