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10 Myths About Job Search Salary Negotiations Debunked, with Brandon Bramley

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Are you afraid to negotiate salary and benefits because you think the employer may pull the offer? Refusing to negotiate salary is the best way to limit your lifetime earnings, says Find Your Dream Job guest Brandon Bramley. Brandon says employers expect you to negotiate, and some may actually see it as a weakness if you don’t. Negotiation doesn’t have to be stressful; keep the tone friendly and kind, and you will find most employers to be more than willing to have the conversation. 

About Our Guest:

Brandon Bramley is the founder of The Salary Negotiator.

Resources in This Episode:

Transcript

Find Your Dream Job, Episode 413:

10 Myths About Job Search Salary Negotiations Debunked, with Brandon Bramley

Airdate: August 23, 2023

Mac Prichard:

This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life.

I’m your host, Mac Prichard. I’m also the founder of Mac’s List. It’s a job board in the Pacific Northwest that helps you find a fulfilling career.

Every Wednesday, I talk to a different expert about the tools you need to get the work you want.

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We’ve all heard the saying; you get what you ask for.

But when it comes to the salary for your next job, you may not ask for what you want.

And when this happens, you leave money on the table.

Brandon Bramley is here to debunk ten myths about job search salary negotiations.

He’s the founder of The Salary Negotiator.

Brandon’s company helps you negotiate your new job offer and secure the pay you deserve.

He joins us from Seattle, Washington.

Well, let’s get started, Brandon. You’re a salary negotiation expert, you work with job seekers, and you’ve identified, in your work, ten common myths about salary negotiations that keep coming up again and again.

We’re gonna walk through that list in a moment. But first, I want to know, why do these myths exist?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, really, these myths exist because everyone has fears if they’re going through the interview process. If you think about where everyone is or where you might be when you’re interviewing, your main focus is, essentially, landing the job. You don’t want to do anything to jeopardize it. You want to make sure you put your best foot forward and that you get that offer at the end of the day.

So then, when you get the offer, it seems a little odd to go back and try to negotiate and try to get more. And most people are fearful that that might come off the wrong way to the hiring team, which is typically why there’s a lot of myths out there that they have in their mind that it’s not the right step to take, and they end up actually foregoing it.

So my goal is to hopefully debunk that, and typically how I work with people to make sure that you and everyone can go ahead and negotiate their compensation before beginning.

Mac Prichard:

We’re gonna get to your list in just a moment, but one last question about the persistence of these myths; how can they hurt your job search and your career if you buy into these ideas?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, these can really, the way they can hurt your career is by limiting your career as well as your compensation growth. If you think about it, when you actually do negotiate your job offer, usually what you’re doing is you’re getting an increase, whether in base or bonus or equity or other perks. And you’re essentially not only setting the bar for future jobs since you’ve increased your negotiation off the bat, but you also built up your initial compensation so that when you actually get raises from year to year, they continue to grow more. Essentially, it ends up leading to more money over the course of your career. So by not doing it off the bat, you might be paid below market and then be leaving money on the table that you might miss later down the road.

Mac Prichard:

Okay, let’s go through your list of ten. So number one on your list is that the employer will outright refuse to negotiate. Does this ever happen, Brandon, in your work with candidates?

Brandon Bramley:

Very rarely. So you might think that your job offer is set in stone. But that’s typically far from the truth, and most employers are actually gonna expect candidates to negotiate. So it’s become a very common practice. Even at my practice, we’ve seen about a ninety percent success rate when helping clients negotiate job offers, which means that most companies do negotiate or work with you to negotiate if you do it the correct way.

So if you’ve made it through the interview stage, you can be confident that your new employer wants you on the team. So, at the end of the day, you should negotiate before accepting. So that’s honestly just a myth, and it’s worth a try.

Mac Prichard:

Number two on your list of ten myths that job seekers believe about job search salary negotiations is that you, as a candidate, don’t have any bargaining power. What’s been your experience here? Do candidates, in fact, have no bargaining power when it comes to salary negotiation?

Brandon Bramley:

That is one hundred percent a myth. But I get why people think that. When interviewing, it can feel as if the company is doing you a favor when they make you an offer leaving you without any leverage. But that’s really because maybe you need the job after all, and you spent the whole process showing them that you’re the right one for the role.

However, if you think about it, companies spend a lot of not only time but also money reviewing applications, setting up the interviews, and interviewing you. So sometimes, it can take months, or it can take a few weeks, and they might be trying to find the right fit for that role before they begin.

So when they do give you an offer, that means that the entire hiring team has checked off the box that you’re the right one for the role and they want to hire you.

