IT companies are amongst the first to feel the impact of a recession. However, they are also among the first to feel the benefits of an economic recovery. With the current economy, the companies are looking to hire and you are looking to switch companies for the first time. How do you negotiate an ideal salary at the new job you are considering? This post offers you some age-old wisdom about zeroing in on the best package you can muster.

Tip 1: Find out what you are worth

You are worth what your prospective employers are willing to pay for you. This figure does vary from one employer to the next, but it does fall within a predictable range, especially in the IT industry. The first step is to figure out this range. There are ways to go about figuring out the salary range for your profile:

• Comb your network of ex-colleagues and acquaintances to glean what someone else with similar experience and skill set is paid. While most people are unwilling to reveal exactly what they earn (and it is rather impolite to ask them up front), you would be pleasantly surprised at how many people are forthcoming about the general range of salary that someone of your skills can look for.
• You can use some online services such as Salary.com to arrive at a ballpark figure that you can expect.
• With the advent of professional social networks such as LinkedIn, you can get in touch with someone else in the organization that you are applying to. Again, be circumspect in approaching the topic of how much one can expect from the role you are applying to. Expect them to be guarded in their replies.

Tip 2: Study the job position and the company

Having figured out the ballpark salary you can expect from the position you are applying to, you need to spend some time studying the company itself. Is the company doing well financially? How is the health of the company’s stock? Have they had to downsize recently? All these are significant questions to ponder on when considering whether the salary on offer justifies the role.

Tip 3: Do not reveal your current salary

Recruiters typically ask this question right up front. While this figure is of great help to the recruiters, it often ties your new salary to a certain range of the old. It is hence better to avoid answering this question if possible.

One of the possible responses is that the role you are applying to has requirements quite far removed from those of the job you held previously, and that you have acquired several skills and training since then, and would hence consider the previous salary irrelevant as regards the job you are applying to.

Tip 4: Try postponing to reveal your salary expectation

Another question to fastidiously avoid answering up front is what you are expecting in terms of salary. This is a question you will have to answer eventually, but try postponing it till you have convinced your recruiters and yourself that you are indeed the right candidate for the job.

Make sure that you highlight how the skills that you bring are indispensable to the role you are interviewing for. Once you do that, you have a better hand at salary negotiations, since the recruiters are enticed to go that extra mile to get you on board.

Tip 5: Never pitch one company’s offer against the other in negotiations

While it is perfectly acceptable for you to privately weigh one company’s offer with a counter offer from another, do not use this as leverage overtly when negotiating with recruiters. Apart from being impolite, trying to negotiate merely in terms of numbers would convince your recruiters that you give greater weightage to salary than the worth of the company itself.

This is also something you will need to ponder about. Working for a fortune 500 company for a lower pay than a relatively less known company for a higher package may prove beneficial to your career in the long run.

Tip 6: Do not shy away from negotiating the initial offer

Even before you applied to the job, you must have figured out a certain minimum salary, below which you are not willing to consider the offer. If the initial offer from the recruiters is below this figure, politely turn it down saying that their offer does not meet your expectation. You can even specify the figure that you think you are worth. Recruiters expect you to negotiate and reserve their best offer until after you do.

In all, salary negotiation involves a lot of tact. In IT jobs, effective negotiation is a job requirement. It is not unknown for recruiters in the companies to judge you on how tactful you are at it based on how you negotiate your salary.