Last week, I had the opportunity to speak on WPIX’s “Chat with Women” (For the full interview—about 20 minutes—click here) One of the topics we discussed was how to negotiate your salary in a job interview. Since negotiation is something many of us struggle with—both in interviews and during performance reviews– I thought I’d send a long a 3 things I’ve found true no matter what the negotiation:
1. You must do you research:
If you are going into a job interview, you need to have a clear idea of the range of the salary for that position (and the reason you need to give a range is so people have some wiggle room. We all like wiggle room.) What you don’t want is for your interviewer to say, “What are you looking for?” and have your response be, “I don’t know—what are you offering?” The same is true when negotiating for a raise—it’s not the time to say, “I don’t know….how much will you give me?”
2. You must keep it fact-based:
If what you’re asking for is higher than the norm, you need to be able to back up how you arrived at that number. So if it’s a jump, you need to say, “I recognize people in this position usually make X, but I bring Y skill set to the table.” If you’re negotiating for a raise, you want to say something like, ““I’ve added X amount of duties to my job description in the last year, therefore I’m looking for a raise of Y. ” Not: “I work really hard while others aren’t pulling their weight, so I feel like it’s time for me to get compensated.”
3. Shhhh….You must stop talking:
This gets back to the title of this piece: don’t do others negotiating for them. What does this sound like? “Well I’m looking for something in the range of X to Y but I absolutely understand if that doesn’t work for you so it’s Ok if you want to….blah…blah….”
Shhhhh…. State your number and close your mouth. It’s their job to counter offer. It’s your job to take care of you.
Frances Cole Jones
