Essential Interviews Tips and Skills To Get You Started!
Essential Interviews Tips and Skills To Get You Started!
Home / Interviews Tips / Negotiating a Better Package For Your New Job
Negotiating is an essential skill!
If you make it through the tests and convince them of your fantastic worth at interview, a job offer may be just around the corner and you face having to talk about your financial value. When you are offered a new job, you have a unique opportunity to position yourself as a valuable asset in the organization and to set your level of remuneration accordingly. To achieve this, you need to establish an appropriate asking price–and it is wise to think about this early in case it should come up during your interview. On the one hand, you don’t want to oversell yourself and price yourself out of the market. On the other, you need to avoid selling yourself short, as it is extremely difficult to change your position once you’re placed in a complex pay structure.
There are no definite rules about how to conduct your negotiation. Every situation differs and each employer has their own set of thresholds. Understanding the context in which your negotiation takes place and sensitivity to the culture of the organization is therefore vital. Having said that, there are some practical steps you can take to position yourself sensibly.
Step one: Research the employer
When you are going for a job, you are effectively a salesperson promoting a product, and it is up to you to demonstrate that the ‘product’ is valuable, high-quality, and superior to anything a competitor could offer.
Like a salesperson, you need to know your market and your buyers. Potential employers, or ‘buyers’, will, of course, be looking for the best possible value for their money. However, if you have positioned yourself well and made a good impression at interview, they won’t risk losing you and will be prepared to settle at the top of the market rather than the bottom. If you know what the employer can afford, you will automatically gain an advantage.
Step two: Consult external sources
When seeking an entry point for your salary, there are several
sources that will help you find an appropriate figure. Look at the range of packages offered for similar positions in the adverts online or on the jobs pages. Ask for advice from people in your professional and personal network.
Ask your mentor, if you have one, to advise you—or use his or her own network to access the information. If you are a member of a union, they will have information on acceptable salary ranges for your profession. If everything fails, try some of the free salary calculators online.
Remember that you can put off a prospective employer by pitching too high or too low, so it is important to get your level right. Get a feel for the market rate by drawing information from the above sources. You will also find listings on the Internet that can help you.
