When Job interviewing, how should you approach salary negotiation?

20 comments

1. Are you interviewing at more than one place? X job is willing to give me Y. Or I have friends in the industry that make Y and I am looking to be compensated around that much.

2. They’re not typically going to move much in my experience. Usually they’ll ask early on what salary you’re looking for and make that part of teh decision process moving forward. As long as it’s reasonable (do your research for salaries specifically in your area), I would just stick firm. If it’s your first big job, you don’t have much leverage, honstly. Just take something reasonable and push harder in your next job.

3. Just be blunt. It’s the sole purpose of being at a job. Not because you want to be a part of the team, help the company grow, you believe in the company’s product and all that other circle jerk bullshit. It’s money. They want to pay 80k, mother fucker I want 90k. Oh can’t do 90 but will do 85? I can do 85k and an extra 7 days of pto. Don’t limit negotiations just to money. There’s other ways to get an even better agreement than just the dollar value. Use all benefits/company offerings to sweeten your deal

4. I usually go thru recruiters and tell them the range I’m expecting

   Upon offer I can say I agree/don’t agree

   …I also know my worth, what similar jobs are paying, etc and leverage accordingly

5. Hopefully the range of the salary expectation were disclosed to you upfront. If not do some research on job boards for like companies/like positions.

   Companies typically will not move above this range because the hiring manager who you will be reporting to already internally negotiated with HR to get this range approved and it would cause problems for him/her to go back to HR/management to get the range increased.

   If you receive a low-ball offer, your best bet is to try to sell yourself to the company at the highest end of the expected salary range. Sell them on your skill set as to why you deserve the highest end of the range.

   Dear Company X, thank you for the offer of employment. I’ve done a little research for salaries at this type of position with your competitors and for transparency’s sake, the salary offer is below the range of competitive offers (see attachment #1).

   If there is any room to increase the salary offer to $______x then please be advised that I would accept this position and offer with no hesitation and would be ready to start the following day. I believe I am a uniquely qualified candidate due to my time spent at NASA piloting space shuttles (you get the idea) and look forward to starting on that day at the salary of $____x.

   It’s important to think about what leverage you have right now. If you have no other offers and a dwindling bank account, you may have to compromise and accept the position with the idea that it’s a starter job and you can move elsewhere while you’re paying the bills at this company.

   What do you offer that is unique relative to other people who are applying? If your skills aren’t special and you don’t have any other offers and the job/company seems a good fit, aim for the middle end of the range.

6. The main thing to figure out, is what your market rate it, and what the market rate for the role is

   So you should figure out with some online research that say, the job role should be around $55,000 (used only as an example)

   Figure out what seniority level the role is; I’m assuming it’s a more junior level one, so the goal would be to stay around this number, but understand that it’s okay for it to be under this estimate

   Additionally, understand with said salary, what your quality of life would be.

   For example, when I was negotiating my first salary, I was going to move to a major metro area which had good public transportation; this translated into not needing a car, and using the train to get to work

   With this, I used my initial salary, and figured out what my rent would be, and what my living situation would net out. It’d be only about a ten minute walk to the train, around 20 minutes to get to the office. Some of the areas I saw, had decent grocery stores, a gym not too far away and lots of nightlife and social establishments

   This is the type of data which usually helps with negotiations; understand that negotiation isn’t just “the number you gave me is low, this is the number I want”. Most will deny that, simply because you aren’t giving a rationale other than “give me more”

   But if you start to break it down this way, it shows there’s research, logic and a bit of empathy brought into the picture. You’re not just blindly asking for more money, this all ladders up to some logical things that you need to consider

   On this note, I also don’t know if you’ve already done this, but the NUMBER ONE way to negotiate salaries, is with competing offers

   So to use my previous example, if one place offered me $55,000 (average example rate), but then say one place offered me $50,000, then I’d go with the higher number. Additionally, if other place offered say $60,000, then I’d opt for this place instead

   Counter-offers happen all the time, and when you present your “value” (talking business, not lifestyle advice), it then shows people what your actual market rate is

   As others have brought up, understand that while negotiations are generally accepted, be mindful there are concepts like salary bands, and pay relative to your seniority level

   What I mean is, I’ve been in interviews where I’ve asked for maybe 20% higher salary than my previous role, and they didn’t bat an eye. I’ve had moments where I’ve asked for a higher salary, and they then explained that “well that’s higher than the salary band, the most we can do is $[xxx],000”. I’ve also flat out had times where I asked what my salary range was, and then told me full stop that they couldn’t afford me

   But the general concept is: data makes this much easier. Once you figure out what this salary actually breaks down to, you can then figure out how to negotiate

   Because for example, while they might not be empathetic towards your living situation (“well if I made this amount I could only afford a studio, but if I made this amount I could afford a 1BR) at first, if you bring in some logical arguments, it’s hard to ignore them.

   For example, I remember a moment when I was negotiating a salary, where when I checked for apartments, I could only afford to live in sketchy neighborhoods. I’m used to living in cities, so I didn’t really mind this. But when a place offered me a higher offer, I told them I was leaning more towards this because it would be a better quality of life to me. Instead of letting me go, they renegotiated my offer and it ended up matching their competitors

7. Go much higher and above than you think is possible. That way if they have any breathing room, they will move up. If you ask for 50k, they will give you 45. If you ask for 60, they will give you 50. That’s just how it works.

