Employers often use salary requests to weed out the unsuitable job hunters from the candidate pool. If you put in too high a request, the employer naturally thinks you are too expensive for them. On the other hand, if your salary expectation is too low, the prospective employer might think that you don't value yourself and thus many not be a valuable employee for them.

There are three kinds of advice experts give on how to tackle the issue of mentioning salary expectations. These advices may seem contradictory, but each advice has sound logic. Read them carefully and decide what is suitable for your particular case.

Three strategies for replying to salary requests:

1. Ignore salary request
2. Get around the salary request
3. Meet salary request with a range

Some experts will tell you to ignore the salary request. Now, what are the repercussions? If you totally ignore the salary request, the employer might think that you overlooked it because you are unsure of what you deserve, you are careless in filling forms or you are desperate and want to negotiate about salary but would accept whatever you got. If the employer specifically mentions a salary request, they have reasons for doing so. Usually, the salary request is a method for making sure that the candidate knows her/his market value.

The second advice you'd get is “Don't think that employers are so easily fooled if you omit your salary expectations! They will wonder why you didn't mention it.” So, try to get around this dilemma by using phrases like “Each position in my career has brought fresh challenges. I've been promoted regularly with suitable benefit packages. I'd rather discuss this issue of salary and benefits face to face during the interview.”

The third advice from the experts is “Meet the salary request directly with a range.” One good way is to put a little more than the minimum you can accept as the lower figure on the range and the higher figure a reasonable notch higher. A typical example would be “Depending on the nature and scope of my responsibilities, I could negotiate for $35,000 - 45,000.”

Overall, if the job ad doesn't mention a salary request, it is better that you don't either. There is a possibility that you are screened out if you give the wrong salary expectation. You have better leverage in negotiating a better salary package during the interview process itself.

• Exposing local industries to imported goods ? more competitiveness.
• Focus resource on areas of economy where Australia has a comparative adv.
• Benefiting from Globalization ? consumer and business has access to goods and services on global market at lowest price.
• Aim of encouraging efficient firms to produce what the world economy demands ? structural changes in the economy ? economies of scale in production.

Policies:

• Historically one of the most highly protected country in the world, because manufacturer found it hard to compete because of small population + ?cost
• 1970-1980: Program to phase out all tariffs
• 1974: Whitlam Government, 25% cut on all tariffs.
• 1988: Hawke Government, reduces most tariffs to 5% by 1996 & abolish quotas + tariffs to 15% on cars, and tariff on textile, clothing and footwear (TCF) to 25% in 2000.
• Howard Government slowed the schedule of Hawke Government in 2000 because of concern for job losses in Passenger motor vehicle (PMV) and TCF.
• 1999: several hundred “nuisance tariffs” we abolished.
• Australia's reductions on protection have gone beyond the requirement of WTO and APEC.
• Australia now tends to reduce trade barrier in exchange for greater access to markets in other countries.

Implication of Australia's Policies

Firms:

• Forced to compete in world stage ? more efficiencies and economies of scale.
• Firms will restructure and reallocate resources to areas where Australia have a comparative advantage and also find new export market as the domestic market ?
• Some firms benefit because of cheaper capital goods and commodities in the world economy.
• More diverse export base.

Individuals:

• Dislocation of jobs as firms restructure ? unemployment.
• Import competing industries will close (mostly labor based), workers will need to retrain and find new jobs. This could be especially hard as most are non English speaking.
• This is short term, workers from manufacturing industry move to service industry.
• Consumers will be able to have access to more variety of goods at cheaper prices.
• Increased living standards, because of higher comp between firms.

Government

• ?tariffs ? ?revenue
• Government need to assist structural changes ? ?Govt spending.
• Policy is unpopular as the costs are visible, like structural unemployment, but the benefits are not as visible.

Impact of International Protection Levels on Australia

• Protection policies and Government subsidies in other countries cause hardship for Australia exporters. For example USA subsidies 21% of US farmer's income, causing our agricultural goods to have ?demand.
• Australia largely affected by protection of Agricultural products, ie. India tariff at 30%.
• WTO though made an agreement of 36% tariff cut on agricultural products, some country find loopholes in the agreement, causing hardship for our agricultural exporting country.
• Service sectors in many countries are closed to outside entrants, for example banking, telecommunication.
• In the WTO meeting (Doha round) Australia is pushing for agricultural trade liberation and arguing against the loopholes that countries exploit in the agreement to reduce agricultural tariffs.

Sales increase because your business develops “goodwill” where consumers feel that you are a good corporate citizen. This positive impression helps customers to have a positive impression about your business and the products you are selling. If you had a choice between a company that doesn't care about others and one that does, you are most likely to choose the good corporate citizen.

Small businesses can engage in corporate goodwill by sponsoring local events, charities and scholarships. For a small business, a $500 dollar donation can go a long way if you get the chance to speak at a dinner function, have your business posted as a charitable organization in the local newspaper and have a nice placard built in your honor. Your local little league team will love you as they advertise your business each and every time they charge out on to the field. Let us not forget that a small park refurbished with your business's name posted on the fence will be seen by hundreds of local residents.

The second advantage small businesses receive is through the feelings that others hold about the business. People who work for businesses that give to their neighborhoods and communities feel good about the jobs that they are doing. They are doing more than a paycheck as they engage in these wonderful events. The status of your business in the community, the feelings of your employees and the amount of work you have to do to get a sale make small business giving a positive investment.

Ideas for small business giving:

• Local charities.
• Local sports teams.
• Parks, buildings and other places of disrepair.
• Holiday donations for the poor.
• Scholarships and educational materials.
• Local political campaigns.
• Environmental works such as “Ducks Unlimited”.

Important issues in time management

Nature of job:

• A person whose job involves regular contacts with others is more likely to be interrupted than persons working in a more solitary are;
• Those people working in an established area will have relatively fewer unpredictable events to deal with than a person employed in a new and developing area of work;
• Identifying the key tasks and responsibilities in a job will show which should be given the greatest amount of a manager's time;
• A detailed diary of time spent on activities in a given period of time is an easy way of finding out how time is spent and the nature of interruptions allowed. Time is often lost in unnecessary meetings and in traveling to meetings. It is worth exploring newer methods of communication to overcome the waste of time at meetings.

Personal attributes of jobholder:

The personality and amount of self-confidence someone has can have a marked effect on their efficiency. The more self-assured and assertive individual can deal more effectively with people who "waste" their time. Some people can only deal with one item at a time, others can deal with several simultaneously. Some like to delegate work extensively, others prefer to keep jobs to themselves.

The context of a person's job:

The nature of the people working with a manager greatly influences the use of his time. (A person's boss, for example, could constantly interrupt his work). Some managers adopt an "open door" policy which can affect personal work efficiency despite its "popularity" in management textbooks. Others adopt an approach discouraging informal contacts. The extent to which accuracy and quality of work is considered vital can also have an effect on time taken over the work involved.

The demands and constraints of any job can be examined by considering the following:

• Demands or the essential items which cannot be passed on; from subordinates, peers, senior staff and people outside the organization
• Constraints or items stopping a person from carrying out a job in the way they would prefer like the resources available, the limitations of equipment, physical location, the policies and procedures of the organization, legal rules and the attitudes of other people. .

When all demands and constraints have been identified, a manager is faced with choices which refer to what and how the work is to be done. A detailed analysis of a person's job can identify what a manager is making and how the range can be extended to give more positive control over choices.