I had a job interview with a media house. We had gone through some of the stages and were finally at the last phase. The interviewer asked me, “How much will you like to be paid for this role?”
I thought about this for a minute and realized I had not properly prepared for this before the interview. I had assumed there will be a fixed rate of income for the job I had applied to. So I said; “any amount that is customarily paid to the role I had applied to”. This wasn’t good enough as I was pressed further for a certain sum, so I gave a random figure. Then came the follow up question; don’t you think that is rather much considering you haven’t even completed your National Youth Service Corps? Until that moment, I had not realized that my only “sellable” answer was that I was a lawyer and I just naturally assumed my price should go up.
I realized after the interview that I should have prepared for this question. That giving a response on the spot without prior consideration was not very professional of me not to mention financial suicide if it turned out that my expenses to carry out the job was more than my income.
In other for you not to be in same predicament as me or avoid it in the future if you have already fell afoul of this, here are a couple of tips you should put into consideration in negotiating your salary with a prospective employer:
1) Customary salary in the field- before you go for that dream interview, ensure you find out from people in that field how much is usually paid for the level of work you are applying to. You can also conduct some primary investigation on the staffs of such companies (where possible) about the salary scale of the company. At other times, you may just look this up on the internet via top job sites or public forums; in Nigeria, Nairaland is very informative.
2) Running expenses- your expenses here might be of a capital nature or recurrent. Capital in the nature of securing accommodation around your work place. Recurrent in form of transportation to and from your place of work including feeding expenses.
Ensure you do a proper budget of this before proposing a figure to your employer when you are asked so as not to run at a loss if you fail to conduct this due diligence.
3) Qualification- it is important you consider this in other not to undersell yourself. There is nothing wrong in setting a minimum salary while considering the amount you shelled out in getting that degree or experience. Properly evaluate your value while ensuring it is reasonable considering the competition in the labour market.
4) Liquidity of Employer- you should consider the financial strength of the company you are applying to before committing to a lump sum. A one man business may find it difficult to pay you 250,000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) at entry level whereas a big firm as KPMG might not encounter such difficulty.
5) Bonuses and incentives- take time out to find if your employer makes provision for these which in turn may increase your overall take home pay. A company with a low basic salary but with juicy incentives like insurance, medicals, pension, and bonuses may be a better option for you than another with a fat salary minus incentives. Consider the duration you intend to spend with the company and decide on a favourable alternative to you.
Whichever factor seem more important to you, the rule is not to over-price yourself as to chase your employer away or undersell yourself and regret your decision before you even begin work. I wish you the very best in the pursuit of your professional career.
Good write up Tunz.
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