Salary Negotiation Tips & Techniques - Advice From a Recruiter

When it comes to personal finance, it is almost impossible to leave out the topic of your income, which for a lot of us comes from our full-time salary. As a recruiter and a career coach, I noticed that one of the things that my clients tend to struggle with the most is negotiating their salary. The following are salary negotiation tips you can use.

Research

The first thing that you want to do is research. You want to know what a competitive salary in your field and your location is. There are a few resources that I would recommend.

Glassdoor salaries

Glassdoor

A good resource that you want to go to would be Glassdoor. The thing I like about Glassdoor is that you can narrow things down by your specific location and also by your tenure. If you are an entry-level candidate in a state like Georgia, you're not going to make the same as people with five-plus years of experience living in Silicon Valley. 

LinkedIn salary research

LinkedIn

The next place you can go to is LinkedIn. Sometimes job postings will show you a typical salary range for a specific position, which will help you to get a better idea of what you can expect. 

Levels.fyi salaries

Levels.fyi

A great website that you can check out to see the exact breakdown including bonuses, benefits, and more is Levels.fyi. The only downside of Levels FYI I would say is unlike Glassdoor and LinkedIn, they don't have as large of a user base, meaning they don't have as much data.

Figuring out your salary

Figuring out your salary 

Now that you've done the research and you have an idea of what the competitive salary in your field is, let's do this quick exercise. Take a piece of paper and write down two numbers.


The first number is going to be your ideal salary. That would be the salary that would make you feel like, yes, this is a great offer, this is a great move.


Now that you have that ideal number in your head, let's think of the second number, and that would be the salary that would be the bare minimum for you to even consider. 


You don't want that number to be less than what you are currently making or way below what you think you're worth. 


When to have the salary conversation 

So you have your research and you have your numbers figured 

out. From my experience, there are usually two parts of your interview process where the salary conversation tends to come up. 


The first time when this can come up is usually your initial conversation with the company and that can be with the recruiter or the hiring manager. Usually, towards the end, they ask you the question, what are your salary expectations. However they phrase it, they want to have an answer from you. 


Why you should have a number ready

A lot of people want to hear what the company has to offer first or want to leave it towards the end, which is fine. However, I do encourage you to have that conversation right away. The reason why is that you don't want to waste your time. They just want to make sure that your salary expectations align with the budget. 


When you're giving somebody a number, you always want to back it up with something. You can let them know you based it on your research and your understanding of the competitive salary range, and give them the number. 


After giving your salary expectation

If your number is completely outside of their price range, most of the companies are probably going to let you know that because again, they value both your time and their time. If your number is somewhere within the range that they can afford, they will generally continue the conversation. 


Negotiating in the interview process

We've covered the part where salary tends to come up for the first time. From my experience, the next time you talk about salary is usually closer to the end of the interview process. That's when you're about to get an offer or you have already gotten an offer. If they gave you an offer and it is the number that you are happy with, that's awesome. 


However, let's say they gave you a number that is not exactly where you want it to be. At that point, it's going to be up to you whether you want to negotiate it. If you do decide to negotiate it, here are some of the salary negotiation tips that I have for you. There are a couple of things that you can do.


Let's say you do have other interviews or other offers on the table that you know are going to be paying a little bit more. You can use that to negotiate your salary. 


However, don't tell them, well, other companies are offering me more money, so I want you to give me more money. Don't say that. 


What you want to say is, I appreciate your offer and I'm excited about this opportunity. However, I want to let you know that I do have other offers on the table that are going to be compensating me a little bit higher. As much as I want to accept this offer, I want to make the decision that makes the most sense for me and my family. 


See how different that sounds when you say it like that? You are coming from a very human and very personal side of things and odds are whoever you are speaking to will be a lot more empathetic if they hear you saying that. 


If the salary you want doesn't happen, remember that there are a lot of other things that you can negotiate like annual bonuses, sign-on bonuses, and other things that will make your job more enjoyable. 


Salary negotiation tips

I know salary negotiations can be a difficult topic. However, if you go into the interview process prepared, the odds of you getting the salary you want increases. Good luck with your interviews and I hope you get your dream salary. 


Have you been successful when you negotiated the salary you wanted? Share your tips in the comments below!

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