What Salary Should I Ask For?
A tricky question to answer, “What Salary Should I Ask For?” will determine your professional worth. During the job application process, it is necessary to ask. There are bits of advice floating around that claim that you should avoid specific figures when speaking about salary with employers. However, the reality is, ultimately, it's difficult to avoid providing a precise figure.
How Do I Know What Salary to Ask For?
Even online applications require that you include the specific numerical salary expectation. It is normal to be a bit nervous about what numerical value to ask for, especially if you are talking to a hiring manager. When you have all the information and know the facts about your worth and the market rates, you can feel confident when naming a price.So when you are trying to determine what kind of figure to provide, you need to deal with the stress of not low-balling yourself. However, don't come in too high either or they may not offer to give you an interview. To handle this situation, you need to do some thorough research.
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Asking for the Right Salary
To ask for an appropriate salary in regard to your abilities and the market, you need to know your job market and compare rates based on your geographic location.- Researching Figures
You need to start this process by researching many websites for your particular field and area. Observe and compare the prevailing rates of individual companies if the data are available, as well as the generic rates for your profession as a whole.
Research goes deeper than searching online. Ask your peers and colleagues in your field for what they believe would be a respectable rate for your experience level and abilities. Get an answer to the question, “What salary should I ask for?” Take the average rate from the various peer suggestions and compare them to the website rates.
If you can get in touch with agency workers or human resources executives, speak with them about the average going rates at their companies. Even if you are not applying to that specific company speaking about pay rates can be beneficial to you. - Reputations Are Everything
Taking the reputations of various companies and fields into account will help you make an educated decision about determining the rate for which you should ask. Ask around and do more online research about a company that you are interested in before you apply.
Maybe the company is known for grossly underpaying their employees. If money is an important factor in your career, then you probably wouldn't even bother applying at that point. Additionally, for some fields, the average salary information is supplied as public knowledge through government sources. Verify your offer against the information provided to make sure that your offer is in the proper range. - Know Your Achievements
It helps in the negotiation process if you can come up with reasons and concrete examples about how you have improved the companies for which you have worked. Talk about your competence and skill level in your field.
Reference your resume and your successes; if they are true, you should be proud and willing to brag about yourself a bit. Make sure that when you talk about your achievements and accolades, you relate everything to the job position that you have now or are for which you are applying. Trying to exceed the requirements of a job posting could label you as overqualified, with you expecting more money than they are budgeting for that posting. - Accepting or Rejecting an Offer
After the hiring manager brings up the topic of salary, you can begin the negotiation process. Eventually, the interviewer or HR representative will propose a number, and at that point, it is up to you to either accept or reject the offer.
If they have proposed an offer and you feel as though it is below what you believe that you could receive and deserve don't be afraid to decline. There is nothing worse than having a job and feeling undervalued because you accepted low pay.
If you feel as though there is a bit of room for negotiation, attempt to counter their low offer with a slightly higher one. You can also negotiate for vacation time, bonuses, and other benefits. At that point, you reach no middle ground, you can consider declining their offer, thanking them for their time, and then moving on to another job application. Of course if you have no problems with the amount that they offered, then go ahead and accept the offer.
