I recently coached “Kathy” through a salary negotiation and thought I’d share the process.
The Set-Up:
Kathy is a young marketing associate and a recent college grad. After a year of working for a well-known tech company, she decided it was time to look for a new opportunity. She had a job offer from a well-known Wall Street firm. Though she was looking for a 5k increase in salary, her offer was only marginally more than her current salary. She was also close to an offer for a similar position with a recruiting firm specializing in the fashion industry. Two very different work environments indeed. Sometimes, the hardest part of the interview process is making a final decision!
She got the offer by phone. It was a bit of an odd situation. HR called her along with the panel of people who interviewed her and offered her the position. Said they’d email the offer letter and that if she had any questions or wanted to discuss anything to call her back.
The Dilemma:
Kathy wanted to know the outcome of the second interview before giving the Wall Street firm an answer, and she wanted more money. Step by step here’s what I coached her to do:
Towards the end of the day when the offer letter arrived…
• Call Wall Street firm. Tell them that you are so happy to have an offer from them. You did however get another offer that morning from another company who offered you a higher salary. You’d like a day or two to think about it and ask if there’s any way they could come up on the salary or match the other offer to make your decision making easier (translation: more “favorable” for the Wall Street firm).
In the meantime, while HR is going back to the Hiring Manager to discuss the salary negotiation…
• Call recruiting firm, let them know you got an offer from another firm, and they aren’t giving you much time to make a decision. You’d like to expedite the interview process since you’re still very interested in their position. Would it be possible to come in tomorrow?
Kathy goes to bed preparing for her final interview with the recruiting firm set for 11am the next morning, worried that the Wall Street firm will rescind their offer!
On her way to the interview she gets a call from the Wall Street firm. They really want her and they’re willing to match the other offer! Thrilled, she let’s them know she will get back to them by the end of the day.
Her interview with the recruiting firm goes well. She lets them know she needs to give the Wall Street firm an answer by the end of the day but is very interested in working with the recruiting firm and asks if they’d be making a decision by the end of the day. Unfortunately the recruiting firm wants to take all the candidates through the final process before making any decisions and that might take another week or so.
Kathy called the Wall Street firm and happily accepted their offer. She starts the job in 2 weeks.
Here’s what to take away.
• If she never asked for the higher salary she wouldn’t have gotten it.
• The Wall Street firm probably didn’t expect a negotiation from such a young candidate. It made her seem like she knew her own worth, wasn’t afraid to ask for what she wanted and showed them that she has other options.
• Even if the firm didn’t come up with the higher salary, she would have always wondered if she would have gotten it if she asked. Now she knows.
• The company didn’t rescind their offer. Even if they hadn’t come up with the higher salary, they probably still would have been impressed with how she negotiated.
• Kathy was indeed torn by the two opportunities she had in front of her. Timing doesn’t always work out that you can decide between two firm offers. But her negotiating a higher salary made her more comfortable with her decision. It was in fact not only a higher salary than she would have gotten from the recruiting firm but also a place with more upward mobility. Money wasn’t the only factor but it certainly helped.
MICHELE
Michele Mavissakalian worked in the competitive field of New York City recruiting for several years before going back to her creative roots. This career and interview advisor knows a thing or two about changing careers! She started as an actress, moved into freelance writing before recruiting and then finally settled on jewelry design, creating M MAVI JEWELRY. Her latest line was featured as a Staff Pick in the Nov 2010 issue of People StyleWatch Magazine and in Lucky Magazine’s Gifts for Her Guide. She is also currently the interview coach for The Ladders.com. For more info on M MAVI JEWELRY, click here.
