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    PayScale's Salary Negotiation Guide PayScale's Salary Negotiation Guide

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    • Salary for the First Time
    • But I’m Not Sure if I Should
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    The Best Answer to the Question What’s Your Salary Range?

    4 years ago Penelope Trunk A New Job Offer, All, Salary for the First Time 4

    Salary Range

    The right answer to the question, “What’s your salary range?” is almost always some version of “I’m not telling you.”

    It’s true that you can look on PayScale to figure out the going range for the job, but you can never guess how much the company values the position for which they are interviewing you. So don’t give the first number.

    Because if you request a salary lower than the range for that position, the interviewer will say nothing, and you’ve just lost money.

    Do You Know What You're Worth?

    That’s why you want the interviewer to tell you the range for the position, because then you can focus on getting to the high end of that range. But you can’t work to the high point if you don’t know it.

    When there are two good negotiators in the room, each person will try to get the other to give the first number.

    Each time you deflect the question, the interviewer will try again. Your goal is to outlast the interviewer until they finally tell you the salary range for the job. Here is how to respond:

    Question: What salary range are you looking for?
    Your Answer: “Let’s talk about the job requirements and expectations first, so I can get a sense of what you need.” That’s a soft answer to a soft way to ask the question.

    Question: What did you make at your last job?
    Your Answer: “This position is not exactly the same as my last job. So let’s discuss what my responsibilities would be here and then determine a fair salary for this job.” It’s hard to argue with words like “fair” and “responsibilities”—you’re earning respect with this one.

    Question: What are you expecting to make in terms of salary?
    Your Answer: “I am interested in finding a job that is a good fit for me. I’m sure whatever salary you’re paying is consistent with the rest of the market.” In other words, I respect myself and I want to think I can respect this company.

    Question: I need to know what salary you want in order to make you an offer. Can you tell me a range?
    Your Answer: “I’d appreciate it if you could make me an offer based on whatever you have budgeted for this position and we can go from there.” This is a pretty direct response, so using words like “appreciate” focuses on drawing out the interviewer’s better qualities instead of her tougher side.

    Question: Why don’t you want to give your salary requirements?
    Your Answer: “I think you have a good idea of what this position is worth to your company, and that’s important information for me to know.”

    You can see the pattern, right? If you think you sound obnoxious or obstinate by not answering the question, think of how he feels asking the question more than once.

    Also, by the time the interviewer has asked two or three times, the interviewer will know that hiring you means having a tough negotiator on his team — another reason to make you a good salary offer.

    And that is the ultimate glass-ceiling breakthrough.

    Previous Post

    Want to Fight the Gender Pay Gap? Don’t Share Salary History

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    How to Compare Competing Job Offers

    mm

    Penelope Trunk

    Penelope Trunk's career advice site was named a top 10 resource by Entrepreneur magazine. And Inc magazine named Penelope "the world's most influential guidance counselor." Read her blog at blog.penelopetrunk.com.

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    bitis hunter
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    bitis hunter

    An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a coworker who has been doing
    a little research on this. And he actually ordered me lunch because I discovered it for
    him… lol. So let me reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
    But yeah, thanks for spending time to talk about this issue here on your blog.

    Vote Up7Vote Down  Reply
    4 years ago
    unlikely candidate
    Guest
    unlikely candidate

    My guess is you could also piss off your interviewer by not giving him an answer

    Vote Up2Vote Down  Reply
    3 years ago
    LexisNexis Login
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    LexisNexis Login

    Hey great post! I hope it’s ok that I shared it on my FB,
    if not, no problem just let me know and I’ll delete it.
    Regardless keep up the good work.

    Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
    4 years ago
    health and beauty deals
    Guest
    health and beauty deals

    Hi there, just wanted to tell you, I loved this article.

    It was practical. Keep on posting!

    Vote Up0Vote Down  Reply
    2 years ago
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