Job Seekers: 8 Tips To Negotiate Your Starting Salary
Here’s the sad truth I’ve learned as a career coach: Women rarely negotiate their starting salary. Most of the women I’ve coached tell me they’ve never even considered negotiating their salary for a new job. As the majority of male business executives will confirm, being a good negotiator is a critical success factor for climbing the career ladder.
Unfortunately, many women are uncomfortable with the idea of negotiating. The good news: Even though some people have more natural ability when it comes to negotiating, anyone can learn the skill – all it takes is a little research and some practice.
I’ve watched women go from being terrified of negotiating to loving it. How? They changed their approach and started thinking about negotiating as a simple process to follow and as a thoughtful interaction with other people. When it comes to negotiating a starting salary, here are my eight recommendations:
Fully understand the job. Make sure you understand the responsibilities, requirements, and expectations for the position.
Educate yourself on the company. Ensure you’ve asked and understand how the company reviews employee performance as well as the process for pay raises and promotions (which is a good discussion to have with the HR person during the telephone screening interview).
Arm yourself with salary information. Spend adequate time conducting research to find out average salaries and salary ranges for similar jobs in your area, industry, and geography. There are many websites that provide salary information, including: salary.com, payscale.com, indeed.com, careeronestop.org, glassdoor.com, and jobsearchintelligence.com.
Know your strengths and differentiators. What makes you special and unique from everyone else? Conduct a personal SWOT analysis to understand your differentiators and the special skills or experiences that could make you a more valuable employee. Ensure you have these differentiators written down as this information can then be used as leverage to negotiate a higher starting salary with the hiring manager.
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