You Probably Don't Know What You're Worth. And That's Not Your Fault.

Over the past few months, I've noticed the same conversation popping up with job seekers, whether they're fresh out of college, five years into their careers, or getting ready to make one last move before retirement.

They all want to know what they should be making, and almost none of them feel confident in the answer.

I understand why.

Twenty years ago, getting a feel for the job market wasn't easy, but it was a lot more straightforward than it is today. You could compare job postings, talk to recruiters, network with people in your field, and piece together a pretty realistic picture of your market value.

Today? That's become much harder.

Some job postings aren't even tied to an open position. Others list salary ranges so wide they're almost meaningless. You have employers posting the same role in multiple cities with different pay, remote jobs competing against local jobs, and AI generating thousands of job descriptions that all sound exactly alike. If you're trying to figure out what your experience is worth based on what's floating around online, you're probably walking away more confused than when you started.

That's a problem because your idea of your own value shapes every career decision you make.

It determines which jobs you apply for, what salary you ask for, whether you negotiate an offer, and even whether you think you're qualified to take the next step.

One of my favorite client success stories started with someone who believed she had already reached her earning potential.

She had spent years working as an administrative assistant. She was exceptional at what she did, but every time she searched for a new opportunity, she typed "administrative assistant" into the search bar because that's what she'd always been.

As we talked through her background, I kept asking questions that had nothing to do with her title.

Who were you supporting?

What kinds of projects did you own?

What happened if you weren't there for a week?

The more we talked, the clearer the picture became.

She wasn't just scheduling meetings. She was keeping senior executives organized. She was coordinating travel across multiple time zones, preparing board materials, managing confidential information, and making sure leaders could focus on leading instead of chasing details.

In other words, she wasn't simply an administrative assistant anymore. She had grown into an executive assistant without ever calling herself one.

That small shift in thinking completely changed her job search.

Instead of looking for more of the same, she started pursuing Executive Assistant roles with larger organizations, many of them fully remote. A few months later, she accepted an offer that nearly doubled her salary.

People hear stories like that and assume there must have been some magic formula behind it.

There wasn't.

She didn't go back to school. She didn't earn a new certification. She didn't suddenly become better at her job.

She simply found a market that valued the experience she had already spent years building.

I've seen that happen more times than I can count.

An office manager discovers they have the qualifications to move into operations leadership or a customer service professional realizes they've been doing customer success work all along.

The common thread is perspective.

Most of us spend so much time inside our own careers that we stop seeing them the way employers do. We focus on the title printed on our business card instead of the problems we've learned to solve. That's one of the biggest reasons people underestimate their own value.

If there's one piece of advice I'd give anyone who's thinking about making a career move, it's this: Don't let your current paycheck decide what you're worth.

Your current employer made a decision based on their budget, their business model, and the market at the time they hired you. That number may still be competitive, or it may be years behind where the market has gone. The only way to know is to step back and evaluate your experience through a much wider lens.

That's why one of my favorite sections of the UpWrite Career Assessment is the personalized salary analysis. It's not designed to tell someone what they'll make down to the dollar. That's impossible. What it does is give people something they've been missing for a long time: context.

When you understand where your skills fit, what industries value them most, and the range employers are paying for similar experience, you make better decisions. You negotiate with more confidence. You apply for jobs you may have overlooked before. And perhaps most importantly, you stop assuming that your current salary defines your future.

After spending nearly two decades helping people navigate their careers, I've learned that the biggest opportunities are usually hiding in the experience you've been undervaluing all along.