   But that’s only companies that have flexible salary budgets. If you’re interviewing for a company that has a high turnover rate, they don’t give a fuck. You’re just a replaceable body, and no matter how qualified you are, they will not pay more.

8. First, for the given job, I hope you’ve done some research on what “average” pay for that role in your area is like taking into account your current experience level (i.e. new to the role). That should at least give you a range to expect. It also gives you what you can use as a response if the question comes up:

   **Interviewer**: What sort of salary were you looking for?
   **OP**: I found that for this kind of job role, the average salary in this area is $XX to $XX so I would anticipate something in that range.

   Obviously, fudge that bottom number a touch higher so that you don’t undersell yourself. In the end, it’s not about what YOU want, but what it would reasonably cost them to fill the role. The other option is to dump it back on them:

   **OP**: I would hope that you already have a fair number in mind that takes my capabilities into account for the role you wish to fill.

   If they don’t bring it up, then you are kind of stuck. If you bring it up, it can make you appear solely focused on the money and some companies don’t like that approach. For others, it’s no big deal, but you’ll never know for sure.

9. If it’s below the level of middle-management at a company with more than 100 employees, don’t bother. They’re going to have a set payscale for the position, so you ask what the offer is and you take it or leave it.

   Middle-management and higher, I usually start with “negotiable” or similar when asked, and then I just wait for their offer and then counter offer with “I was looking for something more like xyz.”

10. I just changed jobs recently after an unexpected job loss and lots if searching. At entry level positions there’s often not much that can be negotiated. But what I’ve found is that they very often will ask your expectations during the application process or during the interview process, possibly both. If they have locations in Colorado or possibly certain other states with the same law and manage job postings centerally they’ll post the pay range to comply with colorado law.

    This is something I’ve had a bit of a tough time with because I was hoping to make a bit of a change (switching industries from aerospace to medical device) and was targeting slightly lower level positions to help make that change. They pay similarly but i was targeting lower positions to help transition with lacking industry specific experience. So my short term priority was making a change not making more money. As long as it was something I could live on I could work back up to my previous salary and be where I’d prefer to be. So it was hard to answer that question.

    The aerospace job I ended up taking for now discussed it in the interview. I told them where I was coming from at the job I lost and he told me about how close they could get (pretty similar). That discussion gave me the impression they couldn’t really go any higher so I didn’t try any further negotiation.

11. Ruthlessly.

    I cringe when I think about how much money I screwed myself out of by being a wimp when I was younger.

12. i usually low ball it but say after probation I can renegotiate, it gives me a better idea on what the work should be paid for

13. I have a rock-bottom I’ll accept, and ask for 25% over that.

14. Right after I say “Nice to meet you (too)”

15. Truth be told, if this is your first big job interview, and therefore (I assume?) your first “real” job (meaning first job in the industry you trained for, and not just a part time student job or something to make ends meet), you probably won’t have all that much leverage in a negotiation.

    That being said, you should go in with a good understanding of what a typical salary range is for that position. You can research this online, but it’s also wise to reach out to people who have done similar work and do what’s called an “informational interview”, where you could ask for typical salary ranges. This approach will tend to be a lot more accurate than just trusting whatever people wrote on Glassdoor.

    When the interviewer asks for your expected salary range, you give the *range* you decided on through your research—try to pick a number that’s in the higher end of the researched range as your low number, as long as it still sound reasonable.

    If they come back with a lowball offer, that’s when it’s time to open negotiations. You politely thank them for the offer, give some positive response about how great most of it sounds or how excited you are about the job/company, and then ask if the number is negotiable. If they say it is, they’ll also likely ask right then and there what you were thinking, and you should have a new number in mind. Remember that you can also negotiate details other than salary, like vacation time, benefits, bonuses, and other details that could be worth more to you than just money, and offer other angles to negotiate from if the company has very hard lines around the salary numbers.

    Once again, your junior status probably won’t give you much wiggle room. Try not to stress too much about having a shit salary at your first big job. Instead, focus on being in the positions that will give you the most learning and growth potential, because believe me, once you have a good couple of years of solid work experience and you learn to talk the talk of your industry, you will have a *ton* more value in the eyes of employers, and a lots more leverage to get the salary you want! Hard work in your 20s really really starts to pay off dividends in your 30s!

16. *”When Job interviewing, how should you approach salary negotiation”*

    Best 2 out of 3 Falls!

    Since this your first job they probably won’t move much. That said you need to research the position an see what the wage range is. See what it is for people when they start off.

    Let’s say for entry level it’s 20.75 an hour on average but their job opening says 17.50. So when they ask what pay you are looking for say the national average of 20.75.

    Now keep in mind they probably won’t go for that(if they were they wouldn’t be paying less). If they won’t budge it’s up to you to decide (if they offer you the job) if you’re okay with it or not.

    Good Luck OP!

17. find out how much you need, find out how much that position makes in the area.

    ask for the higher, dont take the lower.

18. Most folks that you interview with can’t negotiate salary. It’s predetermined by qualifications and experience. The most you will get is a range.

    The old adage has always been, “they who name the first number loses.”

    That said, ask away. If the person can negotiate, then move to that phase. If they balk, ask if something else can be negotiated, like PTO or free days.

    However, unless it’s a C position, there is no negotiation. It’s just a range and if you go for the tip range, the middle management person will freeze, panic, and then say they have to go ask.

19. Aim high

20. Well I don’t know how exactly
    The only thing I learned is that don’t take what they offer you and if they don’t hesitate to give you more (instantly give you what you asked for) you asked for to less