You’ve got to hand it to Monster.com. Not only did they create the biggest and best known commercial website for job posting and career advice, they’re working on innovations to make it even more useful. By gathering information from more than 25 million resumes in the Monster database and a world-wide network of recruiter customers, Monster can offer valuable market information for your job search.
One of these new tools is Career Benchmarking. On the Monster home page, Career Benchmarking is under the Career Tools menu. You start by typing in your (job) zip code and use the search engine to find your job title. Monster asks questions about your compensation (including bonus and stock options) and then shows you how you compare to other workers in your region. Although I got a message saying that Monster was “still collecting data for this region [Jacksonville],” the site provided national data for comparison.
The Career Benchmarking feature also lets you compare your employer’s benefits to others in the industry or your occupation. You can also see how your education stacks up against competitors in your region. If most others in your profession have masters degrees, or a certification that you’ve been meaning to get, this recession provides a good time to return to school to become more competitive. You can even fill out a career satisfaction survey that measures how happy you are with your boss, your pay, your commute and your work/life balance.
Research is an important part of your preparation for getting a new job. Benchmarking your salary and benefits can help you negotiate a job offer or evaluate and compare opportunities in different markets.
For other salary and relocation comparison, try these resources:
Your Work, Your Way 
Hello. Wonderful job. I did not expect this on a Wednesday. This truly wonderful story. Thanks!
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