Salary negotiation.

How to handle salary questions & salary negotiation

Many of our Coaching Clients ask us how to handle salary questions and salary negotiation which may be asked during the interview or afterwards.

Any discussion about salary during the course of the interview is potentially good news. It may be a clue you are a candidate under serious consideration for the job. But you need to take care that in the heat of the moment you don't say the wrong thing.

Any discussion of salary needs careful planning & handling

Before you finally celebrate your new job make sure you will be paid what you’re worth (or at least, what is acceptable to you) BEFORE you commit to the job.

Commonly this is another source of anxiety as we typically feel awkward and embarrassed about discussing our salary. We fear we may appear greedy so we sell ourselves short or we might even price ourselves out of the job.

Most employers will not offer you the job if they think they cannot afford you so rest assured when they make a job offer they may well be willing to negotiate.

It is unlikely they would move on to their second choice candidate until pay negotiations are exhausted. Once you have the job offer you are in a good position to get the salary you believe is fair

Fortunately successful salary negotiation is something you can learn about with a few simple, easy to apply tips.

These are the frequently asked questions on the delicate subject of salary

• How do I answer questions about my current and future salary?
• What salary should I ask for? What am I worth?
• How do I negotiate salary?

For more tips on Answering Salary Questions click here

In many jobs these days the salary you can expect to receive is either not stated or if it is it is likely to be within a range.

Not long ago salary questions were straightforward as jobs especially in the public sector and large companies were paid within an agreed pay structure with grades tied to specific responsibilities.

The advantage was that as a prospective employee you knew where you stood. You were unlikely to be able to negotiate a higher salary and furthermore you were likely to start on the lowest salary point

This was also easier for employers too who did not always feel confident in discussing salary issues

There are a number of factors these days that mean employers now prefer to keep salary levels private and negotiate them on a one to one basis. The main one of course being supply and demand. If your skills are at a premium you can expect to be paid more than if you do a job that many people can do with a little training.

What you can expect to be paid is down to a variety of factors:-

• Supply and demand –how plentiful are your skills on a national (or global) basis?
• The availability of your skills in the local employment market?
• How much it costs to acquire your skills and qualifications?
• What comparable jobs pay?
• The fringe benefits you can expect (car, holidays, other perks)
• How willing you are to negotiate?
• How skilled you are at negotiating?
• How keen the employer is to employ you?
• How skilled the employer is at salary negotiation?
• Your own expectations and attitude to salary negotiation?(Some people are very open and comfortable about robust salary discussions whereas others are more reserved and find the whole idea slightly embarrassing)

Make sure you know how to handle salary questions and that you get paid what you are worth.

Salary Question 1 How do I answer questions about my current and future salary?

Salary Question 2 What salary should I ask for? What am I worth?

Salary Question 3 How do I negotiate salary?

Salary Negotiation to Home Page

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