The Career Management Center at the Cox School of Business hosted a workshop on Wednesday that pinpointed what to say, and what not to say, when negotiating salary with a prospective employer.
Jason Park, the associate director of the Career Management Center, spoke to a small group of four students in the Maguire building at Cox.
“You have the offer in hand, so now what?” said Park. “Now, you start negotiating.”
The former business employee recruiter said that negotiable items are salary, start date, time off, performance bonuses, sign on bonuses and relocation.
The non-negotiable items are medical insurance, office attire, retirement plan, job title and responsibilities, and sometimes job location.
Park said the first thing a prospective new employee must do is his or her homework: look up the current market, the market rate for the particular job, and also compare it to the same job description and salaries in other companies.
Park added that the data sources that students and graduates have access to are the career center, Glass Door, Pay Scale, and Indeed Salaries, as well as speaking to other people the job seeker knows.
“Ask them questions and get their feedback on the salary offer if you are comfortable sharing it with them,” said Park. “Once you’ve collected this data, then you can call them back and start negotiating,”
Park also set several rules that every person should know before beginning negotiations.
“Do not give them your salary range in the interview unless it’s a requirement,” said Park.
He added that his rule of thumb is to have a salary range window of $10,000 already set in mind.
“If you start out too big, like $15,000 to $20,000, then that’s like half a tax bracket,” Park said.
Park also gave advice on how to begin the process of negotiating for a higher salary.
“Thank them for the offer,” said Park. “Then say, ‘Here are some things I would like to talk with you about. Based off my education, the work I’ve done, coupled with the market, I was thinking low…”
Park said that it should be expected that the interviewer will counter the offer, but that the new offer will be competitive because the company will not want to be forced to fill the position again in six months.
One of the students at the workshop asked how a potential new employee should share and leverage his best alternative offer from a different company.
“Be vague. Say that you know Goldman Sachs or whatever the company is, is offering comparable offers,” said Park. “I am always comfortable saying that I have other offers and this is not the highest one.”
Park added that another key ingredient in negotiations is the timetable for accepting or rejecting an offer. He recommends that the prospective new employee provide an answer within a few days. Instead of “going dark” while trying to decide if the offer should be accepted, Park said that the prospective employee should first negotiate.
“You can then take additional time, think about it this way, it’s a new offer so it’s a new timetable,” Park said.
The four students in the auditorium asked multiple questions and took notes. One business student, Dhruv Kaushal, said that he learned two key pieces of information from the workshop. Kaushal said that he liked learning more about the timeline and getting insight into a recruiter’s mind.
“As to when they give you their offer, you have X amount of time to counter offer. And how much wiggle room the recruiters have to add more to their offer” said Kaushal.
The workshop ended with Park giving his audience one last golden nugget of advice.
“Everything in a negotiation relies on a feeling,” said Park. “The second that you are comfortable with that magic number, you should excitedly call them and tell them that you accept their offer. Don’t feel like you need to negotiate more.”
