Employers ask for a lot of things - cover letters, salary histories, desired salary, first-born son…the list goes on. But do you have to comply with all those requests, every single time?

Do your palms start to sweat when you think about asking for a raise? What about when you have to negotiate salary on a job offer? How do you know what salary to ask for? What are other employers paying for someone with your skills?

When you are asking for a raise, or applying for a new job, it's often helpful to know the typical pay rate for your job function and geographic location. Some employers choose to pay a bit above or below the "going rate", but it's helpful to have a base line. Salary.com has done a nice job branding themselves as a good resources for job seekers, but can you rely on it?

Recently, I wrote about how to discuss your salary requirements in a cover letter. A reader emailed me because he was regularly encountering the “desired salary” question even when he applied for positions online. He said, “All the consulting jobs I'm applying for now have a required box in the application page in which only accepts a numeric response to the ’Salary Desired’ question. I don't want to be hemmed in by a number for which I'm by definition going to low ball---but I also want the job. Any advice?”

A reader emailed me to ask, “What should I do when a job advertisement asks for my salary requirements?” She had not even been selected for an interview, and yet here they were, asking her to submit this personal information before she would even be considered.

One of our most popular posts was on "How to Introduce Yourself to a Search Firm." But what happens when you have already been contacted by a search firm and are going on an interview with one of their clients?

Asking for a raise is hard enough in normal economic times. But in the current economic climate, when you feel glad to even have a job, how risky is it to ask for a higher salary, and how do you do it?  Tara Siegel Bernard explored this issue in a recent article for The New York Times.

When we're recruiting someone, we're often asked the salary range for the position, but we never disclose it.  Candidates think that knowing the salary range will help them decide if an opportunity is worth pursuing.  In fact the opposite is true.   Whether you are above, below or in the middle of the salary range, talking about it just gets in the way.

The Pew Research Center recently conducted two surveys to determine whether college is worth it. One was a telephone survey taken among a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other was an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education, among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities.

Every so often, I see an otherwise highly qualified candidate try a negotiating tactic that results in their job offer being withdrawn, or worse, starts their employment off on the wrong foot.   They fail to understand that commanding a high salary is not about negotiating, but rather about proving value.