Looking through the logs this month, I was surprised to see that Salary Expectations was the second highest read individual post.

You Can Negotiate Anything is the title of one of the books we read for our MBA session on Negotiations.  So I asked Drew for an update -- he told me that after that second set of interviews, with the CTO and another manager, the recruiter again pressured him for a salary 'expectation'.  He wasn't well prepared and she talked him into revealing his current salary.

Now, our session on Salary Negotiations is coming up next week but I'm fairly certain that if you're looking to maximize your salary in a transition, revealing your current salary is not a good idea.  Of course, there are many other reasons to consider a new job -- maybe the job responsibilities (increased or decreased), work environment, or commute are more important than the salary.  But all else being equal, why not get paid more?

Since then, Drew called the recruiter back to check on the progress.  They said they would have an offer to him by the end of the week.  As of last Thursday, he hadn't heard anything more.  No offer may mean his negotiations have stalled -- I also reminded him that silence can be one of the most powerful things in negotiation.  Since he has a good job, he's in a position of power:  he doesn't have to accept anything less than his ideal.

Hopefully after our class next weekend I'll have something useful for him.

Tags: salary, negotiations, career, pmba, job+search