Negotiating an increased salary during the recruiting process

[Deleted User]

Has anyone managed to nudge up their starting salary with some cheeky negotiation?

I am a keen advocate of the "if you don't ask, you don't get" process.. however i tried this quite recently and got a fairly flat response back.

Any success stories?

wrightk

never had the balls to, to be honest! just thankful i have now got a job would love to hear some storys though

Jerryjerryjerry

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Has anyone managed to nudge up their starting salary with some cheeky negotiation?

I am a keen advocate of the "if you don't ask, you don't get" process.. however i tried this quite recently and got a fairly flat response back.

Any success stories?

Yes! Mine is a success story. When, at the end of the interview I was asked if I had any questions, I replied "i've not got any questions, more of a comment really".

I said, "for the hours you're required to work, its a very low salary, if you don't mind my saying".

The interviewer then rang me the next day to offer me the job on the advertised salary. I told him that I was interested in the job, but not on the salary they were offering. I told him that I could see myself taking the job and continuing to look for a better paid job. He told me he'd ring me back later.

He rang a few hours later and said, "if we were to offer you (+£1,500) per year with a review in 3 months, would it be of more interest? I told him that yes, it would be a lot more attractive if they were to offer me that. Then I accepted the job! I start on Monday! .

Not only have I got a great job and I no longer have to work for a bullying ogre, I have a salary I'm happy with!

I think its only worth negotiating, at offer stage. Because you are the person they want and they are more likely to offer more to get you. No point in negotiating at interview. You don't even know if you're in the running at that stage most of the time.

Gordon_Hose

If you're going to negotiate you need to be realistic. Otherwise you'll get laughed out of the building.

heretolearn_2

There's nothing wrong with asking if there is any flexibility on the salary. What have you got to lose?

But if you aren't prepared to take the job at the advertised rate if they say no, I don't think you should apply in the first place. I've had someone do this to us, and it annoys the h*** out of me. We've advertised salary range of A to B. Lots of people apply. We narrow this down to say 6 to interview. We spend all day interviewing. We shortlist from that down to 2 or 3 best candidates. We meet again to pick the lucky winner. We call them and find out it was all a complete waste of time, they will only do it for B+£5k. We are a small firm, if we had an extra 5k for salaries sitting around we'd've given it to someone by now. They've taken up an interview space someone else could have had, we've now got to go back to number 2 choice instead (who we naturally now feel slightly disappointed in having to go to as they aren't the best candidate).

[Deleted User]

The salary was advertised as 'excellent' on some websites, or between X and Y on others.. to be honest, the 'package' they offered was a good increase on my current salary (30% increase, and a bit above the Y value) but the 'base salary' was only a few grand more than i'm already on. So.. i asked if there was any room for manoeuvres.

Turns out, there wasn't. I've got skills that are hard to come by and knowledge of specialist software, so i thought it was worth the punt. They've not offered me anything in writing yet, so i'll see what they do now.

I've got a stable job, i'm pretty valuable at work and they know it - but its a hard-arsed american company who don't give payrises much. I doubt this firm has even interviewed anyone else, since they've been advertising the job for 4 months.

I shall see what they come back with.. although i can hardly turn down a 14k increase in salary

heretolearn_2

sounds like a win-win either way :-)

bristol_pilot

I have managed to increase salary at the offer stage, I was in a strong negotiating position having specialised skills and being currently employed at a similar wage to that on offer. They did stretch to another £5k, but I declined in the end as the increase would not have made it worthwhile for me to move and they could not stretch any further.

I do have to say though that a maximum salary had not been advertised at the outset.

[Deleted User]

Well i think i've learned to not offer any details of my current salary and package prior to them giving an offer.. think i shot myself in the foot with that.

It is win-win.. but i do take a risk moving jobs in the current market, and its got to be worth it

Sambucus_Nigra

I once was in a very good job and told the chap interviewing me that I'd not consider moving jobs unless it was at least 10k more, and he offered 17k more. I said I'd think about it. He said I had until Monday. I accepted on the Monday

cubegame

Unless you're really desperate you should always look to ask for more. Like someone selling a car it is unlikely that the company will be offering you their best price.

If a company withdraws a job offer because of you asking then you probably don't want to work for them anyway.