Salaries, Benefits, 2nd Interview, Job Offers!! When to ask?
Salaries, Benefits, 2nd Interview, Job Offers!! When to ask?
A friend of mine is now in the process of going to an internal interview for a promotion/higher level than his current position. He asked me about when it is okay to ask about the salary? This is not cut and dried but in his case, he is already working for the firm and it is a posted position he is applying for so the circumstances may be a little different from some one who is applying from the outside.
The general rule of thumb is to wait until the second interview. However, if you are posting internally, there usually is a way to find out what the position pays. Most companies have core tiles and there is a hi/low within the tile, depending on how long you have been with company and how experienced you are will depend on where you fall within the tile? You can always call human resources to get an idea of what core tile the position is in. This way you don’t have that ackward moment in the interview, where you have to ask what the salary is.
There is other way to ask what the salary range is, when they call you to setup the interview or when you call to set it up the interview. This is always an acceptable question, this way you know whether it’s worth your time or not.
2nd Interviews
You, made it past the initial interview, good for you, this means that there is some interest in you as a candidate. So you will need to sharpen up your interviewing skills even more. Practice in front of a mirror, practice answering those difficult questions i.e. What value can you bring to the company? Where do you see yourself in 5 years, 10 years etc. There are some who suggest you create in your mind situations that fit the questions where you succeeded, or a story, it helps to cement your answers in the interviewers mind. Here is an article with a list of difficult questions to help you prepare by Allison Doyle from About.com
Salaries
As I stated earlier the general rule is to wait until the second interview. At this point you have made it past the initial interview screening and they are somewhat interested. However again when they call to schedule the interview it is okay to ask what the range is. Based on the position and title and location, you should already know what that position range is and if it doesn’t fall within this range you may want to reconsider the interview. (If this is your dream company, the job you always wanted, it’s your decision. But if it’s way below market you need to ask yourself why?)
So this leads me into researching salaries, find out what the market value of the position you are interviewing for, in most cases it depends on experience, location. So go to any of these sites below to research salary.
Everyone says salary is not the only reason to accept a position, but it’s a pretty good one. Don’t low ball yourself just because you didn’t do the research ahead of time.
Benefits
Benefits are as important as the salary. You want to wait until the second interview, however many companies now publish there benefits on their career section of their website. So if you check there you might be able to get an idea of what they offer. Here are a few articles written by Allison Doyle from About.com this is a check list, this is all about benefits About.com
Job Offers
You made it past all the interviews and now there is an offer on the table. Don’t just say yes, you need to weigh the offer. Go through everything they are offering Salary, benefits, vacation, PTO, working conditions, hours, commute, will you have to travel/how often etc. You need to make a list of everything and weigh everything against your life conditions. Do you want to negotiate something? Now is the time, not after you accept the offer. ( I think I should write an entire entry on negotiation, but usually everything is negotiable, salary, vacation etc) Here are a few articles on Negotiating that job offer to the perfect job offer.
Well I think this covers pretty much everything.
Today, I had a phone interview and have scheduled the 2nd interview for next week, so thats two interviews next week. Wish me luck! So I’ll talk to you again tomorrow.
Have nice day
Trish
Hello my name is Trish,
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