Congratulations! You applied for a position with a seemingly great company and aced the job interview. Then as you read through the offer letter you notice that the salary is at least $8,000 less than the bare minimum that you could possibly consider accepting. As you think back to the very first phone interview that you had with the recruiter you remember very specifically explaining your desired pay range and your absolute bottom line number. What do you do at this point? On one hand you are flattered to have been chosen as the final candidate. You are also very desperate to leave your current job. On the other hand you know that the initial offer will not allow you to pay your bills. You could always try to negotiate a higher salary but you don’t want to appear too pushy. You could simply accept the extremely low offer and hope that your performance will entice them to give you a raise shortly after you are hired.
While the second scenario is possible but not very probable it is definitely too great of a risk. Most companies only take responsibility for what they agree upon in writing. Therefore, unless it is written in your offer letter that your salary will be reviewed and renegotiated shortly after your hire, you should not expect it to happen. The best option for you depends on your current circumstance. Accepting a very low offer could put you in a position where you have to search for another job all over again. And any raises you receive will be based on a percentage of your already too low salary. It may be best to contact the recruiter and remind her of your initial conversation about your desired pay range. Her response may be that they offered you the most they could possibly offer for that position. In that case it seems weird that she would have ever moved you to the next step in the process, although she may have thought you would be happy with any offer once you met the team. She may agree to talk to the hiring manager about increasing the offer, even if it is just a little more. In this case you should know ahead of time what your final answer will be if they add just $5,000 to the initial offer, which is still $3,000 less than you need. Either way you decide to handle it you should always be clear and concise with your desires. One of the biggest turnoffs of hiring managers is when they feel like they are going back and forth with someone who has not even joined their team yet, because it makes them wonder if you will be too demanding in other areas of your job. My advice is to remain as flexible as possible, do not drag out the negotiation too long and know your bottom line.
Coach Kenya 