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Career Advice for Job Seekers

Good & Bad Examples of Salary Negotiations

William Frierson AvatarWilliam Frierson
October 22, 2013


Aaron Gouveia

Aaron Gouveia, Salary.com contributing writer

Ever wonder what works and what doesn’t regarding salary negotiation and asking for a raise? We asked you, our readers, about your last negotiating experience and it was easy to see what worked, what didn’t, and why.

Here are some real-life examples of salary negotiations along with our advice about what they did right, wrong, and how they could’ve handled things better.

Go Big or Go Home

Date of last raise: 2012
Prior salary research: Yes
Raise request: 35%
Raise received: 22%
User comments: “The main idea is not to focus on you. It’s not about you, it’s about the position and the responsibilities and what is expected of the position. Performance is rewarded on a different scale (regularly low 1-digit merit increases by year). I asked my manager what his appraisal of my performance was, the answer from good to excellent (I know that in advance). Having said that I said “OK, so I’m doing this right now I’d like to ask what you think about this position relative to X, Y, or Z in terms of responsibility and contribution to the company.” Clearly this gave me the ammo to question whether or not my current salary grade was aligned with that position appraisal, so the next step was to agree on commitments, time, follow-ups, etc. I had to also wait and understand that things don’t go forward by the snap of the fingers in the multinational corporation. I did have to follow up once or twice according to what we agreed upon but it came through alright.”

Salary.com says: Great job. This is a perfect example of doing everything right.

You started with research which is key. And although you asked for a pretty hefty sum in a 35% increase, you received a 22% raise because you did things the right way. When asking for a raise of this magnitude, you have to clearly show you’re in need of a market correction, or you’re going far above and beyond the original duties and job responsibilities for your position. Then you negotiated confidently, got your boss on your side by thinking of his needs and putting yourself in his shoes, and followed up until everything was complete. It’s wise not to believe you’d get the entire 35% since that’s asking a lot, but a 22% raise is way above average. Bravo. Continue reading . . .

Article by Aaron Gouveia and courtesy of Salary.com

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