Written by Shweta Shrivastav
Keynote Speaker
Jack Milligan SPHR, GPHR, SHRM-SCP
Jack has a BS in Labor Economics and an MA in Organizational Behavior. He has been in the field of HR for almost 50 years. He has been part of the hiring process of nearly 20,000 candidates. He has seen both sides of the negotiation process. He has recruited for various companies as well as helped job seekers negotiate efficiently. His book “Make More Money” which came out earlier this year, is available on Amazon and has a wealth of information for job seekers.
“All jobs are different and all jobs are temporary.”
Average job tenure is 3.75 years. If you think about this, it means all jobs are basically “temp” jobs. If the job seeker approaches the job search from this mindset, they will have more courage. Courage and patience are the tenets of a successful salary negotiation process.
Nearly 75% of job seekers do not negotiate their salary when joining a new role and only 25% do. Out of this 25%, only 10% of the people do it correctly.
There might be various reasons to why job seekers don’t negotiate a job offer.
- They might think they don’t have a leverage
- They might be relieved to have an offer
- Gender differences – Men are more likely to negotiate than women
Your package has a cumulative effect on your long-term financial well-being. You are losing 100’s and 1000’s of dollars if you don’t negotiate. Your upward mobility depends on the package you accept. Most salary packages have wiggle room, don’t settle for less.
During the employment process, the employer is in charge until they make an offer. As soon as the candidate receives an offer, the tables are turned. There is only one simple rule to salary negotiation: Never ever accept a job offer as it is.
Here are three legitimate ways to negotiate salary. The first two ways have a relatively high degree of failure.
- Ultimatum: (!) Might work for someone who is a passive candidate, well situated and well rewarded. Ex: “Thank you for the $90K offer, it is going to take $130K to get me to move!”
- Demand: (.) More sincere and reasonable in amount and attitude. Willing to walk away if the demand is not met. Ex: “Thank you for the $90K offer, I need at least $100k.”
- Requestive: (?) Asks a question, implies flexibility. Creates a positive environment for negotiations. Ex: Do you have any room to negotiate/is there any flexibility?
Employers never rescind an offer just because a job seeker asks if there is any room to negotiate. This Requestive Channel Negotiation (RCN) has a success rate of 91%. Even if you are in the 9% who get to hear a “no”, the “no” comes along with a polite, almost apologetic explanation. There is no downside to this method, just a great chance of success. Even if the answer is negative, you still have the original offer.
RCN does not work for all kinds of jobs. There are two types of jobs – rated and ranged.
Rated jobs are those jobs which have fixed hourly, weekly or monthly rates. Irrespective of the qualification and intelligence of the candidate the rates are fixed so there is no room to negotiate. Ex: Teachers, many Healthcare professionals, fast food restaurant workers. 40% of the jobs are rated jobs.
Ranged jobs are those where the compensation is not fixed. Big companies have a range of all roles where they have set a minimum, a maximum and a midpoint of the salary range. Smaller, more entrepreneurial companies don’t have such detailed compensation structure but they still have a range.
The chance of success of salary negotiation is highly unlikely in rated jobs. One should still give it a try. Ranged jobs have a high chance of successful salary negotiation.
So, how is it done?
- The offer: The employer/recruiter contacts you with an offer.
- Inject some ambiguity: Thank them for the offer and probe for clarity. Ask for some time to consider all alternatives. Employers don’t take ambiguity well. At this point, they were looking forward to closing the position as soon as possible. Since you asked for time, they are already thinking you would join immediately if they come up with a higher salary package.
- Create your NISL: Get clear on what you want to negotiate and create your Negotiating Items Shortlist. Basic compensation should be last on your NISL. If you are a senior executive, base pay should be the second last thing, after security pay. Ex: I am coming to you with 10 years of experience. I used to get 4 weeks of paid vacation at my last employer but your company is offering only 2 weeks. Would you consider giving me 4 weeks of paid vacation?
- Call back: and pose your question about wiggle room. There are two probabilities, one they will ask what do you have in mind and negotiate or the second, they will say no. If no, you get a reason why.
- Negotiate for tomorrow: Asking for an accelerated/half yearly performance review is also something you can ask for in case the employer says that they don’t have flexibility in the package right now. This way you end up getting a raise sooner than the usual one-year appraisal.
Even if you get a no for an answer, you will have peace of mind since you tried.
Hiring Companies
Paul Quinn, VP
Codigo Connect provides services in Technical professional development, Recruitment and Project based work. Currently, they roles such as Python Developer, Business Center Rep, Java Developer, Tax Accountant, Sales Professional and Machine Learning Engineer open. Job seekers can send their updated resumes to careers@codigoconnect.com for consideration. Codigo Connect is also offering a referral bonus of $500.
Here is a list of their open positions.
Leo Ibarra, VP, Recruiting Manager
Tom Barnella, Recruiting Consultant
Northern Trust is a Financial corporation which provides asset management, asset servicing and banking services to individuals and companies. They take pride in providing work-life balance, professional development and diagonal movement to their employees. Some of their open positions include Technical Coordinator, Team Lead, Investment Performance Analyst, Bank Loan Trade Analyst, HR Admin Assistant, Risk Analytics Consultant and Associate Economist. For a list of their open roles please click here.
DeAnne Prigmore, Recruiter
DeAnne has been working at State Farm for the last 20 years. She credits the development opportunities available at State Farm as the reason for her long tenure. State Farm offers great pay, time off, work-life balance, and training opportunities.
DeAnne invited job seekers to visit the retail space under State Farm’s Marina Heights office to get a feel for the company. There is free two hour parking for visitors.
Check out their open roles here, including Attorney, Claim Associate, Java Developer and iOS Developer.
Ralph Kimbrough, Sr. Recruiter
Vanguard offers great work-life balance, growth and retirement investment plans to its employees. They are a big name in investment and every $9 out of $10 invested is invested through Vanguard. They have openings from entry-level to managerial level positions including Wealth Financial Advisor, Internal Sales Consultant, Brokerage Operations Manager, Advanced Analytics Specialist, and Editor. Find out more here.
Resources
Jason Jones, Sr. Admissions Advisor
Coder Camps offers 12-week boot camps in various software technologies. They have a Coder for life program which means any student is able to come back anytime after they have completed their course to take up any other courses for free.
They are a provider under the WIOA act and for those not eligible for the WIOA act, they have the option of payment plans if needed.
Students have the option of taking either on-campus or online course. Check out their course offerings here.
Closing
Jessica graciously thanked all company representatives, job seekers and volunteers for their time and participation.
The next event is at the Phoenix location on Wednesday, October 4th. Please register here.
Please find the list of all upcoming events here.
