When it comes to navigating a career, we spend a lot of time telling folks they should ask for what they want.
If you never ask, how will anyone know you wanted a new role or more responsibility? How will anyone know that if you could work from home one day a week and save that commute time you could be that more effective? If you don’t ask, you’ll never know what could have been.
Turns out the folks over at Payscale agree that it’s important to ask for what you want and have found that 75% of people who ask for a raise get a raise. This is great news, and an incentive for sure to ask!
Of course with anything you’re asking for, there’s an art to the asking. In many ways, it’s a sale. You’re selling someone on the idea of doing what you want them to do, and it’s important to remember that most value proposition begins in the eye of the beholder. How will you make the person’s life easier sitting across from you? How will what you’re asking for improve their day or year or bottom line?
A good negotiation at its root requires research and a strategy, the ability to communicate what you learned in that research and deliver the strategy effectively, and then the ability to be flexible in the give and take of the actual negotiation.
We’re thrilled with the slew of advice Payscale offers on how to ask for more, and we encourage you to check out their entire Salary Negotiation Guide for specific articles that address your situation. In the meantime we’re highlighting three of our favorite articles in the guide based on three questions we are frequently asked:
- I want to freelance or consult — how do I set my hourly rate?
- I’m looking for more flexibility — when and how should I negotiate this?
- I haven’t worked in a while — what should I ask for?
The (Surprising) Best Answer to the Question “What’s Your Salary Range?”
Complete with scripts for potential questions an interviewer might ask and suggestions for how to answer, this article gets to the bottom line that you should never give your number first — let them tell you what the position is worth. P.s., take the Payscale salary survey to get a better sense of what you’re worth. The snapshot is based on their collection of 54 million salary profiles across 15,000 job titles and 2,300 industries.
5 Benefits To Ask For In Your Next Salary Negotiation
This article lays out different benefits to ask for beyond pay specifically during your next salary negotiation, including flextime. Of course this means you have to have a salary negotiation meeting on the table so if your company doesn’t do this regularly, you’ll need to set up a meeting.
The Careful Art of Negotiating Your First Salary
If you have taken a good amount of time out of the workforce, say 5+ years, you want to think about the value you bring to the table as someone who knows how to work and in many ways will be able to hit the ground running. This isn’t your first rodeo. In terms of what you should be paid, think about the whole package and use this guide, which is intended for new grads but full of valuable advice when it comes to evaluating an offer and negotiating for more.
