From the course: When Negotiation's about More than Money: How to Negotiate (Almost) Anything

Be brave

From the course: When Negotiation's about More than Money: How to Negotiate (Almost) Anything

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Be brave

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- So there's a key moment in any job interview where they will say, "How much are you looking to be paid?" And at this point, you've got two big fears. One of them is losing the job, if you ask for too much, they might just say, "Well you can't have the job then." And then the other fear is looking stupid, asking for a ridiculous amount and just getting it all wrong. But let's just look at those. First of all, if you don't ask, you don't get. So you need to go towards the high end, and we'll explore this in more detail later, but they're never going to offer you more than you ask for. They're never going to say, "Is that all you want? "No, let's pay you more than that." So, I use my little phrase, "They're probably "laughing at me," to think about this, and I have actually been on the other end, where I've interviewed people and I've said, "How much do you want?" And they've said an amount, and I've thought, "Blimey, that's cheap! "Done!" So, tell yourself that whatever number you're thinking of, they're probably going to think that that's cheap, that's great value. Also tell yourself, it is just a game, because it is. To you it's your life, but to them, as employers, they're just employing people all the time, and to them it's just a game, it's nothing personal. And remember the thing about the disposable income, if you can get one or two more thousand, that's going to make a big difference to how well off you feel as you live your everyday life, 'cause most of your money's already gone on fixed things like mortgages and food. So think about how much difference a few more thousand would make to your disposable income. And I think the big thing I would say, at the moment where they ask you about the money is be nice. Don't say, "Well, for this horrible job, "and working for this horrible company, "I would want loads of money." Obviously that would be terrible. You have to say, "I think the company looks great, "the job looks really fun, everybody here seems "really nice to work with, but I do love my current job, "and my boss is so nice, and I'm really achieving "a lot right now in my current job," lots of good things like that. "So I would have to be paid X to tempt me away." So your general attitude should be lots of flattery, but on the other hand, you love your current employer so much that it's got to be quite a good deal to tempt you away. So that should be the approach you choose.

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