Live Learn Invest

Don’t be afraid to negotiate a job offer

April 12th, 2007 by Kenric

I read this post about Negotiating a Job Offer at Adventures in Money Making and it brought me back to my negotiations for my jobs.  As mentioned in his article, I feel that you should always negotiate or counter a job offer.

I understand that for fresh out of college or entry level position readers that this seems very scary.  I think this is mainly due to lack of knowledge in what goes on during the hiring process.  And how would they know how a hiring process actually went?

My second job I was offered $40,000.  I was afraid to negotiate and tell them what I really wanted.  All I said was that I wanted a little more.  They came up to $42,000.  At this point, I was really afraid that if I asked for more that they might take the job away so I accepted.  When I started I found out that a co-worker who started the same day at the same position as me got $47,000!  I later found out that the pay scale of my position at this company paid only to $45,000.  I also found out that he had asked for $52,000 during his negotiations and they finally settled at $47,000.  They had to get special approvals because he was above the pay scale.  This lesson taught me alot about salary negotiations! 

Let’s assume that Mark, being a new graduate gets his first offer and is afraid to negotiate because he’s afraid that the action of negotiation would make them rescind their offer.  When you put yourself in the shoes of the manager, he has already gone through a stack of resumes, interviewed a bunch people and decided I want to hire Mark!  So he sends Mark an offer hoping that he’ll accept.

Think about this for a second.  The manager has decided that he wants Mark for the job.  If Mark counters by asking for $5,000 more, is the manager really going to stay, “No, forget Mark, who’s next on the list?”  Of course not.  Your job offer will not be rescinded just because you are negotiating.  What usually happens is that the manager will talk to HR and do everything possible to get that extra $5,000 or whatever is feasible.  If he can’t, he’ll simply tell Mark, “I’m sorry, but that’s as high as I can go.”  At this point, Mark can decide whether or not to accept it or not.

Back to me, same company as above, two years later and I’m making $45,000.  Our company got bought out and we’re getting laid off so basically everyone’s working on resumes, doing phone interviews and goofing off at work.  One of my co-workers in the same position is faxing his resume and cover letter to another company.  He forgets and leaves it on the fax machine.  I go and use the fax machine and inadvertently turn over his cover letter.  To my shock it says, “My salary requirements are in the range of $70,000 a year.” 

Here I am making $45,000 and he’s asking for $70,000.  I tell another co-worker about this and we agree that this guy is crazy.  However, there’s a voice in my head that’s thinking, “maybe I can get $70,000.”  So my friend and I decide to ask for $70,000 at every interview we go to.  We both succeeded!  That guy obviously knew what the market was paying and we didn’t.

My friend and I still talk about that fax because without it we probably would have been asking for $55,000 during our interviews.  We were pushing the envelope during negotiations and not once was there a chance that the job was going to be rescinded!

Always negotiate a job offer and do some research on what you’re worth!

Posted in General | 3 Comments »
Stumble it!