Negotiating Salary

Do the preparation

The market range for this role, this level and this location. Published salary ranges, industry surveys and people doing similar work are all sources. A range you can point to is far stronger than a number you feel is fair.

Your happy number, the point at which you would accept without lingering resentment. Resentment about pay does not fade; it surfaces about six months in.

Your walk-away number, below which you decline. Deciding this in advance, when you are calm, is what stops you accepting something in the moment that you regret by the weekend.

Knowing all three converts the conversation from an argument into an exchange of information, which is both more comfortable and more effective.

The early expectations question

You will usually be asked early, sometimes in the first screening call. The conventional advice is to deflect, and deflecting too hard reads as evasive and wastes both sides' time if you are far apart.

A researched range is a good answer: state it, note that it depends on the whole package, and ask what they have budgeted. Increasingly the posting will already carry a range, which makes this easy. Where it does, ask where in that range this role sits and what decides it.

If you genuinely do not have enough information yet, say that plainly and ask for their range first. That is a reasonable request rather than a manoeuvre.

Negotiate after the offer

Before an offer you are one of several candidates and the comparison is between people. After an offer the employer has decided they want you, has invested a whole process in reaching that decision, and the comparison is now between hiring you and starting again.

That is the entire shift in leverage, and it is why the same request lands differently on either side of it. When the offer arrives, thank them, ask for it in writing, and ask for time to consider. Almost every employer expects this and a same-day yes is rarely required.

Making the ask

Be specific, give a reason, and stay warm. "I am glad to accept, and I would like to agree on 78 rather than 72. That reflects the range for this scope and the platform work I would be picking up in the first quarter." One clear number with a rationale is much easier to say yes to than a vague request for more.

Ask once and then be quiet. Repeating the request or piling on justifications weakens it.

If the answer on base pay is genuinely no, move to the other variables: start date, additional leave, review timing, title, flexible or remote days, equipment. These frequently sit outside the constraint that fixed the salary, and an employer who cannot move on money is often glad to have something to offer.

Get whatever is agreed into the written offer. A verbal promise about a review in six months has a way of not surviving the person who made it.