Sooner or later most people will face salary negotiations. It usually happens either when you are interviewed for the job or during a performance review. In both cases, most job seekers and employees feel uncomfortable to talk about it because they understand it is important, but they are not sure how to get what they want out of such negotiations. The reason why people fail to succeed when negotiating their salaries is because they are not confident and often they don't know what they want specifically. In this article, we would like to help our readers overcome this salary negotiations challenge by providing some practical tips and professional recommendations...
Asking Yourself and Employer
Before you ever start your salary negotiations you have to do your homework first. The very first thing you have to do is to ask yourself two simple questions (you got it right, asking yourself, not employer). How much do I want? How much people with my experience and skills are making in the position. Obviously, you wouldn't want to go for a lower salary than you've been making; however in some cases when you will have bigger benefits to compensate you might want to consider it. Keep in mind that it is always better to negotiate your salary before you are hired; even after several years, the chances of successful negotiations are smaller. 
You not only need to know how much you want but also what you deserve. Most people want to have a salary of $1,000,000 per year, but not everybody deserves to receive such pay. Besides, it is not reasonable for a company to pay that much money to the person who is responsible for only for cleaning one office. Research then how much would a person with a similar skill set and job earns per month and go from there. There are many websites which could provide insight into what professionals are earning. This way you could make sure your expectations are correct or see that you want too much/too little.
After you have answered those two questions you can go to the next stage - asking your employer. There are several things you have to know before you can settle with the offer. Such things as medical insurance, training tuition reimbursements, vacation packages, parental leave policy, etc. can become a significant add-on to your salary and become a decent part of the total compensation. Moreover, you can actually negotiate these things too, not just the salary part. While employers tend to give their employees the same compensations, there should be some wiggle room for some occasions. Another thing that might good to ask a hiring manager is what is the potential for promotions and salary increases. If a company can offer frequent opportunities to move up the corporate ladder along with financial raises then you might want to consider the chance to sign on.
For more insight, check our article on when to negotiate your salary.
