Salary Negotiation

However, don't trust me on this as I had three potential job offers when I was looking earlier this year and think I totally undersold myself at the time, since I see similar jobs to mine advertised with salaries £3k or £4k above what I'm on. They must have been rubbing their hands with glee when I said I would be looking for £x, then knocked back the other two companies out of hand.

appointing at the top end of a range is that it leaves the appointee with nowhere to go, if you see what I mean, making them more likely to leave quickly.

True, but if I'd been forced to take the job at the lower salary, I'd have been hunting for something else immediately. However, I know that the department is due to double in size over the next couple of years so promotion prospects are pretty good.

Anyway, I have the dosh I was after now!

But yeah, I've had to negotiate salaries a couple of times now. It always helps to let your (potential) employer know that there's a potential bidding war. However, I've always had an agent to do this for me, as this is their job, to negotiate the best rate for me.

tell them, purely and simply, that you need more cash and that you've got other interviews lined up, and they will almost certainly cough up after a few days' dicking about. stet will no doubt have shared his wisdom on this matter, but here's an experience of my own:

i found myself in a similar position a few years back, having applied for a job that had a salary scale from x (low) to y (a bit higher). i got offered the job ... on salary x.

i got a bit mumpy about this and said that, really, i'd been expecting y, what with all the experience i could bring and blah blah blah. "ah," they said, "you'd have to work here for at least two years to get that."

"fuck that," i said, "the deal's off."

"erk," they said, "bear with us."

more than a week later they rang me back and offered me y. they made a really big deal out of it, as if it was the single greatest humanitarian gesture anybody had ever made. problem was, by this point i'd decided i really didn't want the job anyway, and took great delight in turning them down.

they tried exactly the same trick (offer x, increase to y after much moaning on their part) with the next person they approached. she turned it down too. mwoo-hah!

bottom line: they want you for the job. that puts you in a much stronger position than you might think. a little gentle negotiation can reap vast rewards.

unless she has a job as a muffin-taster, right enough.

Why isn't today Krispy Kreme day?

:-D

Are you being offered muffins? Congratulations!

Amazing, really.

Ooh, I just read about it on your ponderpage - actual congratulations this time!

Too kind, thanks!

what's the best strategy when you are facing financial disaster?

lowball em
highball em
"Whatever you can give me."

What's the situation? I hate when this is part of initial interviews.

the situation as in position? assistant production editor

I am presently in a gig-job where I can't pay both my rent and my onerous medical bills

As in your relationship to them, how this is coming up. Are you renewing or something? I just bump around salaried desk jobs and won't be much help to you. Good luck with it.

I would be a new hire at an academic institution

Oh. And they want people they are interviewing to tell them salary expectation, with no dollar figures being on their ad? That's the worst. I'm certain I've been screened out of jobs I probably didn't want anyway for answering too high. All I can say is give some reasonable estimate of what that position ought to pay. good luck