Salary Negotiation Common mistakes

• Discussing salary at the wrong time in the interview process
• Fail to deal intelligently with salary questions and issues by not doing research on salary comparables and employers.
• Don't know how much you're really worth.
• Specify a single salary figure when asked "What are your salary requirements?"
• Assume your "qualifications" and "performance" will automatically determine your salary level.
• Think salaries are predetermined by employers.
• Believe you are indispensable to an employer who will give you substantial raises rather than risk losing you to the competition.
• Under-value your worth.
• Over-value your worth — maybe even think you are the only choice for the employer.
• Think the employer is in the driver's seat when it comes to negotiating salary.
• Approach salary negotiations from a perspective of need or greed rather than as a process of assigning value to your qualifications and promises of performance.
• Personalize salary issues by believing a salary is assigned to you rather than to your position. Focus primarily on yourself rather than on the position to which salary is normally assigned.
• Fail to compile supports for a negotiating position.
• Prematurely discuss salary before acquiring information on the job or before communicating your qualifications to employers.
• Don't know how to close and follow-up the salary negotiation interview.
• Forget to calculate benefits as part of the compensation package.
• Put too much emphasis on benefits rather than concentrate on the gross salary figure.
• Project an image that is not commensurate with the salary being negotiated.
• Put too high a price tag on themselves without providing supports to justify the salary figure, such as previous salary history or indicators of performance.
• State a specific salary expectation figure on either their resume or in their cover letter.
• Negotiate salary and benefits over the telephone.
• Too quick to accept employers' first or second offers.
• Don't know how to use timing as part of establishing your value in the eyes of employers.
• Fail to adequately assess the employer's needs and develop a strategy to meet those needs as well as relate this strategy to your salary requirements.
• Fail to raise intelligent salary questions about the job and the employer.
• Don't know how to handle employers' salary questions or say the wrong things.
• Don't give themselves much room to negotiate.
• Don't know when to leave a job or company for opportunities elsewhere that will pay better.
• Try to play "hard to get" when you have little or nothing to leverage.
• Lie about your past salary history or alternative salary offers.