Southwestern College

Salary Negotiations

Southwestern College has teamed up with Career Beam to create a site that can help students with career development questions. Check out Career Beams's salary wizard to better understand the salary of a position in a geographical area.

There are two types of salary negotiations:

1) Position based

• Win/lose
• The maximum gained is hoped for by the employee
• Ultimatums are used to pressure the company
• There is a low priority on building a relationship with the company

2) Interest based

• Win/win
• Building on a future relationship
• More than one right answer to the salary situation
• Open to unique solutions such as benefits and other perks

Five keys to salary negotiations

1. Understand the company's hiring process and their culture
2. Understand the salary trends in that particular industry
3. Establish value as a future employee for that company
4. Listen and think through the salary and benefit offer
5. Never discuss or negotiate the salary until you have established value to the company or you have been offered the position

Other important points in salary negotiation

• Make your best offer your only offer
• Request salary and benefits in writing to make sure both parties are on the same page
• If you need time to think, take the time. It is best to only take a few hours or one night at the longest
• Two counter offers are the absolute limit on negotiating. Employers will rather have no one in the position than the wrong person
• If a company initially requests salary requirements on an application or when applying via a resume, give the salary requirements or expectations in a range (example: salary requirements are $30,000 to $40,000). Also, if a salary history is requested, inform the company within a cover letter