How to Negotiate a Job Offer: The Do's and Don’ts

You finally have a job offer! That's an excellent step towards your career path. However, are you sure that what they're currently offering you is the best thing you can get? Maybe not, but you'll never know until you negotiate. Learning to negotiate a job offer is crucial if you want to make sure you can take advantage of this opportunity.

The following “do’s and don’ts” should help you evaluate if the current opportunity is worth it and how you can "improve it" by learning how to negotiate a job offer.

Negotiate new job offer: What to do before

There are a few things that you need into account in the early stages of your current job offer. First, salary negotiation is something that not everyone knows how to do, but it is an art available for all kinds of people. For instance, you can start by creating an empathetic connection with your negotiator. According to experts, this is an excellent strategy and a good approach.

During these times, hybrid remote work has become prominent in many workplaces. Thus, it is recommended to find out if the current workplace has these opportunities available for your current position (if you haven’t found that already during the interview, of course).

Do’s

Before you apply for a job, it is highly recommended to research how worthy your experience and abilities are in the current industry.  You can start by figuring out what the salary is for employees at that company or similar workplaces, which is possible by going through the information available publicly, or you can also do some networking and get to know what you need by talking to current or old employees directly.

It’s also recommendable taking a trip through websites like Payscale.com and Salary.com. These sites will help you compare salaries between diverse roles in different industries. Remember that employee performance isn’t something that only leaders can measure.

You may also evaluate the following aspects:

• Research about the company and see whether it will help you find opportunities for career growth, along with its overall reputation and such.
• Again, it is highly recommendable to be conscious of your skills and accomplishments. This way, you can demonstrate how valuable your work is to the employer.
• Be realistic. Your expectations are one thing, but what you’ll be offered is another.
• It’s also a good idea to learn a bit more about cultural diversity in the workplace.

Don’ts

Before you start the interview, try to keep in mind that you should not inflate your current earnings. Having this mindset can be counterproductive. Furthermore, you can let the employer know how valuable your skills and experience are by bringing them up to them. This way, you will let them know that you are able to help the business comply with its long-term objectives.

While you're evaluating the offer, it is not recommended to accept it before knowing all the terms – of going through them in writing. Accepting a job just because you need money isn't the best idea either. Moreover, you should not accept the first opportunity if you don’t know to negotiate a job offer. You can do this if you feel confident about the company and the role overall and think that it is a great opportunity for growth.

How to negotiate a job offer: What to do during the process

Do’s

As we mentioned in the first paragraph, it is important to start by creating a connection with the employer. It is important to develop empathy to a certain degree with the person you’re talking with. In other words, you should let them “humanize” you. You can also try to get some information about the interviewer before you start negotiating your salary. For instance, you may start by their LinkedIn profile and see what some of their highlights are.

• What are their motivations?
• What inspires them?

It is important to get to know who you’ll be dealing with before the actual negotiation starts. This way, you can get to know what you’re stepping into.

Once you start negotiating the offer, remember to keep an open mind so you can evaluate and negotiate the offer accordingly. Furthermore, you should always let the employer make the first move once you begin the salary negotiation phase. If you want to take a new job offer, it is recommended to let the employer bring up the topic first so that you can get to know if the offer is fair based on your skills and experience.

It is also hugely recommended to negotiate diverse components of your offer. Focusing solely on the salary isn’t the best thing to do, especially if it’s impossible.

Don’t’s

It is not recommendable to bring up your current salary. This action can be counterproductive, as you may be plotting against yourself unnoticeably. If you want to negotiate a job offer salary, it is best if you don’t bring up payment to the conversation and let your employer do it first.

It may be possible for the interviewer to ask you how much you’d like to get paid, but the best thing to do in this situation is to ask what the budget for the position is. It’s always recommendable to let the employer be the first one to bring out a number. It's also likely that the number you hear will be lower than expected, but who says you're not allowed to make a counteroffer? If you think it is still too short but think the opportunity is too good to let it pass, try to negotiate a raise after you've been in the job for about six months if you meet the goals you both agreed to.

Conclusion

Evaluating team performance is different from analyzing your skills individually. When you're first offered a job, you should know how valuable your abilities are and how you can help the company grow and become more prominent in the market. 

Learning how to negotiate a job offer may be tricky at first, but you'll figure out the best approach to this once you get to know yourself and your skills better.