salary negotiation

[PartyGirlUK]

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Yeah that's what I was thinking. What is the job OP? I can't think of too many first jobs that involve negotiation. Unless you're a financial or techie grad from a top school.


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HAHA.

['Chair]

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2 - Let the employer make the first offer. If you make the first offer, you risk either pricing yourself out of the job, or naming something a lot lower than the employer is willing to pay you.

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This seems like a great idea, but in my experience the topic is always brought up by the employer saying "So how much are you looking for?" How do you answer this without violating rule #2?

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Interviewer: "So how much are you looking for?"
Interviewee: "competitive for my position"

[That Foreign Guy]

I took a screwing on my salary negotiation, I know that, but I really wanted my job. It's doing something I love for a company I have always wanted to work for.

I wound up accepting the first offer right at the bottom of the range (X - 1.14X) but whatever. X is quite a big number and Y (the benefits) are nice too.

My personal preference for getting more out of a negotiation are to look for things like review in 6months not 12, a commitment to paying for training, work from home days, stuff like that.

That and not being a giant coward like me and remembering to ask if they can improve their first offer.

['Chair]

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I took a screwing on my salary negotiation, I know that, but I really wanted my job. It's doing something I love for a company I have always wanted to work for.

I wound up accepting the first offer right at the bottom of the range (X - 1.14X) but whatever. X is quite a big number and Y (the benefits) are nice too.

My personal preference for getting more out of a negotiation are to look for things like review in 6months not 12, a commitment to paying for training, work from home days, stuff like that.

That and not being a giant coward like me and remembering to ask if they can improve their first offer.

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I'm in the same boat...zero negotiating. I feel like a chump.

My only defense: I was soooo unhappy with my first job out of college, that I was basically ready to take anything (I honestly considered quitting and being unemployed while job searching, but bills and student loans teh suck). Anywho, I kinda came up with a number I was aiming for so when the the offer came in slightly (v. slightly) above that, its like I couldn't help but accept on the spot. To be honest, I wasn't really aware that my position's range was so high (not that its high at all after reading the job thread...but I feel mediocre negotiation could have net'd me 10% more).

I like the advice in this thread so far. Keep it coming please...1 yr review coming up.

[NicksDad1970]

One thing that worked for me was after it was all about done I sid one thing that got me a few more $ was "I'm your man for this job. I was really hoping to get X #$ more. It would really help me out. If you say you can't then I understand. But if you could just get me up to that amount I'd appreciate it."

My boss came back and said he couldn't get me all the way to that amount but he did come up a few more % points.

[NicksDad1970]

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I'm on the tail end of my first real salary negotiating experience, although my situation may be a little bit different as i was essentially recruited by this company. one thing that was helpful for me was that the person who i was dealing with believed that my current salary was higher than it actually was. obviously this wnt be helpful in all situations but it worked out really well in a situation where they kind of began the pursuit.

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I've seen emplyers kill that by asking "What did you W2 last year?"

[Fast Food Knight]

I have had some decent experience negotiating and I have a few tips.

1. When it comes down to the negotiation, be as silent as you can be. Let the other person talk and talk and feel awkward (this works particularly well over the phone). In my experience, the person may go from "well HR isn't giving me a lot to work with" to "well let me give them a call to see what I can do."

2. Have reasons why you should have the higher salary. Be ready to aggressively list your strengths that are going to be valuable to the position and the company as a whole. Be ready with stats on salaries your degree, university and other credentials typically fetch.

3. If you can have multiple offers and play them off each other, this is great leverage. "Well I see this as a perfect fit but XXX company is offering me substantially more. Blah blah..."

4. Always shoot higher than what you really want. Their offer or counter-offer will be lower than what you ask for, most of the time (unless you ask for something too low. It's a terrible feeling when you name a price and they are like "done!")



I recently got promoted at my company which has a strict 7% cap on salary increases if the salary ranges between your current and new position overlap. I managed to finagle 13.5% [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] /brag

[NorCalJosh]

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I'm on the tail end of my first real salary negotiating experience, although my situation may be a little bit different as i was essentially recruited by this company. one thing that was helpful for me was that the person who i was dealing with believed that my current salary was higher than it actually was. obviously this wnt be helpful in all situations but it worked out really well in a situation where they kind of began the pursuit.

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I've seen emplyers kill that by asking "What did you W2 last year?"

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like i said, it's not something that would work in every situation, although if thats the case i'd definitely look to sidestep with one of the suggestions earlier in the thread.

[suzzer99]

I just interviewed for a new job Friday after being out of the workforce for almost a year. Everything went very well AND this job is near where I live, which is rare. Afterwards the HR person called me to talk salary. I told her what I was making at my previous job, expecting her to balk at the price as several others have done. She seemed to be happy with it. Now I'm wondering if I could have gotten more. Ah well.

[Leaky Eye]

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2 - Let the employer make the first offer. If you make the first offer, you risk either pricing yourself out of the job, or naming something a lot lower than the employer is willing to pay you.

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This seems like a great idea, but in my experience the topic is always brought up by the employer saying "So how much are you looking for?" How do you answer this without violating rule #2?

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Interviewer: "So how much are you looking for?"
Interviewee: "competitive for my position"

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This is totally unnecessary if you know what to ask for. Do your research, and answer with a range.

Btw, our recruiters would catch hell if they ever tried to present a candidate without having an answer to the money question.