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My Favorite Salary Negotiation Strategy
If you already have a job, this is a “must do.” If you don’t, It can still help.
I stumbled upon a salary negotiation trick two decades ago which I’ve had the fortune of honing for the benefit of and through some of the people I mentor. They’ve used it both for job-hopping (looking for a job when already employed) and for coming out of unemployment successfully.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say I had used it for myself at least three times in the last two decades.
As with most salary and benefit negotiations you have more leverage if you are already employed, but this technique can be used in any salary negotiation scenario, as you will see.
Simply put, when you give HR (or the recruiter or hiring manager) your salary requirements, they should follow these two guidelines:
- It should be a number which is high enough that you will NOT give your current employer a chance to counter
- It should be a number which you are happy with, and will (to yourself) commit at least one year to the new company with
You can forego the first one, but it puts you at the risk of sacrificing your credibility. If you are job hunting just to get two employers into a bidding war, then this isn’t the ideal solution.
