On Thu, Dec 07, 2006 at 02:21:30PM -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Anyone have any advice on negotiating salary at a new job interview? > I'm afraid to ask too low cuz then I'm short changing myself. > I'm afraid to ask too high and scare people away. > Damned if I do and damned if I don't. > > Also, not really sure what a Ph.D. programmer should > expect in commercial world these days.
You need to have a good idea of what's "realistic" when you walk in the door. I know there are all sorts of salary surveys out there... sometimes they're pretty silly, because they make assumptions about certain jobs or titles that don't necessarily apply to everyone who has that job or title. Back to "negotiating"... I'm going to guess that you don't have a problem with negotiating, per se, as you do with the new employer wanting you to tell them what you want, instead of them telling you what they're looking to pay :-) Whomever gives a number first loses. One thing you can do, when they ask you for your number is to respond with something like, "I need to consider the whole compensation package. can you tell me what your standard vacation, insurance, retirement, 401(k), etc. and the salary range for this position?" IMO, a "good" employer isn't going to be looking to try to get you to nail yourself down with too low of a number. They already have at least an idea of what they're looking to pay, and shouldn't mind sharing that with you, and then negotiating where you'll fit in that range based on your experiences. If they're really insistent on you going first, I'd be worried that they're looking to do you wrong. This is also why I hate jobs that ask for (or insist upon) a salary history. What does it matter to them what I made at my old job? Sure, I agree that it gives some idea of where the candidate is in the job world, but really not much. I've had jobs that have paid crap because the market was in the crapper or because I was getting good experience in something, just as I've had jobs where I've made waaaaay too much money :-) All a new employer should care about is how much am I worth to him, not how much was I worth to someone else. I tend to skip salary histories. If they come back and ask for it, I try to do an end-run and get them to tell me what they're looking to pay. If that doesn't work out, if they insist that I go first, I take that as a sign that it just isn't meant to be :-) -- *********************************************************************** * John Oliver http://www.john-oliver.net/ * * * *********************************************************************** -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