So it now becomes a recruiter’s job to make sure that you accept that role and you start as soon as possible. So that’s really where the leverage comes from, is very rarely do they really have an acceptable candidate in their back pocket because they’ve already made the decision to move forward with you, and if you don’t accept, then they have to go back to the hiring team and say,” Hey, sorry, we have to start interviewing again, and we lost the job.” So, typically, if there is room for improvement, you do have the leverage to negotiate your salary.

Mac Prichard:

I can imagine there’s a listener out there who’s thinking, but, wait a minute, Brandon, maybe they’re talking to two candidates at the same time, and if I ask for too much, whether it’s too much money or something else, I’ll endanger the offer and the other candidate will move forward. What’s been your experience there?

Brandon Bramley:

To be candid, we’ve never seen that. We’ve actually never seen a job offer rescinded. So very rarely does it happen. Typically, it’s usually a recruiter tactic to go ahead and try to deter you from negotiating and getting you to accept as is.

Mac Prichard:

Well, let’s move on to number three on your list, and it’s related to recruiter behavior. It’s the idea that a recruiter will claim that a company won’t budge on the offer. Why would a recruiter say this if it isn’t true?

Brandon Bramley:

Great question. So if you think about it, it’s a recruiter’s job to not only get the best candidate but also the best deal for the company. So would you really expect anyone in a negotiation to tell you that the offer is negotiable? Probably not, because if they did, then you would try to negotiate, or everyone would try to negotiate.

So while the recruiter should be a close partner to you in this process, and that conversation should always be friendly, it’s vital to understand that they do use strategies to deter you from negotiating. So, in addition to finding and vetting solid candidates, they typically will use different strategies to go ahead and get you to accept. But based off of our experience, is all job offers are negotiable.

And if you do the compensation research and find out that there is room for improvement or possible additional benefits on the table, it makes sense to go forward with it. You just have to remember that the recruiter might push back and is gonna try to deter you because not only do they not want to go back and get internal approvals with their team, but they want you to accept as soon as possible, so they can please the hiring team and get you in that position quickly.

Mac Prichard:

Let’s do one more myth before our break. Number four on your list is that you need a counteroffer to be taken seriously as a candidate. Tell us more about this, Brandon.

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, so a lot of people think that you’re gonna go ahead and need a second offer to go ahead and negotiate. But to be candid, most of our successful salary negotiations, the career professional that we worked with did not have another offer on the table. So you really don’t need a second or multiple offers to be successful.

And if anything, what I really want to highlight, is actually having another offer is not always a benefit for you into the negotiation. It does give you a backup option, something in your back pocket if this is not the right role and you change your mind. But I don’t recommend sharing offers right off the bat.

The reason is because, one, not all roles are created equal, and companies might not find the other offer as competitive. So if you think about, say, it’s a job offer with Google, and you bring them another offer from a start-up, they’re probably in a different playing field, and Google’s not gonna see an offer from a start-up as competitive, as well as vice versa. A start-up knows that they’re not gonna be able to go ahead and compete with the brand image and the benefits at Google.

Another reason why companies might not negotiate if you have another offer is because they think that if they do, you might just go ahead and take that better offer back to the other company and get themselves into a bidding war, or if they can’t match that offer and they don’t know that you’d accept less, they might think it’s not worth the approvals since you’re gonna say no anyways. So typically, they’ll call your bluff and draw you to accept the offer as is. So at the end of the day, regardless of if you have another offer or not, I recommend going through the negotiation process.

Because we’ve shown that you still can be successful because, like I mentioned before, at the end of the day, they want you in the role; they want your experience. The hiring team has selected you. So if the data shows that there’s room for improvement, it’s worth it to go after that and advocate for yourself.

Mac Prichard:

Well, this is terrific, Brandon. We’re gonna take a break. Stay with us. When we come back, Brandon Bramley will continue to share his advice on ten myths about job search salary negotiations. Stay with us.

Before you can negotiate a new salary, you need to get a job offer.

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Now, let’s get back to the show.

We’re back in the Mac’s List studio. I’m talking with Brandon Bramley.

He’s the founder of The Salary Negotiator.

Brandon’s company helps you negotiate your new job offer and secure the pay you deserve.

He joins us from Seattle, Washington.

Now, Brandon, before the break, we were working through your list of the ten common myths about job search salary negotiations. We got through one through four.

So number five on your list of job search salary negotiations is that because the proposed salary is higher than you expected, there’s no need to negotiate. Does this happen, Brandon?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, it happens quite a bit. So I talk with clients, and they’re really excited because they make the move to the new company, and it’s a big bump up compared to what they were expecting. But, to be honest, rarely have we seen an initial offer at the true top end of the pay range. So while you might be excited that it’s higher than your current salary, and you might not feel the need to negotiate, but it’s always worth considering whether your expectations were too low in the first place.

