Many parts of a job offer are negotiable – likely more than you realize.

Even before you have an offer, start with a personal inventory. Do you like to negotiate? Are you good at asking for things? Do you stand up to people in authority? Many people would say, “no” to these questions – bargaining feels uncomfortable or worse.

It turns out there are many things you can do to increase your confidence and increase your likelihood of success. In negotiations, the most important thing to do is prepare. Here are some ways to do so:

Make a list of your hopes, fears, and concerns. This might include opportunities to learn, to make a difference, or to improve your standard of living. Know what is important to you when it comes to a job.

Do the same thing for the organization. What might be their hopes, fears, and concerns with you? Know that you represent next-generation talent for them. Be bold and identify five ways you can add value to the organization from its point of view.

Do your homework. It might be hard to find out exactly what would be the rate of pay for a job you’ve been offered, but there are ways to get an idea of the likely range on sites like GlassDoor.com, Salary.com, and Payscale.com.

Make a list of things that could be negotiable with a full-time job. These include initial assignments, moving costs, a review in six months (rather than a year), the start date, a signing bonus (especially if there is not much room to move on salary), and starting salary. At the very least, ask for a salary that will be fair relative to others doing similar work.

All of this is preparation work. When it comes to meeting and actually negotiating, here is some guidance:

Say thank you to the offer, no matter what the offer is. Then get a pencil and paper and indicate that you want to write it down. You will look forward to the written offer but you want to learn all you can now. Write down all the information they share with you.

In response, don’t focus first on salary. Instead, ask questions about the work, such as your likely initial assignment, supervisory responsibilities, and committee work.
Even if you plan to accept the position, don’t do so immediately. If the organization is your first choice, say so, but also inform them that you don’t want to officially accept it until you have had a chance to study their proposal and get back to them.

They may make a salary offer or you might be asked about your salary expectations. An appropriate response would be one in which you say that as best you can tell based on what you presently know about the position and their geographical area, the salary range for such a job is $$$ to $$$. It is okay to say you would like to come in at the high end of the range and, in any case, you would like to be paid fairly, relative to other people doing similar work.

Ask questions rather than make demands. Are there options around your initial assignment? If there’s no option to increase the salary, can there be a signing bonus and coverage of moving expenses?
If you have multiple offers, don’t play them off against each other. You can say you have a higher offer from another organization but they are not your first choice. As such, you are hoping that a salary can be agreed to that both of you are comfortable with.

If you accept an offer, inform other organizations where you have pending applications so they can continue with their hiring process. If you accept an offer and later receive an offer from another organization that is more appealing, you should proceed in an ethical way by declining the second offer. You can always pursue employment there in the future if you desire to do so. Although there are exceptions, in most cases an offer and acceptance of that offer is expected to be honored by both parties.

Throughout the negotiation process, keep in mind your initial analysis of your interests and theirs. Be clear about what is and isn’t important to you and ask questions if you need clarification of any aspect of the job.

In the end, you can turn what may seem initially like a stressful negotiation into a joint problem-solving exercise where you both feel good about the final outcome.

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