Negotiating salary can be one of the more difficult
aspects of your job search and during your career as a whole.
Solid salary negotiation skills benefit you
long term and not only when you are negotiating salary.
Myth: Employers don’t like potential staff who
negotiate salary and try to get more money than what the
employer initially offers.
Reality: Negotiating salary (and other aspects
of the job offer) is a fact of life and evidence of strong
negotiating skills during the job offer process might help to
increase your value in the eyes of the employer. A smart
employer recognizes your solid negotiating skills.
If you were applying for a job where
negotiation was part of the position but during the job offer
process you simply accepted the first offer put in front of you,
what does that say about your negotiating skills?
Do you think the employer be comfortable with
you negotiating on their behalf in the future?
Being adept at negotiating salary is something
that can actually increase your worth in the eyes of a potential
employer because it shows you are savvy and know your worth.
As long as you know your worth, that is.
Here are some tips for negotiating salary,
beginning with getting the facts on paper and understanding your
worth to an employer:
1. Do research and have factual salary
information at your fingertips that correlates to your job that
you can use during the salary negotiation process. Check salary
surveys and reviews for your industry and job. A few Internet
searches should yield some indicative figures you can use. Trade
or industry organizations should be able to provide assistance
as well.
2. Make sure you fully understand the
compensation structure of the job and fully understand all
aspects of the offer before trying to negotiate it.
3. Don’t lie about your current salary to a
potential employer. If they find out you lied even after you’ve
been hired, it could be a firing offence.
4. Don’t bring up the issue of salary and how
much you are looking for, let the employer do this. Don’t evade
the question if it comes up but it’s usually best to first
stress your interest in the job and to let the employer know
that you are aware of the salary range and will consider their
strongest offer if and when an offer is made. The longer salary
negotiation is delayed, the better especially if by the time the
issue of salary negotiation comes up, there are fewer candidates
being considered for the job.
5. Don’t assume negotiating salary has to
occur immediately after receiving the job offer. Depending on
how you receive the offer – is it emailed to you, is it
delivered in person – you will typically be told by the employer
when they need the offer returned and how much time you have to
review the offer. If you are “forced” to make a decision to
accept or reject a job offer on the spot, I’d question whether
or not you really want to work for such a company. This is
unusual in my experience.
6. Make sure you get all the pertinent aspects
of the job offer – salary, bonus structure, benefits, vacation
time, etc as well as any negotiated parts – in writing. A job
offer is not a job offer until you get a final copy in writing
for you to sign.
7. When negotiating salary, remember to state
an amount you would actually be happy with. Don’t say it if you
don’t mean it. It’s hard to ask for a certain salary and then
later on in the negotiations suddenly ask for a higher amount. I
wouldn’t state a salary range either because the employer could
simply pick the salary number at the low end of the range when
you’re actually looking for the high end.
8. Once you make the deal, live with the deal.
Once the salary negotiation has been completed and agreed upon
by both sides, don’t try to go back and re-negotiate. I’ve seen
job offers pulled away from people by employers when a candidate
tries to amend the offer after it was agreed upon earlier.
9. Try where possible to negotiate in a way
you feel comfortable with. These days, email is an acceptable
medium and if the job offer was emailed to me, I’d expect that I
could email the employer to suggest specific aspects of the job
offer I’d like negotiated or if I needed part of the offer
clarified. If you prefer salary negotiation that is done
face-to-face, relax and just ensure you have done your homework
to ensure successful negotiation on your part.
The bottom line with negotiating salary is
that you need to do your research, understand your value and
also understand when to end negotiations. There has to be a
happy medium: a job offer that you and the employer can both
live with.
At some point the negotiating has to end. A
good salary negotiation ends with both sides feeling like they
won.
Don’t forget that negotiating salary isn’t the
only part of a job offer that can be reviewed. Depending on the
specific job, here are some other aspects of the job offer you
might be able to negotiate especially if the employer is
unwilling to discuss negotiating salary:
- Early salary review
- Signing bonus
- Bonus (size of bonus, structure of bonus,
etc)
- Vacation time
- Start date
- Job title
- Job responsibilities
- Benefits (or possibly, how quickly your
benefit coverage will start)
- Other benefits (ie. you might get your
employer to agree to a personal training budget, travel costs,
etc)
