Most people feel a little
nervous discussing money, myself admittedly included. When we're asked, what are
your salary expectations, it can feel like a
trap that's going to force us into asking too
much, too soon, or too little, too late. We compiled the advice from
career coaches here at Indeed, and I'm here to share the
three most common mistakes that people make when
negotiating their salaries and three strategies
for how to avoid them. We will also explain what an
employer expects during salary negotiations and provide
real-world examples along the way. Be sure to stick
around to the end for an example of
a strong response to give a hiring manager
when they ask you, what are your salary expectations? So first let's quickly
understand salary negotiations from an employer's
point of view, because it's key
to understanding how these mistakes and
miscommunications often occur. Hiring is a time-consuming
process for everyone. Most employers will ask
about salary expectations on the first phone
call, because if there's an insurmountable gap between
what they think the job is worth and what you as an
employee want to be paid, it's just going to
waste everybody's time. Pro tip-- if a company
is small or a startup, they may actually be using
the "what are your salary expectations?" question as a way
to do a general market survey for figuring out how
much they should actually be paying someone for the role. With established
companies, it's very likely that they've already had HR do
market research to figure out what they believe
that role is worth and how much they're
willing to pay for it. It's a myth that
a hiring manager has full autonomy in how
much they can pay someone. Typically, they do have
some wiggle room, more than what their initial offer
is, but particularly in uncertain economies,
it's really not as much as you would imagine. Another myth is that
employers will typically choose the cheapest
candidate or the person who provides the lowest
salary ask for the role. Well, obviously everyone would
love to conserve resources. The saying goes, "You
get what you pay for," and that's definitely true in
a lot of cases for hiring, all that to say, as a
job seeker, it's wise to understand that
there is a cap on what an employer can offer you. But low-balling your
salary doesn't necessarily guarantee you a competitive
edge to getting hired. Instead, do market
research on what people with your qualifications
and years of experience are typically paid,
and then assess what you believe a fair
but attractive offer would typically be. If you'd like to learn more
about salaries across locations for that market
research, I highly recommend checking out Indeed's
Salary Calculator right there. So that we understand
the factors that an employer
typically is considering during salary
negotiations, let's talk about the common
mistakes job seekers make when discussing
compensation. Salary negotiation
mistake number one-- being the first to disclose
a specific dollar amount. In the past,
recruiters were trained to get their candidates
to reveal their salary expectations first. Now, recent legal changes have
limited how far they can really go in pushing you to
answer that question, but the same generally
holds true today, that they're going to want you
to reveal your number first. You, of course, want to be
obliging in the interview process, but in this
particular instance, go ahead and flip that question
back to the interviewer. Companies are already
at an advantage here in this interview
process, because they have their own
historical salary data and they know how much they're
willing to pay for the role. So let's take a look at a
real-world example here. Let's say an employer
is doing initial phone screening with you,
and you're asked, what are you
looking for for pay? Now, you can go ahead and
just respond with something as simple as, it's so
early in the process that I'm still learning what the
role and responsibilities are, so my expectations are
flexible at the moment, plus there's many
other considerations that I make when
it comes to joining a new company beyond pay. But flip then the
question to them and say, "What have you
budgeted for the role?" Another common way that employer
will try and get at this answer from you is to ask
about your salary range, so they're trying to basically
see how flexible you are and then levels of
expectations as needed based on how big that gap
is between what you want and what they desire. As a candidate, however,
you can certainly ask, well, "What is the salary
range for this position?" Or, "What are comparable
salaries for people already in this role?" This leads us right
into our second rule, but before I hop
into it, I would like to just quickly say
if you've watched this far and it's been helpful,
please give us a like and subscribe down below and
hit the Notification bell. All right, mistake number two--
waiting until the final step to discuss compensation. Sometimes salary
isn't brought up until an offer is on the table. This typically happens from
a broken hiring process caused by an assumption
by the employer that you'll just take any
salary or other issues that you aren't aware of. Regardless, while
you don't want to be the first to reveal
a dollar amount, you definitely don't want to
be in this situation either. Actually, it's in
everybody's best interest to discuss salary
before a final offer, because it's a lot of time
and resources on both parts. Not only does this maximize
the efficiency of the process, but it also avoids an
anticipation cost on your end. If you're spending a lot
of energy and resources and have excitement building up
