Community Employment Resource Centre

Ask A Job Coach

The Community Employment Resource Centre (CERC) brings you this weekly column as an extension of our on-line service. We provide referrals to other agencies, advice on job search issues, as well as dates and / or information pertaining to upcoming job fairs. We invite you to use this service by dropping into or calling either office (Cobourg: The Fleming Building, 905-372-9372; Port Hope: Lakeland Place, 74L Queen St. (beside Town Hall), 905-885-2372) or through our website: www.cercnorthumberland.com.

QUESTION

I have just been called back for a second interview and believe that the interviewer is going to ask me about my salary expectations. How do I go about negotiating the offer?

ANSWER

There is no doubt that salary negotiation is a delicate art. Your best bet is to go into the interview with as much information as possible. Without question, you should research the salary for your position and company itself. Specifically, you should consider the following bargaining points:

® Know the worth of your position – be aware of the low, mid and high salary range to use as a guideline. Try: http://www.labourmarketinformation.ca.

® Clarify what qualifies you to make more that the average pay and the employer’s initial offer – what added value do you offer the employer. The best approach is to take the job description for the position and analyze how you can add more to the bottom line for the company (always their main interest).

® Determine your target salary and benefits – a general guideline would be 15-20% above the employer’s initial offer, and determine which benefits are necessary for you and those that are nice to have.

® Forecast how long you are willing to wait for the offer you want – this would depend on how quickly you need the income.

Through all this, try not to let the typical fears about negotiating get in your way. These fears might include:

® If you ask for more, you may jeopardize the offer

® You don’t consider yourself the wheeler-dealer type

® The company really means it when they say that they have no more to offer – most often, with the exception being government or academia, the employer has 15 – 20 % more in the budget than what they initially offer the candidate

® Being seen as greedy

® You don’t believe your skills merit asking for more

When it comes time to evaluate an offer, you should base your judgement on your core values. Below is a list to consider - identify your top 9.

Financial security	Aesthetics	Competition	Great wealth
Social contact	Recognition	Helping others	Using tech skills
Spiritual fulfillment	Excitement	Variety	Intellectual stimulation
Independence	Challenge	Flextime	Minimum stress
Short commute	Mastery	Leadership	Minimum stimulation
Routine	Advancement

Make a pros and cons type list where the values that are satisfied are put on the pro side and those that aren’t are put on the con side. This is usually very visual with one side outweighing the other.

Good luck!!