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1.2. 5 Common Salary Negotiation Mistakes to Avoid!

If you are planning to negotiate a salary or ask for a salary raise, PES has this advice that you don’t make any of these 5 Common Mistakes:

• Avoid raising salary issue until the question about ‘your salary requirements’ is raised by the employer.
• Do not know how much you are really worth.
• Specify a single salary figure without room to move later on.
• Forget to calculate benefits as part of the compensation package.
• Fail to raise intelligent salary questions about the job and the employer.

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2.2. Salary Negotiation for Candidates

Salary negotiation for many people can be an emotional experience. Candidates want the job, but they also need more money, or they simply want to feel that they are getting paid what the job is worth from the prospective employer. To add to this dilemma, how do you negotiate a higher salary or improved fringe benefits, as a graduating student, if you have little or no experience?

Negotiating is not only saying, ‘I want more money’. PES would encourage candidates to analyze some questions and get a better understanding before any negotiation takes place, such as:

• What is the salary range of the job that the employer and of the industry have established?
• What is the lowest salary that I will consider?
• What makes me worth a higher salary?

Even if you know the answers to these questions, there will most likely be some objections to your request for more money, such as:

• You do not have sufficient experience or relevant experience
• Other employees are not making more
• The budget won’t permit it and, of course, the ever popular
• That is what we are paying new hires.

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Stay calm when you are being cornered. Ask the employer what would it take to get to that higher range of salary. Raise some intelligent questions and remember you are looking for a way to reach an accommodation.