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Look, if you're going to wake up at 6:30 a.m. and rock a pair of pleated khakis every day of your life, you mind as well get the scrilla you deserve. Negotiating your salary isn't a fun process, but the benefits can be enormous. With a little know-how and some smooth talking, you can debate your way to a a decade's worth of wage increases and finally be able to buy bottles of Grey Goose at the club that come affixed with full-blown sparklers. So press your finest Bruno Cucinelli suit and put your grown up face on as we dope you with these 10 Tips for Negotiating a Higher Salary.
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Understand your place in the market.
A full understanding of the pay range for similar jobs is fundamental to your negotiation. Mine Glassdoor and talk to other professionals in order to develop a clear understanding of what comparable positions pay. If you walk into a negotiation with an inflated or uninformed of your role in the marketplace, a portly gentleman with male pattern baldness will slaughter you in the boardroom. Be prepared.
Remain complimentary of the company and position.
When preparing for a negotiation, don't get jacked up on six consecutive episodes of Shark Tank, chug a 20-ounce Red Bull, and kick down the HR director's door guns blazing. Indebted humility is a highly underrated negotiating tactic, and you'd be wise to exercise some restraint. Do reiterate your excitement for the position and respect for the company whenever appropriate. Don't kick the tires on your employer like its a used GMC Envoy. Brooting dominion might help you get a good deal on a car, but using a similar tactic with your salary will only ensure another weak ass W-2.
Don’t give a range.
There are exceptions to the rule, but stating your bottom dollar upfront is typically a bad negotiating practice. Like, if you say, "I'm looking for between 45 and 60 thousand dollars," then they're likely to respond, "OK. $45,000 it is." Play your target number close to the vest and try to keep your deeply rooted desperation for the position in check.
Remember that you’re dealing with a human being.
This is the corporate world, which means that you're dealing with a certain type of sensitivity and hubris that you won't find anywhere else. You're squaring off against another bludgeoned American worker who's looking for an excuse to channel a career's worth of thwarted frustration against another human being. If you fire off at the mouth about "competing offers" and "saving the company" like some sort of hair trigger, 22-year-old Donald Trump, there’s a good chance you’ll end up making an enemy. You want to think in a cold and calculated way, but you want to act like a sincere, likeable human being.
Think long-term.
Most browbeaten participants in the rat race eventually resent their employers, even if they have a decent salary and benefits package. With that in mind, it's important that you buy as much time as you can before life becomes an unceasing drudge through PowerPoint slides and pre-meeting small talk. You want to have a full understanding of your expectations, future performance reviews, and promotion opportunities. Negotiating your salary shouldn't be a desperate, one-time swing for the fences, but rather a constantly dangling carrot that presses your khakis pulls you out of bed at 6:30 a.m. every morning.
Pick the right time.
Your first order of business should be to thuroughly discuss your qualifications. Then, find a number of things you and your employer can agree on before getting down to numbers. If you start yapping about dollar and cents right off the bat, your employer will have a number to work down from and, even worse, they'll think you're more concerned with the scrilla than being a good fit.
Don’t be afraid to ask for what you deserve (and more).
If you've bounced around the internship/entry-level Bingo mixer like a ball without direction, you might be tempted to grab an offer without even engaging in a negotiation. Big mistake. The only thing captains of industry respect are headstrong, borderline reckless warriors that know their worth and this is an early opportunity to show some muscle. You've been chosen for this job because someone with clout thinks that you're important. Passing on the full-bodied debate of your worth is your first opportunity to reverse that perception.
Don’t always think in dollars and cents.
Money isn't always the end-all, and the company you're with might not have the cash flow to satisfy an increased salary. If you value your time, think about more vacation days, an adjusted work schedule, or other creative benefits as alternatives to monetary compensation. Living your life without the constant tug of Microsoft Outlook and morning meetings is sometimes worth a few stagnant paychecks.
Be prepared to defend your position.
You're probably dealing with someone who has a lot more experience pegging numbers and discussing terms than you do. As a result, you have to anticipate the opposition curve ball or counter-argument roundhouse kick to the face. You can't simply vaunt clichés about your experience or work ethic and expect a corner office with stock options. Come to the table with verifiable, concrete numbers that explicitly prove your value. If you're confident in your ability to perform and have evidence to backup your claims, you'll be impossible to stonewall.
Don’t overplay your hand.
It's one thing to sell your skill set, but don't hype your expertise to the point of creating impossible expectations. Embellishing your business relationships or programming ability might squeeze and extra $5K-$10K into your base salary, but you'll get six month's worth of checks (maximum) before HR gives you a box and tells you to clean out your cubicle. Forecasting your job performance isn't like building a Tinder profile; there are rules to this shit.
