Build your number
Gather at least three sources: salary surveys for your role and city, the pay ranges that a growing number of states require in job postings, and what people in the field will tell you directly. From these, settle three figures in advance: the number you will ask for, the number you expect, and the number below which you will walk away. When you state a figure, give one specific number near the top of the supportable range, because a range simply invites the bottom half of it.
Handling the early questions
Recruiters often ask for your salary expectations in the first call. A reasonable reply is that you would like to understand the role first and are confident the two sides can agree if the fit is right, followed by a request for the budgeted range. Many states and cities bar employers from asking what you earn now, and even where it is legal you may decline to say.
Making the ask
When the offer comes, thank them, show real enthusiasm, and ask for the offer in writing and a day or two to consider it. Never accept on the spot. Then respond by phone or video along these lines: you are excited about the role, and based on its scope and the market for this work you were expecting something closer to a specific figure. A counter of ten to twenty percent above the offer is normal when the research supports it. Give your reasons in terms of the job and the market, never your rent or your loans. Then stop talking, because the silence that follows is doing your work for you. Employers who have chosen a candidate very rarely withdraw an offer over a courteous counter.
If the salary will not move
- A signing bonus is a one-time cost and is easier for a manager to approve than a permanent raise.
- A salary review at six months instead of twelve can be written into the offer.
- Additional vacation days, remote days or a later start date cost the employer little.
- Relocation costs, a training budget, a better title and equity are negotiable at many companies.
Get every agreed change into the written offer before you resign from anything. A verbal promise from a manager who may leave next year is worth nothing.
Tip The same method works for a raise. Keep a running file of results and numbers through the year, and ask a few months before budgets are set, not at the review, when the figures are already fixed.