The reason being is if you think about how compensations at companies work, is every company is gonna have a set pay range both for their base salary, as well as for their total compensation that’s specific to that role at their own company. No two companies are gonna pay exactly the same.

So it’s worth it to actually sit down do the compensation research to see if that’s the correct pay and where your actual initial offer falls on the compensation range, and if there’s room for improvement. Because if there is room for improvement, it’s worth it to go through the salary negotiation steps to make sure that you can get to the top end of the pay range before you begin.

Mac Prichard:

What’s your quick tip for how to react when you hear that higher number? How do you keep your game face on and keep your options open?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, the best way to react is, honestly, be excited. But mostly focus at the opportunity.

Something like, hey, I’m super excited to make the move to your team. I’m really excited to finally get an offer. But let me go ahead and review all of the details if you wouldn’t mind sending over the offer package as well as the benefit details. That way, I can sit down and review it, and I can let you know if I have any questions or concerns.

Because when you answer it open-ended like that, it shows your interest in the role and that you’re still excited about it, but it leaves it open-ended to actually sit down, do the research, and come back to them with a counter.

Mac Prichard:

Number six on your list of ten common myths about job search salary negotiations is the company will withdraw the job offer if you negotiate. Have you seen this happen in your work as a salary coach?

Brandon Bramley:

Honestly, I have not. But this is by far the number one concern that most people have on their minds, and it’s normal to be worried about it. I mean, if you think about it, you just spent the whole time interviewing and trying to convince the company that you’re the right one for the role. Now you don’t want to do anything to jeopardize that.

But, to be candid, I’ve never witnessed a company pull a job offer due to a salary negotiation, and we’ve helped hundreds of career professionals. So the worst case scenario is if you go through the salary negotiation process is that they’ll say no. But more than likely, if you navigate the negotiation correctly, you’re most likely gonna see an increase from their initial offer and hopefully a few extra benefits.

Mac Prichard:

And when you do hear no, you still have options, don’t you, Brandon?

Brandon Bramley:

You do. Yeah, because typically, a no is, like I mentioned before, a recruiter tactic. I like to see those as objections or excuses.

So typically, when that happens, if you can find a way to overcome that as an objection in a nice, kind way and get them actually to take it back to the hiring team past the recruiter, which is usually the decision maker that will actually review your request and see what they can do.

Mac Prichard:

Myth number seven on your list is that an offer that is already at the top end of the range that the recruiter provided; in other words, there’s no room to move. What’s happening here, Brandon?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, so I mean, again, I never wish to undermine the hard work of recruiters or the hiring team. But, at the end of the day, it is their goal to go ahead and find quality candidates while getting them at affordable rates.

But it wouldn’t make sense for them, in my opinion, to go ahead and share the true range with you. If they did and they offered anything less than that, most people would push to negotiate. So usually, what they do is they throw out a range in the initial interview process as a gut check to see how you feel about it and where you’re planning to come in on that.

But that’s why it comes down to kind of holding once you get the offer, doing the compensation research so you know exactly where the compensation should come in at and whether your initial offer is fair or not. That way, you know exactly how much more you could ask for, and you can start building that strategy of how to go back to the hiring team to make sure that you advocate for yourself and you get a solid package before you make that next career transition.

Mac Prichard:

Number eight on your list of ten common myths about job search salary negotiations is that talking about money so early on in your relationship with an employer is actually gonna harm that relationship with your new bosses. Have you seen this happen, Brandon?

Brandon Bramley:

No, I honestly haven’t. But I do feel that most people think that negotiation is aggressive. Based off the movies or maybe what they’ve seen at the car dealership. But in all reality, that’s not how salary negotiations go, and really kind of what I coach, and I think everyone should use, is your tone should always be friendly. Almost think about your tone as talking with a friend that’s helping you feel comfortable with a move to a new company.

Because most employers are willing to listen even if they think they might have not had room to review. They do see that advocating for yourself as a positive trait. It might, honestly, be a skill set that they’re looking for if you are negotiating with external or internal partners. This is very big for product and product management roles, and even when I used to hire negotiation professionals in procurement and vendor management roles, it was a huge red flag if a candidate didn’t attempt to negotiate before they started.

So as long as you’re prepared for the negotiation and if you navigate it in a professional and friendly way, this process should not only help build the relationship and show that you’re the right candidate for the role, but typically you’ll be more confident going through that process.

Mac Prichard:

Are the candidates you’ve worked with in the past surprised to hear that it actually might count against them if they don’t attempt to negotiate?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, absolutely. Usually, when I talk to them and I actually typically debunk this myth for them, they think about, oh, if this is a possible chance. Almost like I’m still in the interview realm, and if I do this right, it shows how I’m not only gonna interact with them, but I’m also gonna go ahead and interact with my colleagues, other internal members, as well as external parties throughout my career, and role with that team.

