Be Excellent To Each Other

Advice-me-do!

I have a job interview in that London on Monday (whoop!). I currently live/work in Manchester earning £23K. This job in London has pretty much an identical job spec and the wage is advertised as £24.5K - £30K for a fixed 22 month contract. As ya'll know moving from Manchester to London for a £1.5K wage increase would, in reality, be like taking a wage cut, so, my question is, what is the procedure and correct etiquette for "negotiating my wage", should I be offered this job? I really would like to get £26K for it to be financially worth my while. Bare in mind, this job I'm going for is spec'd almost identically to what I'm doing now, I've been doing this job now for 3 years, have crawled almost to the top of my pay scale doing it and I'm bloody good at it. Do I ask about the wage at the interview (I'm guessing not), or if they offer it me, and what do I say/ask for to negotiate this?

Cheers me dears.

Impress them up front, wait for them to send you an offer, then counter it with what you actually want.

If you reckon you're good at the role, then I think you should probably ask for £28K. Enough that you're not hitting the top of the bracket and looking greedy.

Is it a public sector thing, or private? If it's public (or I think one or two specific industries), you may be able to ask about London weighting, which should net you an extra grand or two per year.

Otherwise, I can't offer anything very helpful, unless you have a really good hostage. I usually say that in any negotiation you should always ask for more than you want, but I've never really tested that on a wage, so take that with a punch of salt maybe.

I've no advice, but good luck

They will most likely ask what sort of salary you are expecting during the interview, at that point you say "£30k".
If they don't ask, they will tell you if they offer you the job, at that point you say, "But I want £30k"

Oh, and when you reply, give your reasons for wanting the higher wage - but don't make them cost-based reasons (expensive to live, etc) but instead value-based reasons (experience, skills, knowledge).

If you're good at it, and can do everything in it and do it well, then there's no real reason not to ask for the top whack, unless you think other people with similar skills will pitch themselves much lower. If you're going via an agent then they will tell the company that you're perfect and deserve the top figure in an attempt to make you look more awesome than the candidates from other agencies. Equally, they'll then backtrack massively if they think that prices you out of the actual market for the job, because no matter what they tell you, they are categorically not on your side in contract negotiations.

But definitely don't mention money in the first interview unless they bring it up (which has only ever happened to me once, which was for the job I start in October).

Actually, that's probably my advice. It sounds a bit cheeky, but if you're great at what you do and they're willing to pay up to £30k, push for the maximum. But make sure you wow them.

That's what I did, anyway.

I would expect them to bring up the question of remuneration as part of the interview process and as for what you'd like / expect and what you'd get - could be two totally different things.

We have a 'housekeeping' section at the end of our interviews where we run through some basic questions not related to the post and one of those is "Salary expectations" - sometimes we have people who are earning a really small amount ask for silly numbers at the top of the scale , sometimes its a reasonable number and sometimes they say things like "the money is not the important thing about the job".

We've offered people a lot less than what they've asked for and they have taken the job , but we very rarely offer above what they ask for so there is an opportunity to be bold and ask for something higher up - but be ready to accept a lower offer (be careful though as we've rejected people simply because they have said a silly number at that point)

One other thing to remember is that interviews are suppose to be 2 way - you need to be impressed by them as a group / company / set of people you are going to work for - no point in going through all that hassle only to find you dont like working there.

Oh and good luck !

And in my experience they won't. That'll be left to HR to sort out if they like you.

Weirdly, the guy I'll be working for at the next place asked me my current salary and expected salary in the first interview, which took me aback quite considerably. I asked for 5k more than the upper limit of what the job was advertised for... and they gave me it.

Depends entirely on the company in my experience, and I wouldn't say there is a particular trend regarding size or location. Some massive companies have only wanted one interview and we talked about everything, some smaller companies have wanted 6 interviews and only one was HR related, and vice versa.

