Silence Is Golden: How to Negotiate a Better Salary

I have a bit of a problem with this whole statement that you should negotiate your salary. Depending on what industry you are in, you are sometimes very likely to get your job offer in an email. How exactly would you pause and create an awkward silence in an email? You can try and wait a day or two before replying and that might work if you have a job that you don't really mind leaving, but in most cases you cannot really do much about the job offer.
One thing that I can tell you is NEVER negotiate a job offer over email. It simply won't work and you will not get anything over what the initial offer was. In rare cases they might agree to amending something small.
Also another problem is that in most companies that I have applied, you are actually getting the job offer from HR and not the hiring manager. A negotiation is actually through a mediary and I hate to burst your bubble but it's a sign that the company is not prepared to haggle. You can however, have a friendly chat and a bit of social engineering over the phone might give you an insight to what you can realistically expect.

For those who want to get a high salary, first, find an employer who is not parsimonious, then work so hard to prove your worth!!!!

Problem is that most job openings have hundreds if not thousands of qualified candidates, so if you try to negotiate almost anything these days, they just take the offer back from you and pass it to the next in line. Sure if you know some exotic programming language or have experience in a field that is closed to all outsiders, you may get some room for salary negotiations.

I think you can call this the status quo jobs recession (or depression) as most companies systematically eliminated employees on a base of cost and also if you were too smart (threat to someone with power). If you were deemed harmless and didn't get a large salary for your level, you most likely stayed while more talented people were let out the door. the only thing that matters to management is that their jobs are safe, everyone else is a cost that sooner or later is going to be cut or replaced with a worker bee who is more than happy to have a job, even at less money than they deserve.

My advice to anyone in the market for a new job is to cut back your job search time and think about ideas for starting your own business and run with that. The days of working for any large company for anymore than 2 to 4 years are well behind us now, so go out and stake a claim on something that you have ownership.

whoever wrote this article is dreaming...

I hope the morons who run Yahoo's server aren't getting any raises.

50 million people are looking for employment...
then they'll deal with higher salary...
IDIOTS
--
we need jobs

Drake, you highlight a good point about the salary question being the first one the recruiter asks. And as you said the recruiter holds all of the cards here. If you try to avoid stating the salary your salary expectations or if you ask for their range for the position first the recruiter says "show me your cards first or I'm not playing anymore". I have tried to satisfy the recruiter but still protect myself by saying something like "well it's much to early in the process for me to give an exact salary amount since we haven't discussed the job yet and I am not familiar with your company's benefits package, but if you are looking for a ballpark range for this type of position then I would be looking for $XXXX - $XXXX. If the recruiter is very persistant about your salary range then this might be your best approach.

Riiiight. In this economy? Here is what "haggling" for a better pay rate with a prospective employer will likely get you at the moment:

"That's the pay rate, take it or leave it. If you leave it, we'll just make do with one of the other dozens of people in line for the job."

Wonder why all of our jobs are overseas?

They don't negotiate for salary...

There is NO NEGOTIATING a BETTER SALARY with MOST of the ROTTON COMPANIES is this Nation. $7 an hour is it! Take it or leave it, NO MATTER what education you have or EXPERIENCE you have, it just doesn't matter!

Yeah, this guy is spinning a far-fetched tale yet he does make some good points, if they are modified.
Asking for a raise IS a big waste of time if you're already working there. Many of you have called it right, the employers are holding all of the cards by that time. Your answer is most likely going to be that they should dock you for time you're wasting by being in here. The game can be entertaining at its best by hearing all of the excuses why you can nnot receieve a raise. BUT, if you make a good case of your contributions to the bottom line (assuming there are any) and the financial challenges of what you are making and still hear "Get OUT!", find another job. You're barking up the wrong tree.

Avoiding the salary discussion until you know what the position is about is a good tactic. But also know what the ranges are for a specific position type in a specific city in that specific industry.
For example, a mechanical engineer with 10 years of experience that works in the automotive industry in Tallahasee will make less than one in Detroit does. The $80,000 salary in Tallahassee might get you thrown out where that same salary in Detroit might get you hired. There are many factors that determine what that amount will be and some web sites can give you a decent feel for what is right for the area. he is right, do your research. Always remember "Data talks, the rest walks."

