Congratulations on being offered the contract to work!
This is a major milestone in your life, especially if this is your
first job after graduation. All those hours of studying and getting
a good GPA and attending co-curricular activities to build your
resume have finally paid off!
Next, salary negotiation.
Salary negotiation is perhaps one of the more important
aspects before signing the contract not because it allows you to
have better increments and benefits, but because it is a vital
aspect of soft skills training – the better your skills, the more
benefits that can be added to you.
Salary negotiation will usually range around 10% of the
salary. We have compiled a list of six pointers that can
potentially help in your basic salary negotiation, as well as a few
other hyperlinks from around the internet that might prove useful
for this.
When we say competitors, I mean companies with
similar/identical positions and salaries. Of course in Singapore,
most salaries are relatively identical across the board compared to
say, accountants in New York City vs a small town in Tennessee.
When you’ve received an offer, it would be good to add
5-10% on top of the salary offered, and give reasons why you think
you’re worth that extra bit more when compared to the others. One
good way to argue for the increased salary would be what you can do
better or more than others. Even better to solidify that case would
be real life examples of what you’ve done in similar
situations.
A good place to start for competitors’ comparisons
would be websites like Jobstreet, Gumtree or somewhere similar
to that!
This one is a must ; this will determine how much you
can potentially negotiate for. Companies in general usually have a
cap as to how much they’ll pay anyone, and you finding that out
will greatly improve your chances to negotiate your pay closer to
the maximum amount.
Generally, companies tend to gravitate toward the lower
end of the pay spectrum. So knowing the upper limit means you stand
to benefit a little more than most people.
This is also an important point. If you were to have a
look at this Quora
thread, he who names the number first, loses. This is for a
simple reason: the first who names a number will be subject to fit
their salary or compensation package around that figure. Again,
this goes back to market rates. Typically, companies offer around
or slightly lower than market rates. This gives you a little more
power to negotiate from a position of strength.
Your salary is an important part of your entire
package, but it isn’t the most important thing. The entire
compensation package usually includes more than just salary –
perhaps having a company car or apartment is also part of it!
Typically it contains medical and dental benefits as well.
So instead of merely thinking of merely salary, be sure
to allocate a bit of brain power on the other non-salary portions
of the package too.
No, this isn’t meant to indicate your age. Your
seniority in the company usually determines the respect and job
satisfaction that you desire in a company. This applies especially
to people who either have tons of work experience, or graduates who
have a lot of relevant experience in their field prior to their
graduation.
Of course, having a higher seniority level in the
company can also come with better benefits and compensation
packages, especially if you do turn out to be someone who secures
the lucrative contracts with the huge companies outside.
We’re real big fan of people who would show that they
can work and are capable of holding their own, rather than having
people who can talk about what they can possibly do.
But instead of dumping all your life achievements on
the interviewer when negotiating for the best package, highlight
your most prominent works, especially those that allowed the
companies you worked for cinch contracts, or gain government
grants. These skills are considerably much higher in demand, and
most companies would be more than glad to offer you a more generous
package if you’ve a proven track record of being able to boost
company profits.
thenewsavvy
