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Common mistakes in salary negotiation

interviewing.io

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Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#71

Post by leeny »

user_7832 wrote: post #41

Slightly meta (relating to the website) and not this specific article, I got a popup toast saying > Secret Zebra just left feedback for their FAANG interviewer: I really enjoyed the interview, you did really well in giving me the right level of assistance to keep under the time constraints. It was also pretty useful that you had prepared some extra code for testing. Apart from such toasts being unusual, I doubted tha…

We're actually testing those popups right now. Cycling through a few preexisting ones to see if engagement moves at all, and then we'll make them realtime.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#72

Post by SkyPuncher »

jawns wrote: post #42

> Preparation and leverage means doing the work to make sure that you have multiple offers, that all your offers come in at the same time, and that you don’t tip your hand too early. Laying this foundation is 80% of the work. You’ll need to slow some companies down, speed some companies up, and hold off questions from recruiters until you’re ready to negotiate, and not before. Laying this foundation is largely unachi…

I’ve found this advice to be far too prevalent and largely unrealistic. Nearly everything about the interview process is out of your control. Getting multiple, competing offers to line up is extremely hard.

It’s basically like saying “you win a race by being the fastest”. No duh! How you be the fastest is the hardest part.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#73

Post by Nemi »

So this is the exact same problem with Realtors. They will say that they have a fiducial responsibility to represent you and that they will try to get you the best price (either the most or least, depending on whether they are on the selling or buying side, respectfully). And they will do that, to some limited extent. But really their incentive is to close the deal. And that means telling you that this is the best price the counter party is willing to extend if they secretly think you will still do the deal.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#74

Post by nonethewiser »

Salary negotiation tips always assume a lot about your situation. Use your head. If you get paid shit then dont be the first to say a number. If you are above the posted range then dont decline to talk about salary before the offer stage and be disappointed when you cant negotiate above the posted range.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#75

Post by nonethewiser »

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #2

How do you avoid wasting your time doing interviews with companies that have no intention of paying you what you expect without disclosing some form of salary range upfront? I've generally taken what I want to make in the role and added 20% to it as a starting point. While this might limit me, it also keeps me from doing 100 onsite interviews only to discover their max is 2/3 of my expected comp.

One way or another, you DO disclose some expectations in that scenario.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#77

Post by nonethewiser »

noitpmeder wrote: post #51
leeny wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here. These ranges are typically wide because your compensation depends on your interview performance and perceived seniority/value add to the company. There's no way to tease this out before you interview, except that if you're looking for compensation that's significantly above the top of the band, it might be hard to get. (A little above the top is possible, and sometimes a lot is possible too... that's whe…

I feel like it's not a great look to say "I don't know enough about the role to give you my salary expectations at this point" while also asking "but what is the salary range for this position, given you don't know enough about me". Any thoughts on how to approach that?

Their range is independent of you so just dont worry about it.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#78

Post by JohnFen »

ntac wrote: post #5
RhodesianHunter wrote: post #2

How do you avoid wasting your time doing interviews with companies that have no intention of paying you what you expect without disclosing some form of salary range upfront? I've generally taken what I want to make in the role and added 20% to it as a starting point. While this might limit me, it also keeps me from doing 100 onsite interviews only to discover their max is 2/3 of my expected comp.

I ask the recruiter what the salary range is. If they refuse to say, I tell them to get back to me when they know what the range is. I'm not going to waste my time if they want to play games like being secretive about the pay.

Yes, this. I always nail this down before spending any real time or effort on the opportunity.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#79

Post by vsareto »

mm263 wrote: post #52
itsoktocry wrote: post #13

Not talking about your salary history is a decent tip. But negotiation isn't rocket science: you need to be thoughtful and honest to yourself and come up with an aspirational number (what you want, best case) and a floor (which you will not go below). Any number in between should be acceptable to you, by definition. I find the hardest thing for people is being honest about the floor and being willing to walk away.

The point is that your aspirational number may be way, way off. Not saying the aspirational number is how I got twice the salary I planned to ask for as a junior while interviewing for my first job years ago.

There's no consistent and transparent pricing for individual skills on a resume, so you can't sum them up, adjusted by years of experience, and reach a rational number. Job titles can be similarly vague. Plus there's no premium for having a useful bundle of skills as a single hire (companies charge us for convenience and bundling all the time though!)

This seems hard, but plenty of analytical brain power could be applied towards this. But there's also no will for companies to reach pricing frequency and fidelity like a stock market or retail because the inefficiency is in their favor and I suspect the real numbers that would come out of that would be much higher.

Re: Common mistakes in salary negotiation

#80

Post by roland35 »

brianwawok wrote: post #60
photonerd wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of businesses post stupid ranges. Like, ok your range is $150-250k, fan-fucking-tastic, that’s completely unhelpful

But like, that is a perfectly valid salary range for a job? Not all companies have a 10k salary band on a given title.

It can be a valid range - I've seen plenty of postings (internal at least) where the the seniority is flexible. Also a flexible location could also lead to a big range depending if you are based in NYC versus Iowa...
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