At last! You applied for a new position, went through an interview (maybe even several), and now have an actual job offer. Like most successful applicants, you are thrilled and excited. However, you might feel the starting pay offered should be, well, a bit higher. What do you do now? You may be very skilled in your particular line of work, but negotiating salary might be way outside your comfort zone. Plus, you don’t want to appear ungrateful or mess up this opportunity over a few dollars, right?

Relax. Catch your breath. Negotiating an acceptable starting salary is usually just a normal part of the overall employment process. Nobody should be shocked or appalled if you try to bump up that dollar amount—so long as you do it reasonably and professionally.

Remember, the interviewer and human resources (HR) department have a responsibility to attract and hire the best possible employees at the lowest but appropriate price. Employers typically expect some salary negotiations before the candidate accepts. Therefore, they might lowball the first salary offer a bit so there is wiggle room to offer you more… if you ask. This way, in the end, you feel like you’ve negotiated a great salary deal and they’re still happy with what they have to pay. Sounds like a win-win to me!

Should I Have Discussed Pay Earlier?

No, usually not. Strategically, it is best to wait until you receive an actual job offer. Think of it this way. When the employer finally decides that YOU, out of all the other applicants, are the one they want, you gain some leverage in the negotiations. They also now have something to lose if they cannot negotiate an agreeable starting salary. They have invested time and money to find exactly the person they want to hire. Now, like you, they too don’t want the deal to fall apart over a few bucks.

During a job interview, be careful not to confuse obligation with negotiation. For various reasons, some organizations require their interviewers to mention a usual starting pay or pay range. They might say something like, “This interview is for a Level II position which has a starting pay level of $34.88 per hour.” Such a statement is typically NOT an invitation to begin salary negotiations. Again, wait until an actual offer is on the table, which puts you in a better bargaining position.

Evaluate Your Bargaining Position

Success in negotiating a higher starting salary also depends on what you bring to the table and what you can offer the employer. Consider an entry-level position that requires little or no experience and has only modest educational requirements. If you meet only the bare minimum requirements, you realistically have little negotiating power because you offer nothing more than any other qualified cookie-cutter applicant. Plus, other similarly qualified candidates might gladly accept the low starting pay offer—and the employer knows it.

On the other hand, when you bring valuable experience, skills, or education beyond that minimally required, which other applicants do not likely possess, you become more desirable to the employer. The question is really whether you can justify asking for more. And yes, sometimes you can.

According to the article Salary Negotiation: Always Ask for More or Take the Offer? on Military.com, “When I was a corporate manager, I rescinded offers when people tried to negotiate salary without sufficient justification,” says Gwen Ward, a principal at Fish Out of Water, a professional-development company in Leesburg, Virginia. “This revealed another view of their analytic skills that I apparently missed in the interview process. But in other cases, I met their counteroffers if their request was well-thought-out and leveraged their previous accomplishments to the department or company goals.”

If the organization values the extras you possess and wants those on board, they will be willing to pay more. Within reason, of course. So, what is reasonable? Continue reading →

This happens all the time during job interviews. So far, the candidate has done quite well, provided good responses, and seems like a bright individual. Then, near the end of the interview, we reach the point where we ask, “Do you have any questions for us?”

Wait for it…

“No; no questions,” the candidate replies.

Really? There is nothing the candidate wants to know? This person is ready to quit their current job and come work here, and yet doesn’t have a single question about the position, the company, or anything else?

When this happens, the interviewers may be thinking that the candidate:

• Lacks enough knowledge about this line of work to have any questions.
• Already decided this job is no longer of interest and just wants to get the heck out of here.
• Thinks they already know everything there is to know about this job and the organization, which, of course, they don’t.
• Doesn’t really care about this specific job and only wants a job—any job—or is desperate to escape their current one.
• Is overly shy and maybe lacks social skills.

Ouch! Do you really want to leave the interviewers with any of those impressions?

I have seen this situation play out time and time again during interviews. Still, each time it happens, I feel bad for the candidate, and there’s that usual look of disappointment on the other interviewers’ faces. Asking no questions—or asking the wrong questions—is a really bad way to wrap up an otherwise great interview. So, what should you do? Continue reading →