EP 2024 Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the salary negotiation mistake of anxiety and impatience and how to overcome them.
People make a lot of mistakes in their job search , but none are more costly than the mistakes made during the salary negotiation. One mistake people make among the many is their impatience with the process of negotiating causes them to turn down offers prematurely. Let me give you an example. Let's say you receive a job offer for salary that is $5000, $10,000 or $15,000 less than what you been looking for.. The firm won't budge. The job is one that you really like. It is still a salary increase; it is going to pay you market value for what you do. (Remember: market value has a range; it is not one specific number). The firm won't budge and you don't say to yourself, "Well, the cost of commutation is going to save me X number of dollars. They pay for my insurance. I'm getting an extra week of vacation. This adds up to some money for me." Instead, you say to yourself, "They won't budge." You get angry and frustrated because your ego has gotten in the way. Instead of getting out of control here (You think you're in control here, but you are actually out of control), instead of letting your anxiety level about the negotiation build up so high, I'll start say that you need to start looking at the alternative benefits and start examining their value. Start looking at whether your taxes are going to be lower. Start looking at whether your health insurance costs are going to be lower. All of these add up to money.. Then, ask yourself this question, "Will the pleasure I received from doing this job outweigh the disadvantage of it not being perfect? Will this always get in my way?" If you're like most people I know, you won't always get in your way. You have to pause before turning things down to ask yourself these questions and act on this advice. Ultimately, opportunities like the one that you are evaluating don't come around all the time. Remember, there may be another good job out there but there may not be. This may actually be what your value is. Take the time and don't act impatiently and turned down an offer prematurely.
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, all as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with more than 1900 episodes, and is a member of The Forbes Coaches Council.
