Negotiating a Job Offer
Posted in Salary & Benefits
For those people who have always been waiting for that job offer because you can't wait to negotiate your salary, you might want to step on the brakes for a while. Hear out what we have to say first before you get all gung-ho with whatever compensation you think you deserve for the job.
Before anything, you should remember that you are not actually ready to negotiate anything until after the "sale" is officially made. That only means that until the company actually "offers" you the job and says, "Okay, I think you're the best person for the position. We'd like to hire you." then negotiation talks should be suspended.
So really, the biggest thing to consider is when you can step up to the table and lay all of your concerns down. The rule of thumb is you are ready to negotiate only if you have a "ready buyer". This means that when the company has explicitly shown verbal or written interest in getting you, that is when you are ready to negotiate. If you hear anything that that resembles something like, "We're ready to take you in." then you are in business, so to speak.
Of course, the ultimate proof that they want you to be part of their team is when they formally send you a letter expressing their intentions. So until that letter reaches your hands or unless the big boss of the company says that you can work for them, you are not yet in any position to negotiate the "what's" of the offer. Until then, your negotiation will only be limited to the "ifs" of whether you will get the job offer. The most ideal situation is you wait until you have the job offer in writing and then begin the negotiating process.
So when you finally do have that job offer in your hand, be sure that you will be able to accept whatever it is that the company offers you. The important thing about negotiations is that both the company and you are both amenable to the agreement that you have once you sign on the dotted line. When the company finally says that they are indeed interested in you, you can then say to them that you are "ready to consider their best offer".
You should take all things into considerations such as if the company does not give in to your requests and your plans for negotiation fail, will you still accept the offer? If not, you will need to take a different approach and probably end up talking to people who are higher up the ladder.
You might need to talk to the people who are considered to be the ones who are pulling the strings with regard to the different decisions about the aspects of the job offer.
Usually the hiring manager is the one who has the final say but in some instances, there will be other people who are essentially higher than the hiring manager. You may want to ask around if there's anything else that anybody can do once you have the offer. Who knows, maybe you might get a job offer and get lucky at the same time.
