Get The Job You Want, Even When No One's Hiring: Take Charge of Your Career, Find a Job You Love, and Earn What You Deserve

Chapter 67. Salary Negotiation Made Simple: What to Say and How to Say It

I am often asked by clients, "What do I do when the help-wanted ad or Internet job posting I'm responding to demands that I include my salary history?" Another typical statement is, " I got a call about an interesting opportunity, but they wanted to know right away what salary I was looking for!" As we discussed earlier in the section on recruiters and search firms, you'll need to determine right away if the person is an external recruiter or an internal recruiter (employee of the company). Your strategy will be different depending on the answer.

If it's an external recruiter, you should share your salary expectations. After all, external recruiters have a vested financial interest in getting you the largest possible salary, because most of their compensation comes as a percentage of their successful candidate's salary.

On the other hand, when you're dealing with an internal employee, such as a human resources representative, any premature mention of your compensation requirements or your salary history will only hurt you later, when you're dealing with the ultimate decision maker during your real negotiations.

Note

You don't have to play by the rules of the employer or recruiter when it comes to discussions about compensation.

Remember, one of our main goals is for you to take charge of your career, and this includes mastering the entire negotiation process. You need to learn how to deflect and defer these up-front ...