Invest in Your Success: The Ultimate Salary Negotiation Workshop (VIDEO)

Attendees of this webinar left with the need-to-know points from Hired and Pathrise’s Ultimate Guide to Salary Negotiation and their very own salary negotiation script to help them face their next negotiation with courage. Now, we bring you this discussion and interactive strategy session on demand! Keep reading for the first point the experts want you to take away from the guide.

You’ll hear from:

• Sophia Koehl, Partnerships, Hired
• Alex Immel, Salary Negotiation Consultant, Pathrise
• Meagan Wansong, Candidate Experience Manager, Hired

Read the beginning of the conversation here and scroll down to access the full webinar. 

Let’s review the first key takeaway from the guide. 

Meagan

Research is really the most important thing for a salary negotiation. In my opinion, research should be done before you even start the interview process. You may have a number in mind based on your previous salary and that’s really a great jumping-off point. But doing your research can actually help you validate if that number is reasonable and help you achieve it as well. 

Companies entering the process with a salary range in mind will consider a number of factors that determine where you fall within that range. 

One of these factors is industry. If you’re doing your research on what average salaries are, don’t just look for the average salaries for anyone serving in your role across the board. Make sure you’re doing research on the type of company you’re interviewing with and the industry they’re in – not just what the average salaries are at that company. 

\Also, include their competitors. See what the average salaries are for a similar role at those companies to see how they stack up. There really can be different averages just depending on if you’re looking at fintech, health tech, all of those things. 

Seniority is another one. Check out what the average salaries are, not just for the role that you are in because roles are different at different companies. You may be leveled at Software Engineer II at your current company but that could be considered a Senior Software Engineer at another company. 

Related: Code Your Career: Staying Competitive in the Developer Job Market (VIDEO)

Make sure that you’re doing this research to determine if you put your best foot forward and make yourself stand out in the interview process, where do you think you could be leveled? That can actually change a lot based on not just your previous performance and work history, but how you perform during the interview. Make sure you’re feeling confident going into all those conversations. 

The last thing I’ll call out is location. The graph references some average salaries in different cities. No matter where the company is located, the salary is actually based on your home location. This is particularly important with so many of us being remote right now. 

When you’re analyzing the average salaries for a company, keep in mind they may have employees in cities with very different cost of living than your own. Ask that question maybe during the conversation: where’s most of the team located? 

If you’re looking for more information on calculating cost of living since it can be a little tricky, you can actually read and reference our 2022 State of Tech Salaries report and use one of the online tools suggested in the Salary Negotiation Guide to calculate and compare cost of living.

Related: Hired’s Salary Calculator

Alex

Cost of living is important to consider for your personal finances, but it’s not going to be an effective argument for your negotiations. Companies factor in location when determining pay bands, but they don’t actually look at the cost of living. They look at the cost of labor. 

Cost of labor refers to how much it takes to hire and retain employees with the qualifications to do a job in a certain industry in place. The formula itself is not important, but you do need to understand that since they are looking at the cost of labor, doing research on the market rate for your role, level, and location is what’s actually important. 

When you go into the negotiation, be ready to point to a source on the market rate. Don’t worry about showing how much it would cost for you to live in a particular area because the fact is, honestly, employers don’t actually care about that.

Other key topics from the conversation include: 

• More key takeaways from The Ultimate Guide to Salary Negotiation 
• How to create a salary negotiation script 

Watch the full webinar to get all the insights!