Hello,
my name is David Hill
I am a business lawyer and professional negotiator. I can help you get the salary you deserve, and I want to do it. My aim with this blog is to give employees and job seekers professional but FREE advice on how to negotiate a salary.
You have two choices here:
1. Go to the FAQ page with Frequently Asked Question and see if you can find a solution to your problem there.
2. Describe your problem to me directly and I’ll answer. Click the “Comment” hyperlink below and ask your question in the “Leave a reply” box!
Best regards,
David Hill
May 18, 2009 at 8:25 pm |
Mr Hill,
It seems like I’m the first one to send a question. Anyway, I am up for a salary interview on Wednesday. I have been unemployed for eight months now so I really need this job! I don’t know what kind of information you need but I’d be grateful for any tips.
Thanks in advance
Richar
May 18, 2009 at 9:32 pm |
Richard,
Congratulations to your upcoming salary interview! I am sure you will do great. Since you have provided me with only little information, here are some general tips from me:
- Make sure you are well prepared when you go to the negotiation. Research shows that preparations is one of the key factors explaining why some negotiators succeed and others don’t. There are several steps to take. (i) You must find the “salary range”, i.e. the boundaries within which it is realistic to think that your salary possibly could land. If you can find stastics on the salary level for your kind of work, that is great. (ii) You must try to gather as much information as possible about the employer. You should use that information to make an attractive “product” of yourself, adapted to the interests of the employer. (iii) You must set up and write down an ambitious but realistic salary target, within the salary range.
- In a way, a negotiation is all about bargaining power. The party being most dependent on finding a salary to agree on will be the weaker party. I don’t know about your financial situation, but the fact that you have been unemployed for eight months may be a factor weakening your bargaining power. You must act as if you were dating a woman here: don’t show that you are desperate (if you are). On the contrary, give an appearance of independence.
- Remember the basic principle of any negotiation: you and the employer will only come to an agreement if both of you have more to gain by reaching an agreement than by not reaching an agreement. You aim must be to make the alternative to not agree on a given salary with you seem very unattractive for the employer. You can do this only by gathering the information about the employer that I discussed above.
This is not very specific information but only some general guidelines to stick to. If you provide me with more specific information about the job, the employer, a bit more about yourself, your work experience and so on, I’d be happy to help you some more.
Good luck!
David Hill
p.s. I’d be grateful if you answered some questions for me. Click on the Free eBooks! link above.