Regarding Salary Negotiation and using Salary Data from the web…
From a story posted on Business Insider:
The best job candidates don’t bring up salary data when negotiating — here’s what they do instead. Asking for what the budget for the role is.
Saying “based on my market research” signals that you don’t understand how salary negotiations work.
It all starts with when the recruiter asks you (usually during first contact) what your salary is today, or what is your expected salary? How do I answer that?
My answer is generally “it’s negotiable”. If the recruiter presses, I will say that I would prefer going through the interview process and then we decide if we have a mutual interest in my joining the company, and then the entire package would need to be factored in. This communicates in a soft manner that you know what your value is.
You went through the interviews and have been told to expect an offer! Congratulations!
Once you get through the interview loop and you have been told you will receive an offer, wait until the offer comes. You should also be interviewing with other companies during this time. Don’t stop interviewing until you actually are sitting in the seat and have your laptop/workstation in front of you.
The ideal situation is to have two or more offers in hand. Don’t hide that you are talking with other companies, in fact communicate that you are. That puts pressure on each company to present you with the best offer they can. You can then use the offer as a negotiation point to improve the offers from each and choose the best one.
Be careful though – there will be one company and one role that you really want. Don’t overplay your hand if you really want that job as you don’t want them to walk away from the table. This is where you can use your market research to gauge how far you can push each offer. Make sure you still have the offers on the table and take the best one possible.
Remember – its the entire compensation package that needs to be considered when in salary negotiation.
Dont forget that stock, bonus and benefits also factor into the offer. In some cases these actually can be worth more than the base salary itself, so consider them before making your decision.
If you’re still anxious about negotiating your base salary and total compensation, book a session with us so that we can review your offer, look at the market and then craft a counter to give to your potential employer.