preparing for this final offer only to find that it's
completely impossible for you to make it work, that's a
worst case scenario for sure. So it's advisable to go
ahead and disclose prior. Now, if you've had a phone
screen and one or two interviews already and you don't
get the sense that the salary conversation is coming
up any time soon, it's advisable to go
ahead and bring up money. You can say, "I'm really
excited about this opportunity. What salary have you allocated
for the right person?" Or you can say, "The
job posting wasn't really specific about the
hourly rate, what is that?" There's one critical
consideration to make here, which is be careful about who
you raise this topic with. If it's the HR person that
you're interviewing with, a potential manager, or a higher
level executive, that's fine. Go ahead and ask them
about the salary range. However, if there's someone
within the organization that would be at your level or
lower that you're speaking to, it's not advisable to ask them. Mistake number three is
focusing only on salary. This sounds counterintuitive. We all work for pay. If you aren't getting
paid, you are volunteering. But, focusing on the take-home
salary and income specifically can actually obscure
other important factors that are necessary
to consider when making such a large decision. So the first factor here
is to really understand what you are worth
and what is standard, not only in terms of salary,
but the full picture. What are typical
compensation packages? To get an understanding of this,
I would absolutely, of course, recommend checking out
Indeed's Salary Calculator for a sense of just
salary, but you can also speak with people in
comparable positions for what their
standard compensation package has been throughout
their career experience. And finally, you
can even reach out to recruiters who are
unaffiliated with those interviewing you to try and
get a sense of what's standard in terms of a typical offer
overall for this type of role. So the next step here is to
have an honest conversation with yourself and what you
value most in getting out of this opportunity. So I have a few
considerations and questions to ask yourself
written down here. What pay would make me feel
valued in the long term? How does this job
get me to where I want to go developmentally? Is the scope of
this job reasonable for the expected rate, or
would I quickly feel resentful if I wasn't given a raise? And then finally, what
is my walk-away number? Like I said, giving
a salary range, you'd like to generally avoid
in a first conversation. It's definitely valuable
to create one for yourself. What is the bottom number you
would expect before this just isn't worth your time? So a drastic,
obvious example would be if you know that the
compensation for your role and experience is
typically six figures, you would probably walk away
if you were offered 75K. So once you've assessed
your market value and you've determined
what's most important to you to get out of this
opportunity, then examine the full
compensation package. So this, of course,
is really important when it comes to
take-home salary, but the point of this
tip is basically, don't focus only on that. Consider all the other
pieces of the puzzle. If it's benefits, if it's
organizational development, all those things are really
critical to consider. So read that contract
line by line. What is the health
care coverage like? What are the
retirement benefits? Do you get equity
in the company? What is the value of PTO? Two weeks off is a full
paycheck, for example, if that's compensated. There are also other
benefits to a job, like a flexible work schedule
or a shorter performance review cycle that might make you
eligible for a raise sooner. All of these things
not only pose as benefits to you or things to
consider when taking the job, but they are just as much
on the table for negotiation as take-home income is. So for example, if they can't
raise their cap on the salary in order to get you
to sign, maybe they'd be more receptive to giving
you another week of PTO or a shorter review
cycle so that you can prove your
value more quickly and potentially be eligible
for a raise sooner. And of course, if you're
considering multiple job offers, play them wisely
against each other rather than just
taking the first one that clearly might seem like
it pays a bit more money. Of course, if there's
a big gap, that's notable and something that
would necessitate some more evaluation. But if the difference is
5K or $2,000 less a year than you'd be making one
place versus the other, it's really worthwhile to
consider career development factors, the full
range of benefits, because between opportunities
for a bonus or quicker promotion, that difference is
really going to even out pretty quickly. So to quickly recap, here
are three common mistakes to avoid when
negotiating your salary. One, don't be the first
to reveal a number. Instead, flip that question
right back to the interviewer. Two, don't wait till the final
offer to discuss compensation. Instead, know that it's
OK to bring up money. And three, don't focus
only on your base pay. This applies to both
negotiation and when making your final offer decision. Instead, know that there's
a lot of other factors that may be more
important to you. If you found this video
helpful, please let us know by liking down below and
subscribing to our channel right here. For more interviewing
tips, I highly recommend checking
out this playlist, and you can also
check out this video for formulating a
great elevator pitch. Thank you so much for watching. Best of luck negotiating,
and I'll see you next time.
