Negotiating An Offer Once the Offers Come In Professor Laurie Weingart Asst. Professor, Industrial Administration, GSIA Graduate Student Seminar Jan. 12, 1995 Notes by Amy Moormann Zaremski Handout: Negotiating a Job Offer (with some additional notes) 1. Collect information about the market Talk to: - your advisor - other faculty. find out what kind of offers your dept is making - friends recently in job market, or currently looking - placement center (esp for info about industrial positions) - trade magazines often have salary surveys 2. Identify issues. - Salary. Often negotiable, but sometimes fairly regulated by administration for first-year faculty. - Benefits (health insurance, retirement plan, etc) Usually not very negotiable. - signing bonus/start-up money. - length of appointment. This varies a lot in industry. Find out what's standard in your field. - tenure clock. Not usually negotiable, but helps to compare offers from different schools. When does clock start if you go into job ABD? What does it take to get tenure here? - summer support. how many summers? to what extent? - moving/packing expenses - teaching load. how many courses/semester? how many different courses (less prep time if teach multiple instances of same course). Grad or undergrad? Reduced load first semester? - computer needs. what do you need to get your job done well? hardware? software? printer? - research support. - lab set-up (equipment, location, space) - travel support. funding to travel to conferences. fixed amount or fixed number of conferences. what about international conferences? - secretarial support - graduate assistants - publishing. If academia, how much is expected? If industry, is it permitted/encouraged? - membership in professional organizations - office location. It's important to be close to the people you'll be working with. - parking - work hours/telecommuting (more of an issue in industry) - help in finding housing/ job for spouse or SO - child care support - consulting opportunities/restrictions - travel requirements. If you're gone a lot, will they fly spouse to see you or compensate somehow? 3. Identify which issues are most important to you. (Prioritize) 4. Identify which issues are most important to the school. What is most costly for them? Are they primarily a research or teaching institution? 5. Compare answers to 3 and 4. Be willing to be flexible and trade off when negotiating. 6. Before you negotiate, find out what the norms are in your field. 7. When negotiating: a. Remember that you are in a powerful position ( once they make an offer and before you accept ) b. Take notes. c. Find out how much time you have to decide. d. Don't commit during negotiation call. 8. If you decide to accept, get everything in writing, especially promises about future actions. 9. If you decide to reject, call the person you were negotiating with to inform them and follow it up with a letter. ------------------------------------------ More notes: The initial offer ----------------- Be enthusiastic, but don't commit to anything. Negotiating ----------- Negotiation means give and take on both sides. The goal is to identify a "zone of agreement". Identify the minimum you will accept ("resistance") and your ideal ("target"). The school/company will also have a resistance and target. Hopefully, they will overlap. The zone of agreement is the area in which you negotiate. - Plan ahead. Know what you want before you begin negotiating. - Consider how you look from the employer's perspective. How badly do they want you? Are you unique? - Remember that not every issue is a "fixed pie". On some issues, both sides can win. Salary is a fixed pie -- if you get $1000 more, they have to pay $1000 more. But a more expensive computer may cost more, but the school/company may get more/better work from you, so they win too. - Let the school/company set the tone of the negotiation. Responses to particular questions --------------------------------- - What salary do you want? Try to avoid answering this. You want them to give a number first. Possible responses: -- "I'm looking for a competitive offer" -- "I'm looking for the best overall package; salary depends on what else is included in the package" - What is your salary history? This is another way for them to determine a minimum salary they could offer you. Possible responses: -- "This job is not comparable to my previous job(s), so my salary history is not relevant." -- "My qualifications have improved/ I have an additional degree now, so my salary history is not relevant." - Questions about other offers/interviews Avoid too much detail about other interviews. If you name a place and then don't get an offer from them, it can look bad. If you have other offers, you can mention that fact. Generally it's better not to give specifics of the offer, unless you are trying to nudge a stalled negotiation. - Questions about a spouse or children. They are not allowed to ask these questions in an interview, but they do. General approach is to make them understand that it should not be a factor in deciding to hire you. Possible responses: -- "That's not relevant to this interview process" -- "My spouse does X (e.g., is a lawyer), and it will be easy for him/her to get a job here, so that is not an issue" Once you have an actual offer, you may want to mention your spouse's job search in case the school/company is willing to help them find a job.