How to Negotiate Your Salary and Evaluate a Job Offer

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You have your first job offer from college – congratulations! Now you have to barter salary. If you feel sounds uncomfortable, think again. To keep you against passing up on a possible base salary bump, we’ll take you step-by-step through how to evaluate job offers and exercise a bundle that benefits everyone.

About 45% of employers are willing to negotiate on salary, based on a 2013?survey by CareerBuilder. But up to 50 % of all U.S. workers accept the very first salary offer they’re given, particularly those ages 18 to 34.

Here are a few negotiating tips:

Step 1: Research your own worth

From as soon as you get your first interview with a company, you have to start researching median salary levels. Search by industry, position, company, employment level and geographic location. Several good resources:

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook provides career information, including median pay for hundreds of occupations.
  • The National Association of Colleges and Employers
  • Websites including Glassdoor, Indeed, PayScale and Salary.com
  • Your college’s career services office

What to say:?Make sure you’ve all your background information before you decide to step into the area to create your argument. “You have to be capable of supporting your request,” says Katie Nailler, director from the Career and Professional Development Institute at the City College of recent York. “Then you can go to a company and say, for instance, ‘My expectations are $41,000 because, based on the research I’ve done, that’s the average starting salary for an individual with my level of experience within this industry.’ “

Step 2: Time your salary talk correctly

Wait until you have been handed a job offer to speak about pay. “For a first-time job candidate, they’re dying to know what they’re going to get paid, and they don’t want to spend your time going through the interview process not understanding what the pay is,” says Katie Donovan, an advisor and founder of Equal Pay Negotiations, based in Medford, Massachusetts.

Donovan advises job candidates to not question numbers or perhaps a benefits package during the procedure. That simply creates a chance, she says, for that interviewer to say the candidate “is good, however i don’t actually need them. I can visit the next person.”

What to state: Result in the employer “fall deeply in love with you,” after which talk pay. “You’ll not have more power in your relationship having a company,” Donovan says, “than time by which you’re offered the job until when you’ve accepted it.”

But if you’re asked about salary requirements at the start of the process, refer to your quest to show you be aware of industry. “It’s always advisable to say, ‘My hope would be it might be comparable to market vary from X to Y, and I’d be willing to entertain a deal within that range,’ ” suggests Diane Domeyer, executive director of The Creative Group, a creative staffing agency with locations in major markets across the U.S. and Canada.

Step 3: Spend some time and consider everything

Look over your work offer and consider the entire package, including the way it may benefit your career.

“An entry-level wages are generally not a good criterion which to choose employment, because it doesn’t include any indication from the skills you are able to develop, the experience you will get and also the long-term salary,” says Everette Fortner, associate v . p . for career and professional development in the University of Virginia.

You also needs to weigh the base salary against other perks and benefits, which might include a health package, bonuses, transportation reimbursement, a gym membership or extended vacations.

What to say: When you’re handed employment offer, be gracious and upbeat, but don’t answer immediately.

Step 4: Strive for a win-win

Salary negotiation may go through just like a bet on tug-of-war, but they’re not attempting to beat anybody. Experts say you need to focus instead on the win-win situation for everybody since you don’t want to begin the first job on the wrong foot.

What to say: Set up a meeting in person or over the telephone instead of email. You wouldn’t want anything to explore translation. Once you present salary and package negotiations to your prospective employer, it is best to stop talking, experts say.

“Give them a chance to respond. All you’ll do is negotiate against yourself by trying to fill the silence we’re all so uncomfortable with,” says Donovan, of Equal Pay Negotiations. “They’ll provide you with some information, and you will shuttle. It comes down to determining whether it’s a good offer to simply accept.”

No matter how the negotiations engage in, always remember to state thank you, and also have a smile in your face. It’s more essential to make sure you start your first job on a positive note.

Anna Helhoski is really a staff writer covering personal finance for NerdWallet. Follow her on Twitter @AnnaHelhoski and on?Google+.


Image via iStock.?