How To Negotiate Your Salary Effectively And Efficiently
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Congratulations on being offered the contract to work! This is a major milestone in your life, especially if this is your first job after graduation. All those hours of studying and getting a good GPA and attending co-curricular activities to build your resume have finally paid off!
Next, salary negotiation.
Salary negotiation is perhaps one of the more important aspects before signing the contract not because it allows you to have better increments and benefits, but because it is a vital aspect of soft skills training – the better your skills, the more benefits that can be added to you.
Salary negotiation will usually range around 10% of the salary. We have compiled a list of six pointers that can potentially help in your basic salary negotiation, as well as a few other hyperlinks from around the internet that might prove useful for this.
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : Looking at your competitors
When we say competitors, I mean companies with similar/identical positions and salaries. Of course in Singapore, most salaries are relatively identical across the board compared to say, accountants in New York City vs a small town in Tennessee.
When you’ve received an offer, it would be good to add 5-10% on top of the salary offered, and give reasons why you think you’re worth that extra bit more when compared to the others. One good way to argue for the increased salary would be what you can do better or more than others. Even better to solidify that case would be real life examples of what you’ve done in similar situations.
A good place to start for competitors’ comparisons would be websites like Jobstreet, Gumtree or somewhere similar to that!
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : Finding the maximum and minimum amount that the company is willing to pay you
This one is a must ; this will determine how much you can potentially negotiate for. Companies in general usually have a cap as to how much they’ll pay anyone, and you finding that out will greatly improve your chances to negotiate your pay closer to the maximum amount.
Generally, companies tend to gravitate toward the lower end of the pay spectrum. So knowing the upper limit means you stand to benefit a little more than most people.
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : Let the first offer come from the company.
This is also an important point. If you were to have a look at this Quora thread, he who names the number first, loses. This is for a simple reason: the first who names a number will be subject to fit their salary or compensation package around that figure. Again, this goes back to market rates. Typically, companies offer around or slightly lower than market rates. This gives you a little more power to negotiate from a position of strength.
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : Thinking about more than just salary
Your salary is an important part of your entire package, but it isn’t the most important thing. The entire compensation package usually includes more than just salary – perhaps having a company car or apartment is also part of it! Typically it contains medical and dental benefits as well.
So instead of merely thinking of merely salary, be sure to allocate a bit of brain power on the other non-salary portions of the package too.
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : How senior are you?
No, this isn’t meant to indicate your age. Your seniority in the company usually determines the respect and job satisfaction that you desire in a company. This applies especially to people who either have tons of work experience, or graduates who have a lot of relevant experience in their field prior to their graduation.
Of course, having a higher seniority level in the company can also come with better benefits and compensation packages, especially if you do turn out to be someone who secures the lucrative contracts with the huge companies outside.
- How To Negotiate Your Salary : Remember to showcase your best work!
We’re real big fan of people who would show that they can work and are capable of holding their own, rather than having people who can talk about what they can possibly do.
But instead of dumping all your life achievements on the interviewer when negotiating for the best package, highlight your most prominent works, especially those that allowed the companies you worked for cinch contracts, or gain government grants. These skills are considerably much higher in demand, and most companies would be more than glad to offer you a more generous package if you’ve a proven track record of being able to boost company profits.
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Thanks
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Thanks for the great article, but my opinion is that this way of thinking is not the best one. I mean you need to think about ways to develop your skills, invest in yourself, learn new techniques and technologies, not only running around to find a better place. The point is that there is no difference where and in which sphere you will work - if you are good, you will get a lot of money.
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Thanks for sharing
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Thanks
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Thanks for the detailed sharing!
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Thanks