"I will not discuss my earnings with my fellow workers inside this organization or with people outside this organization."
How, then do you find out? From friends, relatives, neighbors, or colleagues.
Don't crassly ask, "How much money do people like you make?"
But do ask light, tactful questions such as "How much do you think someone in this position might make at ABC Distributors? Is there any way to find out what they pay, and what the earnings potential is at ABC?"
Any organization's pay scale is part of its reputation.
And if you ask around, ask enough people, and if you ask tactfully, you can find out the answers.
If you go into an interview without knowing, you haven't done enough homework/research, and you will not be in Full Control.
Salary Information in Other Organizations
The more you know about what other organizations are paying their people, the more Control you will have in the interview with Your Chosen Organization. .. or, at least, in the interview with Whatever Company you're lucky enough to have an interview with.
This, too, you can discover through the public or university libraries in your city, through books written about salaries in various fields, or from the local office of your state or provincial job/employment/unemployment office.
How to Answer "The Big Question"
After a pleasant, possibly successful interview, The Big Question usually comes up.
You hope it comes up.
If it does, you can usually conclude that "they're interested in me."
The Big Question, of course, is:"How much money are you looking for?"
If they ask you this, they're usually interested.
It's possible they're not interested, and that they are merely collecting information, so that they will be able to offer their #1 candidate an appropriate salary, but usually, it means "We're interested."
How do you answer the tough question, "How much will you take?"
If you've not done your homework/research, if you do not know the salary information about The Job, The Company and The Field, the likelihood is that you will not do very well in your reply.
Do the research, so that you can be In Control.
If you know the information, you can answer the question this way: you can provide information, not merely a reply.
Employers always like information. They appreciate it, and if you can enlighten them about an important subject, you, too, will be appreciated.
You do not want to answer the question directly. You do not want, then, to "name an amount of money."
Everything "depends." In life, everything "depends."
Life is full of trade-offs.
So, too, is your job and the job offer you are negotiating for.
It might be the best job in the world, but for $8,000 annually, it wouldn't be.
It might be fun, but if you're working with dolts, with narrow-minded people, it wouldn't be.
So provide information . . . information which will allow the other person in the room to "handle the situation about your salary situation."
Here is a good way to answer the "How much money are you looking for?" question:
- "The job is much more important to me than the money is."
- "This organization is exactly what I am looking for."
- "I've been doing some salary research, a personal project, on my own .. .just to be aware of what's going on in the field and to see what people with my kind of background are worth these days."
- "From what I've been able to find out, by researching and by talking to people in the field, it seems that most of the people with my kind of back ground and experience and talents and skills ... that most of those people ... are starting out, the people at my level, somewhere in the neighborhood of to.
You can include, or not include, fringe benefits and bonuses in these amounts. Use your discretion in making the decision to include or not include these factors.
The interviewer's question to you was: "How much do you want?"
Have you answered it?
No.
But you have provided some information, some excellent guidelines, for him or her to conclude that (1) you are interested, (2) you are somewhat flexible and not rigid, (3) the negotiations can now begin, and (4) you have provided, by stating information, a framework for the negotiations... and made the other person's job easier.
You have also (by providing information which comes from your Research) assume a position of "In Control."
That, my friends, is almost magic!
How many people do you know, in an interview situation, who know how to be in control in the salary situation?
What Comes Next?
After you have provided this information, you stop talking.
Notice the interviewer's response, the expression, the timing of his or her next words. Read the interviewer's eyes, as well as listening to the next words this person says.
If those next words are "That's no problem," you may have positioned yourself as "Too Low," "Too Inexpensive," "Too Cheap."
Is it, now, too late? Are you "boxed in" to the range you have mentioned?
No. Of course not.
You can negotiate fringe benefits, flexible time, additional vacation, profit sharing, bonuses, and virtually anything else.
You can even negotiate a much higher salary.
All you have said thus far is that:Employers are not interested in your needs, your desire for a better home, your fulfilling a lifelong dream for a sports car, or in a list of your monthly expenses.
They are interested in solving their problems, in hiring the best possible person to do that, in hiring a person who "fits in," and in paying a reasonable amount of money to accomplish these things.
A word of warning: some employers are downright cheap. They were. They are. And they will continue to be. Watch out for them! They never change!
A young man I know works for one of them. He's always the #1 or #2 producer. His sales are excellent, and so is his knowledge of his field. In 1988, he earned $15,000.
He has a college degree in psychology, is attractive and intelligent, but he works for an employer who has been, is, and will be "cheap."
If you've done your homework correctly, you'll avoid wasting your time talking to people like this employer.
"New Age" employers realize that when their employees do well and are happy, employers and their organizations will do well and will provide happy places in which to work.
"Old Age" employers build an organization by which and through which they can profit, and "the employees be damned."
Simple research and enlightening conversations with friends and associates can help you discover the "Old Age" employers before you solicit their fruitless favors and worthless workplaces.
A Final Word On Money
The wiser you get, the more you realize that health and happiness are everything ... and that money is nothing.
But at about the same time in your life, you will realize, or you may have already realized, that money is power... and that it often gives you the power to live a lifestyle which may create the possibility for you to have health and happiness.
You are not locked in.
You have the power of choice to do what you want, to do it where you want to do it, to do it by yourself, or to do it for an employer who, like you, recognizes the magnificence of life and in supporting and sustaining the good things which life is and which it can bring to anyone who makes these things a possibility for himself or herself.
Do not have an inflated idea of the value of the solutions which you can bring to the workplace.
But do have an honest recognition of the uniqueness of your potential.
Be willing to continue your journey toward that potential, within the universe of an employer, firm or organization which allows you the joys of the journey.
