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Ask Liz: Received lowball job offer
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Hi Liz,
I interviewed for a position recently and 2 days later received an offer. I should be excited (especially in this economy), however, the offer was very low. I am not being greedy, it's the point that the salary is the same when I got out of school 20 years ago!
When the initial phone screen occurred with the HR rep, I gave her the salary range and she did not say anything about being out of range. When asked if there was any room for improvement, she stated that I was "at the cap" and that "she had tried everthing to get more". I am not sure how hard she tried since the interview happened on a Friday afternoon and the offer came in on Monday late morning.
My question is... are there other negotiations I can counter with besides the extra vacation days? Or is there another way to ask for more without making the HR rep annoyed?
Thanks,
Derek
Dear Derek,
Congratulations on the offer, even though it's not what you were hoping for. They liked you for the job, and that's huge.
My first question to you is: why worry about making the HR rep mad? She is not your boss. Let her be mad. It's her job to get candidates in the door, and if that takes some negotiation, oh well.
Secondly, you won't negotiate salary with the HR rep. It's not her budget. She's been trained to say "You are at the cap." You need to go to the hiring manager a/k/a Your New Boss to get more $$.
Call your boss on the phone and say "Hi, Janice! I got the offer and I'm excited. I have a lot of ideas for getting started. We are a ways apart on salary." You're not ready to think about settling for extra vacation days, yet. You haven't negotiated with the decision-maker, the person who needs you and who also happens to control the purse-strings!
Lay it out there and don't suggest alternatives. Your hiring manager already knows the alternative - if you don't get something close to what you told them you'd need to make when they asked you, you may bolt. The company is being unethical, not you. You laid out your number. They had no business keeping you in the pipeline without at least alerting you to the presence of an expectation gap.
Your boss may say "No can do" in which case I strongly advise you to bolt. Quick offer, low pay, no negotiation -- this is the Bad Job Offer Trifecta and I cannot believe that you would be happy at or stay long at this job if the 'wining and dining' phase goes this way.
Your boss may enter a negotiation with you. Then you can decide whether to accept the improved offer, and you may well decide to do it. It's terribly important to come into an organization on the right footing, and accepting a lowball offer that is under the range you discussed earlier in the process is definitely not the footing you're after.
Best of luck,
Liz Ryan
www.asklizryan.com
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