Mac Prichard:

Number nine on your list of ten myths is that negotiations are always stressful, and candidates just aren’t equipped to bring up the issue. What’s the best way to handle stress during a salary negotiation? And, in fact, are they always stressful? And what have you seen work when it comes time to talk about money with an employer?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, I mean, to be candid, they really shouldn’t be stressful, and the best way to get away from that stressful feeling is to make sure that you’re prepared and you know how to have this conversation. Because most of these conversations, like I mentioned, should be friendly and relaxed. The same tone that you’ve been using with the interviewing team throughout this entire process.

But, instead, when you go through the negotiation, and when you start to use the data focusing on the pay ranges that you found, as well as other benefits that you could get elsewhere, maybe in your current job or other competitive companies are offering, you shift the focus off of yourself, and you’re more relatable of just focusing on, here’s what other folks are paying, here’s what you should be paying, and I would like you to actually work with me to see if you can take this back to build a package based off of this data.

If you do that, it really shouldn’t be stressful because you’re going into it prepared. You’re focusing on the data because you’ve already sold to the team that you’re the right one for the role, and now you’re relating in a kind and friendly way with the recruiter to help them fight on your behalf internally with the decision-makers.

Mac Prichard:

Your tenth and final myth of ten is you have to be a professional negotiator to succeed in a conversation about salary when you’re doing a job search. Why isn’t this true, Brandon?

Brandon Bramley:

This is just silly, to be honest. Because anyone can be successful in a salary negotiation, and everyone’s gonna have a different strategy of getting there. So based on hundreds of successful salary negotiations, we’ve debunked these myths and believe that, honestly, anyone should be able to negotiate. It’s really, if you’re thinking about the interview process, it’s just another step that you’re going through to make sure that you’re getting the right role for yourself and you’re also getting the right pay, as well as they see you as a professional before you begin.

So it really just comes down to practice. So if you’re practicing for interviewing for the role, you should be practicing for, how much does this company pay? How am I gonna outline my negotiation? And how am I gonna propose this to the hiring team to get what I deserve? And how do I advocate about myself to get the best pay possible? But, as long as you do those, you don’t need to be a professional negotiator and anyone should be able to succeed in this.

Mac Prichard:

Well, it’s been a terrific conversation, Brandon. Now, tell us, what’s next for you?

Brandon Bramley:

Yeah, next for me is my goal to continue growing our salary negotiation services and also including our free advice on our website to make sure that we can help as many people as possible actually feel confident in this process. At the end of the day, this is a huge chance if you’re either changing roles or negotiating with your current company to increase your compensation, and that’s gonna continue to compound across your career.

So we’re hoping to go ahead and educate not only new grads but also experienced professionals to make sure that they do this every time they change a role or if they feel underpaid to make sure that they’re really following their career journey both compensation-wise and professionally.

Mac Prichard:

I know listeners can learn more about you, your company, and your services by visiting your website, thesalarynegotiator.com, and you also invite listeners to connect with you on LinkedIn, and if they do that, I hope they’ll mention they heard you on Find Your Dream Job.

Now, Brandon, given all the great advice you’ve shared today about salary negotiation, what’s the one thing you want a listener to remember about these ten myths about job search salary negotiations that you debunked today?

Brandon Bramley:

The biggest thing I think I can give back to the team on the myths is that you should really see any concerns preventing you from negotiating as just a myth.

At the end of the day, this is your one chance to set up your compensation for the next three to five years, depending on how long you’re gonna be with that company. So it’s worth it to slow down, take the extra couple of days to make sure that you’re getting the right offer, you’re getting paid correctly, and advocate on your behalf to make sure that you’re happy in your future role.

The last thing anyone wants to do is find out a year or two down the road that they’re not being paid correctly. So preventing that by doing it now is gonna set you up for success, and I strongly believe that everyone should negotiate before accepting a role.

Mac Prichard:

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Next week, our guest will be Gaby Rosenada Valdes.

She’s the talent manager at  Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette.

Gaby specializes in talent management, compensation, and employment law.

An employer wants to hire you.

You think the offer is a good one, but how can you be sure?

Join us next Wednesday when Gaby Rosenada Valdes and I talk about the questions you must ask before accepting a job offer.

Until next time, thanks for letting us help you find your dream job.

This show is produced by Mac’s List.

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Our sound engineer is Matt Fiorillo. Ryan Morrison at Podfly Productions edits the show. Dawn Mole creates our transcripts. And our music is by Freddy Trujillo.

This is Mac Prichard. See you next week.