How To Negotiate Salary During An Interview

How To Negotiate Salary During An Interview

Let’s consider two scenarios.

Scenario A:

After all the hard work and a gruelling interview, you finally get that job you wished for. But the salary offered doesn’t make you so happy. You are left in a dilemma about whether or not to accept this job offer.

 

Scenario B:

You finally get a job offer where you feel the salary is sufficient. And you have considered accepting the role for this remuneration. But then again, there is a little doubt in the back of your head that what if you are being paid below the current wages for this position in your area.

 

The solution to both these scenarios is to learn how to negotiate a higher salary after a job offer.

 

Research suggests that remuneration and benefits are the biggest factor for candidates to accept a job offer. At the same time, employers are also ready to increase wages to hire the best talent. In 2022, Asia-Pac companies are estimating an average salary increase of 5.3% against 4.9% in 2021.

 

Thus, don’t settle for the first salary that you are offered. Instead, let's look at some areas of consideration that will help you become ready for salary negotiation.

 

1. Understand Your Worth

2. Be Prepared to Justify Your Expectations

3. Think Beyond The Salary

4. Understand The Employer's Constraints

 

1. Understand Your Worth

Think before you accept any job offer. Even if the new offer seems promising to you, probably because of your current remuneration, there is a possibility that you deserve a lot more than this. To make a fruitful salary negotiation, understand how much your skills and services are worth in your industry. Do adequate research so that you neither end up accepting a lowball offer nor demanding an unrealistically high salary for the skills and expertise you bring to the company. There is plenty of information available on online portals like Payscale and Glassdoor regarding the Singapore salary trends for your position and experience. You may also reach out to other people in your field to understand the ongoing wages.

 

For instance, if you have a niche skill, the average your advantage during pay negotiation. However, keep in mind that in the dynamic technology world, skills are outdated soon and new skills take over. So, keep yourself upskilled to stay worthy in the market.


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2. Be Prepared to Justify Your Expectations

Keep in mind that the hiring or HR manager across the table would be an expert in salary negotiations. Therefore, you should not only come up with the right number but also be able to justify it. You can talk about how valuable a resource you are at your current job. How you created processes that helped in reducing cost or increased revenue, or sales, etc. in the past. The more irreplaceable you can show yourself to be, the more successful you will be in convincing your potential employer. 

 

At the same time, be prepared for tough and tricky spots that HR might put you in. To successfully budget such a situation, you must know how to negotiate a higher salary without making money look like your only motivation.

 

3. Think Beyond The Salary

Instead of focusing on the salary part alone, consider other aspects of the job offer too. Consider a case where a company is offering lower than what you expected, yet it has lucrative additional benefits that compensate for the low remuneration. So, while negotiating for a salary you should keep the benefits also in mind such as better health plans to cover your whole family, additional leaves, flexible working options, learning and development opportunities, better career progression prospects, etc.

 

4. Understand The Employer’s Constraints

You believe you deserve more. Well, the company might think that too. They like you and want you to be a part of their team but unfortunately, they can’t really increase your salary.

 

There are limitations on the employer’s side too such as budget constraints, salary caps, HR policies, etc.

 

Before you start pushing for a higher salary, you should rather figure out to what extent they are flexible. Let’s say the company is simultaneously hiring 10 more people for similar roles, then they can’t offer you an exceptionally higher salary than others. But of course, they may provide you with other benefits to make up for the salary offer. Try discussing with HR about additional benefits like sign-on bonus, additional annual leaves,  etc.

 

How to negotiate a higher salary after a job offer is an acquired skill. Keeping all the above points in mind, and coming up with a right and feasible number, are definitely going to increase the chances of your salary being revised.

 

But not attempting to negotiate at all can leave you a year or two behind in terms of salary. During the research, maybe you discover that you are more valuable than you thought!


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