I think it was Dan who said it right that your best opportunuity is at the hiring stage. With the economic challeneges being faced by business today, making the point that you are confident that you bring to them that value, and since salraies will most likely stay level for a few years you would be more comfortable starting out here. There is solid consideration behind that statement and it even sounds reasonable.
Another danger about discussing salary early in the process is that if you under price yourself you seem either needy or inexperienced and too much you seem arrogant or greedy.

their instead of there. Is anyone reading this stuff before it is published?

Is this guy for real? Does he even have a clue what employers are doing?
Here's what happened to me which is not an isolated scenario for job hunters:
What are you looking to receive?
I would like to make the same as what I have been making.
We can't do that.
I'm negotiable.
We can get a person with less experience for a lot less. Are you willing to accept that.
Sure.
And by the way, everyone was cut 20% last year. There may be another reduction this year.
Ok.
It's better than unemployment, Jim, but the likelihood of a person negotiating anything in this market is nonexistent. Despite your exhuberance, you should go outside more often and view what is going on in the real world.
Maybe I should write a book. It seems you can make more money without knowing anything.

Negotiate a salary? Not with todays unemployment and competition. People are actually lying on their resume's just to get a job. Your chances of getting a higher paying job by lying on your resume' are probably better than negotiating for a higher salary. I've seen a few of these dolts actually get into management. If you do go this route though be aware that it wont be too long before you show your @$$ as you can't keep up the charade forever. Also, this article fails to mention how some people would rather suck up than show merit to get a raise - they are just as bad as the resume' cheaters...the butt kissers and lyers are taking over, not too mention ofice politicking. This is what things have come to folks. But for those honest folks...The bottom line is, until the economy gets better, appreciate what you've got and appreciate more that which you are given.

Did I read that correctly, "One in five never negotiate?". I think it is more like one in five DO negotiate (unless your data sample is taken from pro athletes with an expiring contract). Personally I wouldn't want the risk of being discarded for the next person out of 100 that applied for the job. A job offer shouldnt be treated like a blackjack hand in Vegas. To me, if you try to negotiate you will be labeled as someone that wants the job only for the money. Plus, if you get to the point of a job offer, you should have a good idea how much they will be paying you anyway.

Negotiation only works when both parties have something the other wants. In this economy, employers hold all the cards. There might be a small percentage of people who are able to successfully negotiate for more than they would have gotten otherwise. But for most, even attempting to negotiate will just get them taken out of consideration.

I had many opportunities to negotiate during my job search last year. I was armed with all the "tips and tricks" from numerous career coaching sessions but they simply don't work in most cases. The people who offer these tips USED to be recruiters. The people you are interviewing ARE recruiters and they know all of your tips and some new ones you don't know about.

Unless you are able to get deep into the recruiting/interviewing process so that the company has invested a lot of time in you, negotiating is pointless. And the salary question is one of the first ones they ask.

You can only pause, deflect and self-promote so many times. Eventually, the recruiter will win...if they are good. You simply cannot compete in their field of expertise. It's like asking a plumber to challenge Kobe Bryant to a shooting contest.

forget negotiating for a salary the best thing too do is either threaten too walk out say another job is offering more/or threaten too quit it forces the boss's hand even better work for yourself like I do

Please sir, I want more.

How do you negotiate when they are asking for your salary requirements and/or salary history to be included with your cover letter and resume?! I was always taught never bring up salary first, because if you do you lose. In this job market we are at the employers mercy. The ball is in their court.

Corporate America is using quality employees to the point they can't afford to work for them anymore. Then they get rid of them and hire someone else who is starving for work, unqualified, and dumb down the organization. Eventually these less qualified/over-employed become management and hire someone below them who they can hopefully supervisor (less qualified/less experience) and the organization continues to dumb down until executive management has raped the organization for everything they can buy cutting qualified personnel and creating a company that is really not viable then executive management moves to the next company and it starts over again. Then we all sit around and scratch our heads wondering why China, India, and other nations have our industries. ITS CALL AMERICAN GREED! Take what you can, while you can and have no loyalty, no ethics, no character, and no class. THIS ATMOSPHERE IS SET BY OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!!!!!!