Salary Negotiation Tips

A colleague and I recently had a conversation about one of the classic salary negotiation traps that many people fall into when a hiring manager asks about their past salary. In this situation, the hiring manager asked how much the job seeker was currently making and assumed that this was the approximate number the candidate was looking to earn in their next position. What the hiring manager is doing is using the candidate's past salary as a benchmark for what they should be earning in the future. This will often work against the candidate. All a past salary indicates is what someone was willing to pay that person at the time of the hire. It doesn't account for the candidate's current market value or the current market value of the job they are applying for.

Job seekers need to learn how to source information on their market value, so the conversation moves away from past salary and towards a salary request based on what the market will bear. They should ask colleagues and recruiters what the salary range is for certain positions, tap into salary information through professional organizations, and review online salary info through services such as salary.com and payscale.com. When asked the salary question, a better response is, "My research indicates that typical salaries for positions such as these are between X and Y. Is that consistent with what the company is planning to offer?" This way the job seeker shows the hiring manager that they are an "educated consumer" and at the same time they have not "given away the store" in terms of the negotiation process.