Salary Negotiation Advice
I currently work for a state DOT agen cy in the state of Texas. The state legislature in its infinite wisdom has mandated that all state data centers for every state agency will be consoildated into the new state data center. The contract to run the state data center consolidation has been won by IBM. I am a Syatems Analyst/DBA with 17 years of providing technical support to customers. I have 10 years of experience as Sybase ASE database administrator. I have 7 Years of experience as SQL Server database administrator My question is this : I interviewed with 2 managers from IBM over the phone and theyboth indicated that I was and ideal candidate for the job. II have been now been offered a job by a subcontractorto IBM. Thye job will be working for the contracting company at IBM , I will be on the contacting companies payroll not IBM's. . this company has a seven year contract with IBM toprovide them candidates to support the data center consolidationproject for the state of texas. What is the best plan of attack to negotiate a higher hourly rate than what has been offered. The letter of offer only indicated the hourly rate and made no mention of benefits,. I did however discuss benefits with the Human resources Manager of the contracting company. Should the negotiation be by emai, or phone. My idea was to email them that I could not make a sound decision without information about benefits bein offered and the cost of those benefits as well. What percentage would be a good starting point to ask for and what would be out of line. Example: If they offered 41 would 51or higher be out of line In addition , I have an offer pending with another company . So how do I handle that in the negotiation. Any help would be appreciated as I have to make a decision by the middle of next week. exercise your ability to ask for a specific salary Section of post does not conform with Monster TOU
Lets start with your first question. Ask your questions by phone! Talk to a real person so you can ask follow-up questions, listen to the other person's tone of voice, inflection, and any nuance of meaning. You can't do any of that via e-mail. Next, I think it's totally appropriate for you to ask what's included in the benefit package being offered. Generally speaking, benefits are usually worth anywhere from 25% to 35% of the salary offered, so you probably should anticipate that the benefit package will be worth an additional 30%, give or take, added on to the salary offer. If the total salary and benefit package is one you'd otherwise be pleased to accept, accept it! If you think the hourly rate is too low, start by politely asking if their initial offer is negotiable. If it is, and you're asked what hourly rate you have in mind, I'd counter with a range. Say something like, "I was anticipating an offer in the $X to $Y range, based on how well my qualifications fit the requirements of the job." If I were you, I'd be looking at an anticipated salary range that's at least equal to what you were earning before on the low end, and 10% more than you were earning on the high end. Finally, you have to treat each employment opportunity as a totally stand-along situation. You can't use the prospect of one job offer as leverage to negotiate a higher offer that's already on the table. Depending on how much you want or need the job that's before you, you have to deal with it as though no other offers were even out there. If, for some reason, this opportunity doesn't work out, another may, or may not come along when you'd like it to, so never try to play one prospective employer off against another - that's a sure way to lose the offer you'd really rather have or possibly lose them both! Paul W. Barada The Negotiation Expert | |
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