Negotiations

Hey Ladies,

so I, just like Liz, am a corporate tool. I wasn't always a corporate tool, until about a year ago I worked in the non-profit world. Museums, historic sites, foundations, collections, that was my passion. Still is, but I'm taking a detour. Going from the NFP world to a corporate job, I basically applied to anything that interested me, and hoped for a response.

I was offered a job, one that I wanted, but wasn't desperate for, but at a salary I found unacceptable. And here's the most important part, I wanted the job, but it wasn't my only option. You can only negotiate if you are really, truly willing to walk out the door. If you really want the job and have no other options, and you aren't willing to take the risk, you don't have any leverage.

I was given my offer letter, and it said, you will make $xxx a year. I thanked the interviewer and asked for a day to think about it. I looked at that number, and calculated in my head what I was giving up to take this job. You will negotiate from a MUCH stronger position if you can quanitfy what you are giving up and what that is worth to you. For instance, here was some of my accounting:

-No educational reimbursement: $1500/year
-No transitchek: $500/year
-Pay 20% of my healthcare: $840/year
-No Flexible Spending Account: $1000
-No longer able to tutor, due to increased hours: $1000/year
= Approx $5k

Other examples of things to add in are: moving expenses, the expense of getting to/from work, classes required to get up to speed, vacation days gained/lost, really anything you can think of.

I called back the next day, with a script I had written out and practiced, and said,

Hello Boss,
thank you so much for your offer, I would really love to work with you, but after thinking about it, I cannot accept the job at this current rate. I am giving up a lot of things to take this position, such as (name them) to take this job, and they are worth $5k to me, and I was wondering if you could stretch to that amount. I really hope that we can work this out, as this job sounds like a good fit for me, and somewhere I can see myself really growing and staying there for the long haul (etc, etc).

He said he'd see what he could do, talked to his supervisor, and called me back offering me half of what I'd wanted. This is standard, you rarely get everything you asked for. And, had I been smarter, I would have asked for more vacation days instead.

One thing to keep in mind is your industry, and the particular employer. If you're interviewing at a large company you should see if you can deduce their typical starting salary (good place to look is "thevault.com") and use that as a marker. Some places have a set starting salary, some places don't, that is a good thing to figure out before trying to negotiate. The more information you have about what you can realistically expect, the better position you will be in. By negotiating, you show them how much you think that you're worth, and you can start on day one feeling like you are a valued member of the team.

Questions?