21 Salary Errors to Avoid in Your Job Interview

Job seekers typically make several salary negotiation errors, which often result in knocking them out of consideration for the job or receiving and accepting a lower salary offer than what they could have received had they negotiated smartly. Several of these errors also may leave a bad impression with an employer – that you have a bad attitude, or you are basically a self-centered job seeker who primarily focuses on salary and benefits rather than on the performance needs of the employer and organization. The most frequent errors you should avoid include:

1. Engage in wishful thinking – believe you are worth a lot more than you are currently being paid but with no credible evidence of what you really should be paid.

2. Approach your job search as an exercise in being clever and manipulative rather than being clear, correct, and competent in communicating your value to others.

3. Fail to research salary options and comparables and thus have few supports to justify your worth.

4. Fail to compile a list of specific accomplishments, including anecdotal one- to three-minute performance stories, that provide evidence of your value to employers.

5. Reveal salary expectations as on your resume or in a cover letter.

6. Prematurely talk about salary by answering the question “What are your salary requirements?” before being offered the job.

7. Raise the salary question rather than wait for the employer to do so.

8. Fail to ask questions about the company, job, and previous occupants of the position.

9. Ask, “Is this offer negotiable?”

10. Quickly accept the first offer, believing that’s what the position is really worth and that an employer might be offended if you try to negotiate.

11. Accept the offer on the spot.

12. Accept the offer primarily because of the salary and benefits.

13. Try to negotiate compensation during the first interview.

14. Forget to calculate the value of benefits and thus only focus on the gross salary figure.

15. Focus on benefits, stock options, and perks rather than on the gross salary figure.

16. Try to negotiate a specific salary figure rather than talk about a salary range.

17. Negotiate over the telephone or by email.

18. Talk too much and listen too little.

19. Focus on your needs rather than the employer’s needs.

20. Try to play “hardball.”

21. Express a negative attitude toward the employer’s offer.

SOURCE: Adapted from Bernard Haldane Associates, Haldane’s Best Salary Tips for Professionals (Impact Publications, Manassas Park, VA), copyright 2001, pp. 14-26. Website: www.impactpublications.com.