Search Q&A
Salary negotiation
Good morning,
I'm a bit new to the job market and have an interview coming up. The last job, I took the first salary offered to me. I would like some advice on how negotiate for more? At what stage does one do this? What if you are given an offer with a fixed amount - is that final, or how would you ask for more without risking the offer being taken back? And how to handle if you are asked for a salary requirement - then best way to handle this?
Sorry a lot of questions - would really be happy with any suggestions. Thank you.
It is difficult to say how much power to negotiate without knowing your current situation and experience. For example I am in a job with 10 years experience, when competitors try to pinch me I can negotiate strongly (as I always have a fall back). If you have no experience and are looking for a job it is trickier.
Go ahead and try it in the second interview or if you get a job offer. if they don't plan to raise the salary, they're not going to rescind the offer, they're just going to say no. because of exhorbitant labour costs in belgium, there are a number of alternatives to straight pay rises: automatic repayment of expenses (that don't exist) is one of them. payment of your home internet, etc. is another. so you can push for those also, rather than a larger salary.
It depends to a great extent if you already have a job. If yes, you are certainly in a strong position to push for more. Or maybe ask for a review after six months (I recall this is normal in many companies). Good luck!
Negotiation is all about time and levers. Take your time and work out what the other streams are. So for a job, you can push a bit with the basic salary which will come out of your bosses' budget (normally). But, then there are extras, once this stream has been exhausted, like health insurance, car, fuel for it, phone, laptop, meal vouchers etc none of which won't come out of the same budget, but some else's, so often it is easy to get concessions here. These are all "worth" something on top of a salary.
It's the same for buying a car....and everything really.
