Don't Get Snookered on Salary Offers

QUESTION: After recently changing jobs, I now realize I was lowballed on the salary offer by nearly 20 percent. Yes, I know, I should have checked the market before accepting the job. But the recruiter was a spellbinder who kept emphasizing this is a growth opportunity with lots of training, and I believed him. Behind the curtain, that promise, as well as the job description, turned out to be hype and hooey. Advice for next time?

ANSWER: RELATIONSHIPS 101. Recruiters are salespeople, not your new best friends. When a client gives a recruiter a limited compensation budget to offer candidates, it is the recruiter's job and livelihood to convince you to take the "downpay" by pointing out collateral benefits the job may or may not offer.

But, if the recruiter is paid a fee based on your first-year earnings, doesn't the recruiter lose money in a downpay offer? From the recruiter's viewpoint, most of a loaf is better than none. And the recruiter hopes for future assignments from the employer, which can compensate for losing a few bucks on a single transaction. An oversimplified example: Say the recruiter is to be paid 25 percent of the job's first-year salary. Assume the job's market rate is $100,000; that's a $25,000 fee for the recruiter. But if the job's budget figure is only $90,000, the recruiter takes a hit of $2,500, compared to your loss of $10,000.

Back to Basics
To avoid getting snookered the next time out, do these three things:

1. Research market rate. Check salary.com for a quick measure.
2. Develop broad negotiation skills so that you can recognize typical recruiting pitches. Two new general negotiation books: "Negotiate to Win: The 21 Rules for Successful Negotiating  by Jim Thomas (HarperCollins, 2005) and "How to Negotiate Like a Child: Unlease the Little Monster Within to Get Everything You Want by Bill Adler, Jr. (Amacom, 2005).
3. Trust but verify. Perform your own due diligence with a homegrown background check for former and current employees through networking, financial investigation and company reputation and prospects.

Pitch Concepts
When a position's pay is under market, alert recruiters reframe the discussion by speaking not only of cash compensation and benefits, but also of "job stretch" and "growth opportunity."

Job stretch is a term describing an environment in which you show what you can do on a larger stage -- heftier operating budget, bigger challenges, and supervision of more employees. In baseball, the move is from the minors to the majors.

Growth opportunity is the lure of future raises, promotions and company growth.

Recruiters may speak the language of "an overall increase of 30 percent" if you take the offered position: perhaps 15 percent for stretch in the job, plus likely long-term growth of 10 percent, and 5 percent for a cash compensation boost over your last job.

Talking Points
If you refuse to budge from your "show me the money" stance ("If thisis such a bigger job opportunity, I need bigger money"), practicedrecruiters may respond with such rebuttals as:

• Don't make the mistake of overvaluing compensation and undervaluing opportunity.
• If I succeed in getting the cash comp increased, the company will probably want me to produce other candidates with more experience than you have.
• We're looking at other candidates who don't share the level of expectations you express. Why should we consider raising the bar so high in your case?
• Prove your ability. Do a great job, and you could get a sizeable raise next year.
• If I can get the cash increased, will you sign an iron-clad guarantee you'll take the position with no further haggling?

Truth or Fiction?
Cash-strapped recruiters may be right inurging opportunity over immediate money and benefits -- a long-heldtenant of smart career development that I generally support.

But perhaps the time has come for a rethinking of this doctrine.The 21st-century rate of company upheavals, mergers, downsizings andother job-busters may mean that even if you take a downpay job, youwon't be around long enough to fully benefit from job stretch andgrowth opportunity.

Source: Tulsa World. Powered by Yellowbrix.