You may not feel very powerful before you’ve officially signed a job offer to accept a position. After all, you aren’t even working at the company yet. But the fact is that you have the greatest negotiating power during that short window of time between being offered a job and formally agreeing to take it.
Think about it: The hiring manager has already tipped their hand by letting you know they want to bring you on board. The team has invested time and resources in the interview process, they have consensus on hiring you and they’re eager to seal the deal and put you to work. This is the perfect time to talk salary.
Gulp. This is the hard part. In fact, dealing with salary negotiation makes many people so uncomfortable that they end up accepting the first number offered without countering. This is a mistake, since employers generally expect some negotiation in the hiring process and have built that into their offer by initially pitching a number that is lower than they can ultimately go.
- Remember that you’re in your most powerful negotiating position when you’re pursuing a new position, before you’ve gotten hired. Take advantage of this extra leverage while you have it!
- The first step is to arm yourself with some market data on average salaries for your position, keeping in mind that certain parts of the country pay more than others.
- Next, factor in your own level of experience and unique attributes that you bring to the table. It’s possible that as a highly valued candidate, you can command even more than the market average.
- With this information in hand, set a target salary range. Your target numbers should be realistic for your location, industry, position and skill set.
- Practice asking for the salary you’d like to receive so that your delivery comes across as confident and in control. You can learn more about the exact language to use later in this article.
- Even though you feel well-practiced and ready to negotiate, let the hiring manager bring up the topic before you do. The employer may see it as poor form – and a sign that you’re more interested in your compensation than solving the company’s problems – if you start talking about salary prematurely.
- If the employer raises the salary conversation before you have a job offer in hand, try to deflect it by speaking more generally until after you’ve been formally offered the job. You don’t want to get pinned down to a specific number too soon, without knowing all of the details of the position.
- Don’t share your salary history with the hiring team. Sharing too much information about your past salary could pigeonhole you into a lower offer.
- There’s more to your compensation package than just salary. Remember to ask for benefits as part of your salary discussion.
- Finally, build in a small cushion of cash that goes slightly above the actual number you want, so that if they offer less than you ask for, you’ll still be happy with the results
