Earlier Discussions

Do I attempt to find out the salary range that will be available at the prospective employer ?

Most people do not like to talk about salary, especially in the opening session. However, it may be prudent where there is great uncertainty about a potential match to raise the subject of salary.

If there is no over-lap between your interests and those of the other party's, it may be a waste of your time to go very far with employment negotiations with a particular employer. Little or no overlap in interests may take quite a bit "education" of the potential employer, especially when the employer has not recruited at MIT before and needs help in calibrating the market.

In line with the point that everything about you is data for the employer, it is important in the opening round to ask intelligent questions that both elicit important information as well as demonstrate that you have done your homework.

Visit to the Company

This is the phase where the social contract is being shaped as you meet with your prospective supervisor and colleagues as well as taking the pulse of the organization. Topics of special relevance have to do with career development, the process of performance review, initial responsibilities and general expectations.

Final Negotiations

Sometimes these occur during the visit to the company, and sometimes they occur as a 3rd phase. Both parties, at this point, are reasonably familiar with the agenda and it is now a question of coming to agreement.

It is normally during this phase when salary is discussed and you may be asked "what are your salary requirements ?" This presents a challenging task in negotiations. Generally, it is better to state the salary expectations with some flexibility although pushing in the direction of target. If you have a good alternative then this makes it rather straight forward: "Well, given my other job offers, I figure something in the range of ($$$) would be appropriate for a starting salary."

Negotiating over salary is not like selling the house where there's a range that separates the parties and some type of steady convergence. One needs to have a credible rationale for the salary position. It could be based on the salary before school, time out of the job market, salary from others, this year's class, last year's, adjusted by year and industry, or it could be based on other salary offers."

Given the fact that all explorations for employment represent a type of acquaintanceship process (in some ways similar to a matrimonial process), there inevitably comes a time in the sequence when if closure does not take place, the negotiations might as well be terminated. As one of our students who developed a case study about his negotiations to work for a large multinational company explained: "I went to New York City expecting to remain in a very deliberative mode. As they answered my questions one by one, it became clear that I was 'sold' and for me to say anything like 'I need to go back and think about it some more' would have seemed very much at variance with the mood of coming to agreement."

Recently, the Career Development Office at Sloan learned of a student who, by putting a series of "this is just my last issue" on the table, actually precipitated a prospective employer to withdraw its formal offer. Such a step is highly unusual -- however, it illustrates the point that as the discussions proceed, a type of momentum develops and if one side keeps raising additional issues (what some people in the trade call the "salami" technique -- i.e., how thin can the salami be sliced?), then the other side may very well become disenchanted with the whole relationship and if agreement is actually reached, matters get off on the wrong foot.

We come back to the fundamental point that negotiations for employment reveal a lot about one's approach and how one thinks about complicated issues. If one seems to be too hesitant, too demanding, or too tactical, this is information that may say to the other side, "Now that we know this about the person, we are not sure that we really want to hire this individual."

Remember: the person you are dealing with has to negotiate internally - give her the most amunition possible to defend her choice.

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