How Past Salary Determines Future Pay.

How Past Salary Determines Future Pay.
I am still on the issue of Salary. A jobseeker once asked me: I am planning to accept a job that pays below market because everything else about it is ideal, and I expect to move in less than an year anyway. How much impact will the lower salary have on my future negotiations?

I commend the jobseeker for considering other factors than salary in her job decision. At the same time, the decision to take a lower salary now will require extra work in the future because salary history impacts how you will have to manage your future career:

You will need above-average negotiation skills. Your past salary is a very strong anchor in the minds of prospective employers. I once conducted a search for a leading Kenyan company who finally found their ideal candidate after almost two years of searching. Their prospective hire had been grossly underpaid so to bring him to market, the company would effectively have doubled his salary. Even though the new salary was well within what they intended to pay, in their minds doubling his salary suddenly seemed like a lot, so instead, they offered him slightly below market but still an enormous increase over his former salary.