Advertisement

Here’s the Payoff: Jumping the Gun on Salary Can Kill Prospect of Job

Share
The Baltimore Sun

It’s a dilemma that makes even experienced job-seekers feel awkward. When in the interview process, should you bring up money? How should you respond to inquiries about your present pay? How hard should you bargain? The questions can be baffling.

Salary negotiating is well worth worrying about, says Ronald M. Shapiro, a Baltimore attorney often involved in salary talks involving clients in sports and the media. A prospective employee who brings up salary issues too early or aggressively can kill his chances, because money issues are sensitive and can chill otherwise friendly negotiations.

“Don’t negotiate salary as the first item. You have to sell yourself first,” cautions Shapiro.

Advertisement

The same advice is offered by employment specialist John Challenger.

“Salary should never be brought up until an offer has been made, because if you’re too high, they’ll knock you out of the process, and if you’re too low, they’ll say, ‘He or she is not at our value,’ ” says Challenger, vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based placement firm with offices throughout the country.

Challenger worries that a job candidate who jumps the gun on salary questions could be unfairly slotted before he has enough information to negotiate over pay.

“Don’t pigeonhole yourself,” he counsels. “Generally, what you want to do in the interviewing process is to put off the salary question as long as possible.”

If you hold off the salary issue until the company is determined it wants you, you’ll have more clout in pay negotiations, Challenger believes. “The difference is between you as a seller versus a buyer. You’re a seller until you get an offer.”

Of course, the employer could always jump the gun and raise the salary issue early in the interviewing process. In that case it’s unwise to refuse a response to the inquiry (“This is not a game,” Shapiro reminds). Still, it’s smart to deftly finesse your responses.

For instance, suppose the employer confronts you with a question about your present salary. You don’t really want to answer, but can’t afford to appear uncooperative. The next best approach is to present the information in the most favorable light.

Advertisement

Shapiro suggests that you respond by giving the value of your entire “salary package,” a figure that includes all the benefits that go along with your base salary--everything from medical care to pension and insurance coverage as well as any special benefits you normally receive.

“Tell them your package is worth $80,000, if that’s true,” says Shapiro, who adds that it would be a serious mistake to misrepresent your compensation because “you can’t afford to break your integrity.”

Early on, you’re also likely to confront a question from the employer about your “salary requirements.” In response to this sort of inquiry, Challenger--whose company helps laid-off employees gain new positions--suggests that you offer a general, rather than specific, answer. You might say, for example: “I’d be very open to whatever you think would be appropriate for a person with my kind of background, skill, knowledge and expertise. Tell me how you could use me.”

Shapiro advises that you respond to the “salary requirements” question with actual numbers, though presented as a range that’s on the high side of what you’re seeking, “to protect yourself.”

For example, if you’re seeking to make $50,000, indicate you’d like to make $55,000 to $60,000.

A key to the salary negotiation process is to amass as much information as possible before you get to the bargaining stage.

Advertisement

“It’s essential that you go into any negotiation--salary or otherwise--with advance research and knowledge,” James E. Savitz, a Maryland attorney, says.

One reason research is essential is that there can be wide variations in pay for people in essentially the same occupation, depending on where they work and for whom, Savitz observes.

In law, for instance, the starting salary of a fresh-out-of-school attorney taking a job in New York City could be $70,000 to $80,000. However, the same lawyer taking a position in a mid-level suburban firm in Maryland could expect to start at $20,000 to $30,000, he estimates.

There are plenty of sources of information on the average salaries of various occupations, says Susan W. Miller, a Los Angeles-based career counselor. Such data may be found through libraries, trade associations, trade journals or, if your field is unionized, union publications, she says. Another possibility is to contact a benefits consulting firm, many of which frequently survey local employers about their pay rates.

Other clues to understanding the would-be employer and his approach to salary matters may become apparent to you in the interviewing process, says Shapiro, who contends that careful listening to what the employer is saying can be an astute way to gather information.

“The rule of negotiating is to do as much listening and get as much information as possible,” he says.

Advertisement

If the interviewing process winds up with you receiving an offer, the deal is likely to contain a salary proposal. Assuming you’re happy with the offer, Challenger thinks you should “take it right away--so that you don’t lose it. Sometimes people think they can sit around and wait and then they wind up losing the offer,” he says.

Shapiro, however, prefers to take some time--as much as you can afford to take--to think things over. It’s often a mistake to react immediately to a job offer without thinking things through, he thinks. Ask for at least an hour, he says, before presenting your reply. Often you can ask to consider an offer overnight or, if you’re in a favorable negotiating position, as long as a week, he says.

“The idea is to get as much time to think as possible so that you don’t let some instinct, rather than a rational determination, drive you to a decision you might some day regret,” says Shapiro.

To be sure, there’s always the possibility you’ll receive a salary proposal that doesn’t please you. If that’s the case, think about whether it’s worth it to you to seek higher pay.

“If you decide that you can take the risk of losing that offer, then you might go back and say, ‘I’m very interested in the position that you’ve offered, but I feel I need to make $60,000. Where do we go from here?’ ” Challenger suggests.

No matter what your objective, the most important rule of negotiation is to avoid an aggressive, adversarial style, say the experts.

Advertisement

“There should be no ultimatums or burning of bridges,” says Shapiro. “After all, when it comes right down to it, the art of negotiation is basically the art of good human relations.”

Advertisement