Salary Negotiation Tips: Playing It Straight

Editor's note: Salary expert Jack Chapman and TheLadders want to help you negotiate the best deal you can. You can e-mail us your salary negotiation questions or situations or use #salaryQ to submit them via Twitter. Due to the volume of inquiries, we may not be able to respond to all questions submitted.

Q: I’ve received a job offer from Company A while waiting to interview with Company B. The Company A job isn’t as interesting and doesn’t pay as much as I think the Company B job will. I'm not sure how to (a) try to ask for more from Company A, and (b) decide if it’s worth it to turn down Company A to interview with Company B and risk not getting either job.

A: You’re wondering if the potential to get a better offer is worth risking the one you have on the table right now. The saying goes: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Even if the one in the bush is better, you don’t want to lose what’s in hand.

If possible, it’s better to hurry Company B than to try to slow down Company A. That having been said, you have three choices here:

1. You could risk having Company A see that you’re not really hot for their job and risking they let you go as a candidate.
2. You can find out what Company A’s timing expectations are. You could say, “I can give you a ‘yes’ today, but when do you need a final decision on this?” It may give you enough time to hurry up Company B.
3. You could disclose to Company A that you’re interviewing with another company: “Here’s the truth: your best offer is not as good as another’s, and I need to look at both. Here’s the time frame I need, so what can we do?”

Lastly — this is dangerous to do but it is an option: you can accept offer A with the intention to quit if offer B comes through and it’s better. You’d go back to Company A and say, “Sorry, I know I said yes and I have started, but this other offer came up. It’s irresistible and I had to say yes to it.”

You have to be careful here. In business, especially if your industry is a tight-knit group, people will talk about your flip-flop, and you could later be blackballed, or deemed untrustworthy. Therefore, it’s a difficult decision to make. Best strategy is to keep your integrity and good reputation.

Next week's question: Is there a strategy to use to negotiate bonus compensation into salary?

You can find more salary negotiation articles from Jack Chapman here on TheLadders, or by visiting him on the Web at www.SalaryNegotiations.com