I never name the number first. If asked salary expectations, I make up some reason I can't give a straight answer ("Well, this job is new to me because (new skills/different place/different prospects) so I don't really feel I really know what is a reasonable salary, although I do feel I am a strong candidate because of (X, Y, Z)". If you name a figure, you can only go down; if they name a figure you can only go up so you always make them name first -- and they can't offer you the role without naming a figure.

So: have an excuse prepared in case you're asked it in the first interview (unlikely), then negotiate up from their offer if they make one.

Awesome, great advice everyone and thanks for the good luck wishes, really appreciated.

The job is working at a (very famous) museum in London, so is Public Sector. I've never had the "what do you want for the wage" question in interview, so wasn't expecting that then, so yep, if they offer it me (pleeeeease) I'll drop the question on the HR bod that rings me to tell me. After the interview I'll know completely how well qualified I am for the role, but going by the spec, like I say, I fulfilled every single essential and desirable bullet point they made apart from one desirable about knowing how to use some obscure theatre control system, which I can pick up no problem on the job as I've used tons of other systems including the well known ones. I've also got two degrees in AV production, which is way more than they ask for. I reckon as I'm a humble chap I might pitch for £27K then, which is half way up the scale, £4 more than I'm on now (which is about London weighting difference) and is just a smidge under the threshold where I have to start paying my undergrad student loan back

Yep, I'm hoping they impress me as much as I can impress them as it's a big move leaving a very secure job, but potentially it sounds fantastic, so fingers crossed!

That's great advice, cheers Doc!

"Double it"

I want triple the pay, a porsche, a helicopter and and all the tofu I can eat!!!

All sounds good, apart from you know what they are willing to pay for the right person, if they offer it to you then you are the right person. Why pitch at £27k, if you do that they won't offer you £30k.

Ask for £30k, seriously.

You sound more confident in me than me! Eeeek, I'm not that pushy with these things, I'd just be chuffed to bits to get the job... I'll see how it goes

Seriously, if after the interview you know you're as well suited to it as you believe you are right now, there's no reason to not ask for the full amount. As Doccy G said, they'll only go downwards from that number, so if you pitch at 30 you may get 27-28, but pitching at 27 they might give it to you, but they might offer 25.

Obviously you'll know how well the interview went, so don't take the piss if there are developmental areas, but if you're confident then back it up.

Is it for the head of acquisitions position at the Museum of ONLY HATE?

Best of luck mate!

Curator of SKULLS at the National History Museum!

I didn't get the job, but I'll file this info away for future reference. Cheers for the advice, fellas!

Bad luck fella. You probably didn't ask for enough monies.

Sorry to hear that.

Pretty extreme demand this, I can testify.

Edit: oh, read to end of thread.. sorry you didn't get it

Didn't even get the opportunity to put my new 1337 negotiation skills into practice. nay worry. I think I came second though, they want me on hold unless the first person doesn't pass the police test or sacks it off at the last minute. Second out of several hundred applicants ain't bad I'm pretty posi about these things, all is fine for me in the grand scheme of things (Somalia, Syria, Palestine etc etc).

I think I fucked myself with that request...

They were going to give you the job, but were repulsed by the very idea of tofu.

I also think, in hindsight, that showing them my penis might have been a bad idea...

Were they threatened?

What, like "Give me more pay or I'll club you to death with THIS" *flop* *flop* *flop* ?

Probably. Never show yours first.

Are you sure you read the job description correctly?

Even before my first interview recently I was asked what salary I am currently on. This did not impress me but it also didnt give me much choice other that to tell them. If they ask what you are currently on, other than lying (not recommended) you will need to think of good reasons why you think youre worth 5-6k more than what youre currently getting. I gave them a salary range as I was able to include bonuses and benefits as part of my salary. As an example, if you currently have a free car space outside work, you will need to factor this into your package.

Whilst I agree with Craster to a point, I dont think it will do any harm if you can genuinely identify higher costs of living in London compared to Manchester as well as that the "you deserve it" reasons.