Negotiating your Salary and Benefits Package
The process of negotiating a salary is a necessarily delicate one, but arguably one of the most important factors of a thorough job search. To these ends, there are a number of questions that most people tend to ask:
1. When should I first negotiate salary?
Typically salary negotiations come at the end of an interview process, and it is considered bad form to bring up the subject too early. It should seem that the responsibilities are your main interest, followed by a discussion of how well you can satisfy them. Though your interviewer will invariably come back at you with a number after the question period, this number is by no means iron-clad.
2. What methods can I use to gain an edge in the negotiation?
Research is your number one tool, with resources such as salary.com offering statistics on average salaries for a variety of fields and experience levels. If you feel the offer is inadequate, phrase your concerns in terms of what the typical market compensation is. Alternately, you can also use your former employment as a basis, so long as the salary doesn't represent an outlier.
Do not threaten to leave as a first resort
Though this might represent a knee-jerk reaction, it is inadvisable under most circumstances. Threatening to leave, even if your compensation is raised because of it, leaves a bad impression in the minds of your employers, which may hurt you during the next round of promotions. Along these lines, the only time you can "threaten" to leave is when you have climbed as far as your company can take you, and cannot be harmed by poor sentiment down the line.
If you do wish to use leverage, you can approach your employer in an amicable way and bring to their attention the amount of time you have spent with the company and general market compensation (assuming its higher than yours). This can be reinforced by mentioning a competing offer from a different firm, but only do this if its legitimate and you can follow through. In the latter scenario do not threaten, but merely indicate that the offer exists and ask what your employer can do for you.
