What Color Is Your Parachute?

If the Person Who Would Be Below You Makes	And the Person Who Would Be Above You Makes	The Range for Your Job Would Be
$45,000	$55,000	$47,000-$53,000
$30,000	$35,500	$32,500-$34,000

One teensy-tiny little problem here: how do you find out the salary of those who would be above and below you? Well, first you have to find out their names or the names of their positions. If it is a small, small organization you are going after—one with twenty or fewer employees—finding out this information should be duck soup. Any employee who works there is likely to know the answer, and you can usually get in touch with one of those employees, or even an ex- employee, through your own personal “bridge-people”—people who know you and also know them. Since up to two-thirds of all new jobs are created by small companies of that size, that’s the size organization you are likely to be researching, anyway.

If you are going after a larger organization, then you fall back on that familiar life preserver, namely every person you know (family, friend, relative, business, or spiritual acquaintance) and ask them who they know that might know the company in question, and therefore, the information you seek. LinkedIn should prove immensely helpful to you here, in locating such people. If you’re not already on it, get on it. (LinkedIn.com.)

If, in the end, you absolutely run into a blank wall at a particular organization (everyone who works there is pledged to secrecy, and they have shipped all their ex-employees to Siberia), then seek out information on their nearest competitor in the same geographic area. For example, let us say you were trying to find out managerial salaries at Bank X, and that place was proving to be inscrutable about what they pay their managers. You would then turn to Bank Y as your research base, to see if the information were easier to come by, there. And if it were, you can then assume the two are basically similar in their pay scales, and that what you learned about Bank Y is probably applicable to Bank X.

Experts say that in researching salaries, you should also take note of the fact that most governmental agencies have civil service positions paralleling those in private industry—and government job descriptions and pay ranges are available to the public. Go to the nearest city, county, regional, state, or federal civil service office, find the job description nearest what you are seeking in private industry, and then ask the starting salary.

Once you’ve made a guess at what the employer’s range might be, for the job you have in mind, you then define your own range accordingly. Let me give an example. Suppose you guess that the employer’s range is $36,500 to $47,200. Accordingly, you now invent an “asking” range for yourself, where your minimum “hooks in” just below that employer’s maximum.

And so, when the employer has stated a figure (probably around his or her lowest—i.e., $36,500), you will be ready to respond with something along these lines: “I understand, of course, the constraints under which all organizations are operating these days, but I am confident that my productivity is going to be such, that it will justify a salary”—and here you mention a range whose bottom figure hooks in just below the top of their range, and goes up from there, as shown on the diagram above—”in the range of $47,000 to $58,000.”

It will help a lot during this discussion, if you are prepared to show in what ways you will make money or in what ways you will save money for that organization, such as would justify the higher salary you are seeking. Hopefully, this will get you at least near the salary you want.

What if this just doesn’t work? The employer has a ceiling they have to work with, it’s above what you’re asking, and you are unwilling to lower your definition of what you’re worth? Daniel Porot, the job-expert in Europe, suggests that if you’re dying to work there, but they cannot afford the salary you need and deserve, consider offering them part of your time. If you need, and believe you deserve, say $50,000 annually, but they can only afford $30,000, you might consider offering them three days a week of your time for that $30,000 (30/50 = 3/5). This leaves you free to take work elsewhere during those other two days. You will of course determine to produce so much work during those three days per week you are there, that they will be ecstatic about this bargain—won’t you?

THE SIXTH SECRET OF SALARY NEGOTIATION

KNOW HOW TO BRING THE SALARY NEGOTIATION TO A CLOSE; DON’T LEAVE IT “JUST HANGING”

Salary negotiation with this employer is not finished until you’ve addressed both salary and so-called fringe benefits. “Fringes” such as life insurance, health benefits or health plans, vacation or holiday plans, and retirement programs typically add anywhere from 15 to 28 percent to many workers’ salaries. That is to say, if an employee receives $3,000 salary per week, the fringe benefits are worth another $450 to $840 per week.

Before you walk into the interview, you should decide what benefits are particularly important to you, so after the basic salary discussion, when you ask them what benefits are on offer, you can negotiate for the benefits you particularly care about. Thinking this out ahead of time makes that negotiating easier, by far.

Finally, under the subject of closing the interview, you want to get everything they’re offering summarized, in writing. Always request a letter of agreement—or employment contract.

Many executives unfortunately “forget” what they told you during the hiring-interview, or even deny they ever said such a thing.

Also, many executives leave a company abruptly and unexpectedly, and their successor or the top boss may disown any unwritten promises:

“I don’t know what caused them to say that to you, but they clearly exceeded their authority, and of course we can’t be held to that.”

CONCLUSION: THE GREATEST SECRET

We are hoping, of course, that your interview and salary negotiation end up well. There are times, however, when all seems to be going well, and then without any warning it suddenly comes totally unraveled. You’re hired, told to report next Monday, and then get a phone call on Friday telling you that all hiring has been put, mysteriously, “on hold.” You’re therefore back out “on the street.” Having seen this happen so many times, over the years, I remind you of the truth we began with, in chapter 1: successful job-hunters and career-changers always have alternatives.