Table of Contents

1. Hold Off on the Salary Talk
2. Never Talk Salary History
3. Do Your Research
4. Let them Know You Have Other Offers
5. Accepting, or Rejecting the Offer

Did you know that you can negotiate your salary BEFORE accepting the job offer, not just during performance reviews or promotions? 

How should you negotiate your starting salary? Find out below:

1. Hold Off on the Salary Talk

Don’t immediately bring up salary in the first few conversations you have with the employer. You want to get as much information as you can about the role, the requirements, and your future team/manager. 

This doesn’t mean to NEVER bring up salary, you want to make sure you are aligned with what the company is willing to pay before getting too far into the interview process, but you also don’t want to give a range that’s under what they can afford or that all you care about is the salary, even though that is a huge part of applying to jobs. 

If the employer brings it up in the first conversation, you can tell them that you’d like to learn more about the team, role, and company before discussing salaries.

2. Never Talk Salary History

Employers should know better than to ask you for what your most recent or current job was paying you, but if they do ask this question – just know that it is illegal in most states. 

If you are asked this question, you can say something like “I do not feel comfortable discussing this information.” And then decide post-conversation if you want to work for an employer who asked that question.

3. Do Your Research

You want to head into any interview with a realistic number of what salary range you are comfortable accepting. You’ll of course want to figure out what your personal financial responsibilities are, and consider what salary you were previously making. 

Next, research how much that job title typically makes – you can use a tool like salary.com to research the job title and narrow it down by location, experience, and more. You can also look on Glassdoor to see if the company you’re interviewing with has salaries listed to get a sense of what others at that company are making. 

This will help you ask for a realistic salary range, especially if you are asking higher than what they are initially offering.

4. Let Them Know You Have Other Offers

You can casually let them know that you have other offers or are talking with other companies to let them know that you are in demand – if you are their top candidate or only candidate, they may increase their offer before they send it over to you.

If you feel comfortable doing this, use it in the later stages of the interview process, or as a negotiation tactic once they send over an offer.

5. Accepting, or Rejecting the Offer

The company may not always be able to increase their offer, a lot of factors are at play with what they can offer a candidate. 

If you have asked for an increase and they say no, it is up to you to decide how important the increase is versus all the information you have about the job, team, and company. If you really love the opportunity and everyone you talked with does that outweigh the offer being lower than what you were hoping for? 

Walking away from an offer is okay if you feel like there is a better opportunity for you out there!