Salary negotiation is an import skill set in the software industry. The candidate may not get a chance for negotiating salary more frequently. Salary.com survey showed 41% of people didn’t negotiate salary for the job they currently hold. When the candidate changes the job and clears the technical interview, the human resource team discuss the salary.
Salary fixed based on the following different factors
- Current requirement with candidate profile
- Interview performance
- Current Market
- Companies’ policy
- Employee Title
Current requirement with candidate profile
If the company has an urgent requirement, the company may pay more salary. The company may need rare skill set which comes newly or not able to find the candidate at the right time may give more salary compare than normal skill set. The company may have the policy for each title with the salary range. The candidate may not expect the more salary in the same title. If the candidate experience less the title and expect more salary, the company may change the title or the company negotiate to the candidate with different title.
Interview performance
The candidate should prepares well for attending the interview. But, the interview process may validate different skill set about the candidate based on the current requirement. If the requirement expects skill set X, the candidate good in skill set Y and moderate in Skill set X, may not give more salary to the candidate. If the candidate is doing very well during the interview in skill set X, the company may pay more compare than another candidate (within the company policy).
Current Market
The company may consider current market and trends about the technology. If the company able to get the resource at the lower rate, the company may provide less salary compare than the previous year. If the company is not able to fill the rare skill set requirement, they may ready to pay more salary.
Companies’ policy
Every company defines the policy for finalizing the salary, leave, each titles roles and responsibilities, appraisal and other factors. The company decides the salary based on candidate background verification, candidate experience, current salary, the candidate interview score and other factors. The company gives the title to the candidate based on the interview panel response. The interview panel may validate different parameter before decide to give an appointment. If the candidate does not have much experience in design skill, the company may give only senior developer.
Employee Title
The company fixes the salary based on the candidate title in the company. Every company has lower and upper limit for each title. If the candidate is good in technical with other factors, they may give salary in upper limit. Otherwise, the human resource team tries to fit from lower to middle salary limit. It depends on lot of other factors too. The current salary, skill set, current market, candidate performance in the interview, requirement closure date and more. Every company’s title contains different roles and responsibilities. The same experience candidate may appoint as Technical Architect or Technical Manager. The Technical Architect may play individual contributor to the project. But the manager manages the resource and may have the direct reports.
Prepare for the salary Negotiation
The candidate should prepare for Salary Negotiation before human resource interview.
Know the company
The candidate must understand the company culture before human resource interview. The glassdoor.com, payscale.com, and salary.com (or similar) website provide a review about the company culture and salary from current or formal employees. The candidate can get some information about the company working culture too. If the candidate needs any clarification, they can discuss during the human resource interview.
Know the company salary
The candidate can research about the company salary in the same title and location. If the candidate is going for a product manager position in Bangalore India, the candidate can research the product manager salary in Bangalore and negotiate the salary based on the data. The candidate must know the average, lower and higher salary. The candidate can expect the higher salary. But the human resource team may provide different parameters which consider for deciding the salary.
Counter offer
If the candidate already has an offer, the candidate can negotiate salary based on his current offer. The joining factor may increase more based on the salary. When the candidate considers the counter offer, they should consider the bonus, stock option, work-life balance and other factors. The candidate should not lie about the counter offer. The human resource team may ask the counter offer letter to verify. If the candidate lies, they might catch in later stages.
Current salary
The candidate should aware the current company salary breaks up. The human resource team may ask about the breakup and other bonus. If the candidate gets salary increment after joining the current company, the candidate should submit the salary certificate and incremental letter during the joining process. The new company joining process may verify the salary with candidate previous company.
Job consultant
The candidate may get job requirement from the job consultant. The candidate must communicate clearly between company Human resource team and job consultant. The candidate must discuss the salary negotiation with Human Resource team only. After getting an offer from the company, the candidate can discuss the offer to job consultant. The job consultant does not decide the salary part.
Conclusion
The candidate should consider the career path, promotion, brand name and other benefits compare than base salary. The candidate can consider the happiness (whether they like the job) and other parameters in the early stage of software profession career. The candidate should stay at least two years in every company. They may take around six months to understand the company and current organization culture. They may fill the technical gap in another six months. The candidate can use his full potential after around one year. If the candidate leaves within one year, they may not like the team or company policies or doesn’t fit with the candidate career goal.
The salary includes yearly base package, bonus, and benefits. The candidate gets fixed package every year. But the candidate gets joining bonus only when to join the company. The candidate should also aware about variable vs fixed salary. The variable salary part decides in every year based on company and current organization growth and individual performance. The candidate may not get the fully variable salary every year. But, they get the fixed salary.
Useful links
- Achieve the Job Offer You Deserve by Avoiding These 10 Salary Negotiation Mistakes
- Top 10 Tips for Salary Negotiations
- How To Prepare For A Salary Negotiation: A Check List
- The 8 Most Common Salary Negotiation Tactics
- The New Salary Negotiation
- How to Negotiate Salary: 37 Tips You Need to Know
- 15 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer
- How to Negotiate Your Salary
- How much money to ask for in a salary negotiation
- Step-by-Step Guide to Negotiating a Great Salary
- Negotiating Salary 101: Tactics for Better Compensation
- How to Negotiate Salary or Ask for a Raise: Simple Steps to Getting the Salary You Deserve
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