Oct 17 2008
The Skinny on Salary… And the Fat
Here is the secret to salary formulas, so listen up. This is still one of those fuzzy areas of business practice that is kind of like buying a used car. Sure, there is a price tag on the vehicle, but the price is never the real price. Haggling is part of the deal and the better you are at negotiating, posturing, and basic bullcrapping, the better off you will be in the end.
You need to be your own agent when you are bellying up to the salary bar. Sometimes acting a little hard to get is in your best interests because there is a price tag on that job, but it represents a range of numbers, and you want to wind up at the top of that entry range.
So if you have a rare or valuable skill set or your qualifications are in high demand, you can negotiate yourself a few thousand dollars more to start with, and then over time, with increases and pay adjustments, you can end up much higher than Sammy Schmoo who took the initial salary offer without question.
What happens then is, five years down the road, you end up six or eight thousand over Sammy and now you want to go to another firm. Though reluctantly, they bring you in at five percent above your current salary. Now you are ten grand ahead of the game and everyone else in the department, even though you are doing the same work.
Good for you - not so good for the rest of the Sammys, who are sitting there eating balogna sandwiches, while you are having steak lunches with all that extra money, hence the fat get fatter and the rich richer.
