Salary negotiation

Consult these pages for more information about Negotiation or Job Interview.

Research pay scales for the sector and add your assets to them (education, experience, special talents, etc.).

12- The salary? Usually this is the last topic. It is better to wait for them to make an offer because it gives you more leverage.

10- Negotiate the whole package. There are important points for you that will not unbalance their salary structure, judicial standards or cause problems of jealously in the company.

Take notes and write down (even though it is not a firm contract or offer) the details of what you talked about or what they offered you (the person giving the interview could have been from the company or just doing it temporarily).

How to answer when asked for your price?
Interviewers will generally ask you for your salary range. It accepted that it is better to let the company make an offer and just try to leverage it the best of your capacity.

Sometimes they ask you directly: What is your salary expectation? The preferred answers to the best salary negotiators are:
 * Are you going to make me an offer (or are you only looking for information)?
 * I understand that in the sector it’s between $X and $Y… (and include a reasonable lower number)
 * Money is my second (or third) priority…
 * What is most important for me is… (the challenge the job presents, future potential, etc.). Try to act as authentically as possible. Do not say things that are false, and do not use rehearsed lines that are far from your true feelings.

What do you value?
We sometime accept deals that have no value for us or trade-off point we actually value. We tend to focus way too much on the salary, name of the company or title. It is fine, as long as it is what you really value.

To get a better sense of what you value, experts recommend using a salary scoring point system. this system allow to weight different issues and weight them against each other.

A good scoring system is complete (identifies all important issues), measurable (use a common metric) and useful (allow to quickly understand the trade-off).

To build such a system, start by listing all relevant issues relevant to a given job offer on a spreadsheet (salary, insurance, location, etc.). Add all the possible options for each of them. Finally, establish a scoring system that can help you value various issues.

The pitfall
The main pitfalls are failing to recognize opportunities to negotiate, focusing on your own weaknesses and making the 1st concession in your head. Another pitfall is to avoid salary negotiation altogether. Even if the salary is non negotiable, try to move into other aspect of compensation that may be negotiable.