My wife has been informally been offered a new job at a large multinational, and the HR lady dealing with the recruitment process has arranged a phone call with her tomorrow to discuss the offer. Basic situation is this:

– Manager type position in a fairly specialised area. Wife will be changing sectors and has direct experience in a related but not identical sector.
– Originally the company advertised for a job in Feb of this year, evidently they didn’t get too much response on account of it being such a specialised area – they kept stringing her along saying they’re waiting for other applicants.
– Eventually went to the 2nd stage of interviews where she got very good feedback and strong hints were dropped. Then received an apologetic phone call to say that the job had been offered to an applicant with direct experience in the sector but that they thought she was a very strong candidate.
– Couple of months later she got a phone call out of the blue saying can she come for chat – she did and it turned out the other applicant was an internal who has subsequently gone on a leave of absence and in any event they’ve found budget and would like to offer her a job…
– Currently underpaid by the new sectors standards but hasn’t revealed her old salary.

So I think she’s in a fairly strong position based on the above, as it’s a fairly specialised skill set she has. She’s quite keen to get the top end of the salary scale they’re offering… so what tips does the Oracle have to achieve this? Any stories of successful negotiations people want to share? I’d guess go with the following:

– Unique skill set
– They’ve not spent money on advertising the position
– Missing her end of year bonus at her current place of employment?

Happily progressing in her role, was interested but feels that it will needs to be attractive to make it worth the risk after all the changes of mind (I’d be a bit worried about this bit really is this company worth joining) likes the compnay but is in line for a rise in March and this has been alluded to etc etc, end of year bonus ..

Like that. Guess they have no way of checking really do they… I don’t think she’s come across as too keen (although she is!)

She must hold her nerve; my current employer offered me a decent salary but my response (accompanied by a mild look of distain) was “that sounds very low for the breadth of ability I’ll bring to the company” and then I shut up, and stayed shut up, and stayed shut up…cue 3 rather confused interviewers chatting behind cupped hands before they offered me a further 7% on my basic salary which I gratefully accepted and then negotiated up to include my family in the health care package and an better class of company car.
Knowing the market rate is the key and then its just about being bold but polite.

Extremely uncertain times to move job – if she moves she will lose all her employment rights with current employer. If her new employer wants to cut costs in the next year she can be made redundant with no payment.

The offer needs to reflect this increased risk.

In all negotiations never be the first person to say a number. Let them start (although if it has been advertised the parameters will be set)

Good point re: uncertain times. In reality the job is pretty secure (EU legal obligations) so she’s not actually worried about that, but certainly she’s been with her current employer for years so that’s a good point to raise.

Any tips on how to avoid saying a number?

They’ve asked her before and whilst she tried to avoid it they got the high end of the salary ball park out of her, so I guess she may have limited herself to that. That said that was a few months ago and at the time they said that the salary for the position was a bit below that but with ‘bonus it should be almost that’. I guess maybe ask for a guaranteed bonus of a specific percentage?

+1 for all the points above, especially getting them to be the first to name the package.

From there, an even more effective route to negotiate is to highlight the value and benefit she will bring to the organisation. So in response to the first offer made, her conversation would start off something like this:

“OK, well I can see that you want to hire me and you’ve made me an offer that reflects that, and I’m very excited about potentially joining the company, but I know I am worth more than what you’ve offered, not least to your organisation and here is why I believe that to be the case…

This is where she has to be able to very clearly and convincingly articulate her achievements. It’s important to be confident in these without being arrogant.

From there she then needs to link those achievements to what she can do for the company making the offer

“If I were to join your company, what I would be able to do is….. this is how I would add value…. these are the skills I would bring…this would be the benefit to you and for these reasons I know I am worth £XXX”

And then she has to STOP TALKING ON PAIN OF DEATH AND NOT SAY ANOTHER WORD UNTIL THE OTHER SIDE RESPONDS.

This last point is very important with negotiations as the first person to speak after that is the first person to concede power.

“It is very important that the salary of a post reflects its position within the heirarchy of the company. If you want to be respected by my peers you have to pay me accordingly.”

What’s the score on saying, thanks for the offer I will consider it and get back to you? Do you need to finish the deal on the spot?

I’ve never negotiated salary before so can’t really offer much advice to her…(other than squeeze them dry of course!)

What’s the score on saying, thanks for the offer I will consider it and get back to you? Do you need to finish the deal on the spot?

There’s nothing wrong with doing that.

In reality, it would be unusual for there to be a second counter from a candidate though, i.e. if your wife negotiated a better offer, which they made and she then went back having thought about it and tried to negotiate again. So the ‘thanks I will think about it’ would be acceptable but they would likely be expecting a yes or no as a result.

If it were me, I would also say exactly when I would get back to them and would aim to make it the next day. She might also want to ask if they had any objections to that.