Salary Negotiation ~ One With The Machine

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Salary Negotiation

The most important aspect of finding a job (the salary)
Money is a very good motivator, depending on your current salary, you will either feel shitty on your job or you will feel you got your dream job!

But that is not always the case, sometimes you are either under payed or overworked
(which is also underpaid in another sense)

In here, I teach you the art of salary negotiation.

Before you can execute this technique, you must obtain the following perquisites.


  • You have a current job

  • You are not too desperate to look for another job, but a better opportunity would be great!

  • You have some experience on your field

  • You have a job interview coming up

  • You have done some research on the job you are applying for



...So you have talked about yourself, and he has talked about his company, he asked you questions, you answer them correctly, and he likes you, specially your 'interest' on your current field... and now, he is ready to ask you the golden question!

First rule, the person who tells the price first lose (well not always).
The reason is, if you don't know how much they are willing to pay for the position you are applying; You might be aiming too high or you might be aiming too low.

So what to do? You ask them, or you do a market research before hand.
it's always good to ask in a polite manner by using "May I know" , "Could you tell me the budget" etc.

If the interviewer doesn't answer the questions, and insist that you should tell him how much is your current salary expectation.

Then you follow this, you have to make sure that you place yourself in a strategic bargaining position. so do not answer the question directly!

You tell him, like "well, right now I'm currently earning ( your salary + 20% more) + your benefits like (insurance, allowances.. etc). so I would be expecting + 10-20% more of that.

formula: (salary+20% + benefits)+ 20% = new salary

So why did we add 20% (this percentage depends on how much you really want) more to your current salary and then adding another new percentage on your new salary?

Because you can! you are in a comfortable situation here, you have a job, you are not desperate, and most of all you have experience! and if they don't like it you lose nothing but a couple of hours which I think is still a gain since you'd be gaining information about the market.

If the interviewer ask you: "why ask so much?"
you make him understand the risk you are taking to work for his company:

  • You will be back on a probationary position for at least 6 months

  • You will be adjusting to new cultures, and encounter new learning curves

  • You will not have the same benefit with the regular employees(leaves, insurance, etc)

You have to be firm, if the interviewer insist on a certain price which would usually be around (current salary+20%+10%) or worse case (current salary+20%)

Basically you'd still be in a winning situation here, because you will still be getting 20% more of your current salary by not declaring your real basic salary.

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