7 Ways Candidates Can Negotiate For a High Salary During an Interview

When applying for a new job, in addition to the role, designation and other perks, salary is an important motivation factor for candidates. However, even after submitting an application to the job of your dreams and securing an interview, one may not be sure what salary they will finally be getting in this job. The hiring manager communicates the salary range at the time of sharing the vacancy or job description, but that’s only an approximate range that the employer has planned to disburse for the role.

As a candidate, you may wish to get the maximum hike on your current package and hence would want to negotiate for a high salary during the interview stage of the job process. In this blog, we will talk about 7 ways you can negotiate better for a high salary package during an interview.

• Research the role well and understand your job responsibilities

Before the job interview, the candidate must research the role well and understand the duties they are expected to perform through the job description and by probing the recruiter. This will help the candidate link his/her skills to the tasks and hence be in a better position to understand how good a fit they are for the role. The better fit they are for the role, the better chances they have of negotiating a higher salary during the interview.

• Talk about your past experience

During the job interview, talk about your experience working in similar roles at previous organizations. For example, a business development executive may speak about their previous experience reaching out to leads and converting them to clients, maintaining sales documents, and so on. This would further strengthen your chances of proving yourself a good fit for the role.

• Bring up any past achievements

Achievements showcase that you have excelled in your job, and performed the required tasks in the best possible manner. This helps you gain the confidence and trust of the employer/interviewer, which puts you in a better position to negotiate for a higher salary. For example, a business development executive may have increased a company’s sales by 25% over 6 months, and brought repeat orders from the same client owing to his relationship skills. A prospective employer would certainly want to hire such an employee for such a role.

• Do adequate salary research

The salary offered must be appropriate for your industry, role, and years of experience. Hence, ensure that you conduct research on the salary offered to professionals who are working in a similar role as yours who have a similar level of experience in your field. This will ensure that you can justify why you should receive the salary that you are mentioning during the interview.

• Never start the interview by talking about money/package

Before you start the salary negotiation, it’s important to choose the right timing. For example, don’t begin the interview by talking about the monetary compensation you desire. Rather, speak about your interest in the job role and how your skills make you the best candidate for this job position.

• Bring up the salary negotiation only in the last round of interview

Salary negotiation is important. However, the initial interview is to learn more about you and your reasons for considering the job role. It’s also to prove yourself as the best fit amongst all candidates for this role. All these initial discussions help strengthen your case for negotiating a better salary package. Hence, remember to have the conversation regarding the salary negotiation only after the initial rounds of the interview with your employer. Bringing up the topic after you’ve proven to be a good fit for the role, would be advisable.

Bringing up salary negotiations in the beginning may show you to be money-minded and may form a negative opinion in the interviewer’s mind.

• Mention a salary range rather than a specific figure

An extremely high specific number may scare off prospective employers. Therefore, it’s best to mention a particular salary range rather than a specific figure during the job interview.This will let the employer know that you are flexible, and they won’t put you outside their list of candidates they are considering for the open job role. Also, if asked for, you should have an explanation to your ask.

Conclusion

Knowing how to negotiate for a high salary during a job interview will ensure that you can move ahead with your career. Focus on emphasising on very specific strengths and experiences, and avoid coming across as rigid.

TALOP is a recruitment agency in Delhi helping firms hire the right talent for their organization. If you wish to know more about the services offered by TALOP, head over to this page.

TALOP- Where Talent Meets Opportunity We are a recruitment agency helping firms to hire the best candidates for their organization. We specialize into non-tech hiring for startups, SMEs, MSMEs, and Enterprises across managerial levels.