Negotiations

I'm an idiot.

So I'm in one of those all-day marathon interviews yesterday with a large company and one of them brings up the subject of salary. This is where I'm most uncomfortable. In the Army and in the Airlines the pay is set and published. No negotiations needed. Not so in the business world.

My dad gave me some great salary negotiation advice he learned as one who transitioned from the military to business, and in the moment I forgot it all.

His main point was this:

The golden rule is......who ever speaks first about salary level ..looses...that is , you always force the potential employer to raise the issue and the proposed salary numbers first..... you never do.

So I'm in this conference room all afternoon essentially doing the exact same interview with 5 different people. Towards the end of the day one of them asked what salary I wanted. I tried to follow my Dad's advice, but she wasn't playing it, so I blurted out some numbers she seemed satisfied with. Damn! If she was satisfied, I was probably too low!

Then the kicker. She asked if I "required any bonuses or stock options."

Yes please! Lots of them!

That was in my head. What I actually did was freeze up because I was quite unprepared for that question. I told her I hadn't thought about it.

Argh!

I have another interview today - the third with this particular company, so I'm guessing I get an offer today as long as I don't eff it up from interview fatigue. Hopefully I can grab my sack and negotiate a little better with them.

So it's down to two companies now. I interviewed with both about a month ago along with a bunch of others and have it narrowed down to these two. I think I want the first company I talked about about more than today's, but I think today's will give me my first offer. I'm told it's appropriate to not accept an offer right away and to delay a week or so, but it'll feel bad to do. I don't want them to get the impression they are my "safety" company, but that's what they are.