Page 202 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

exceptional, would you be prepared to give me a review after
three months and, if you were convinced, to increase the
salary to £50,000 at that point? Could you defer it and make it
conditional?’
With that kind of pitch, the chances are you would get it.

This is the time to secure that option. Because once you are
embedded as part of the company, it is hard to get a salary
increase. You have given away your bargaining position. While

you’re still sitting outside, your bargaining position is much
stronger. The company have already said they want you, so
you have succeeded in that part of the process. Now it’s about
agreeing a number.
Most employers have some flexibility on salary. And I

always have that in the back of my mind. What is the range,
the bandwidth of their leeway? If the job opportunity has
come via an agency, you know there is a fee attached –

between twenty per cent and twenty-five per cent of your
first year’s salary – and that reduces your bargaining power.
But if you are in a situation where there is no fee, that gives
you at least a twenty per cent margin to play with: I would
spend a fair amount of time returning on that.

190 get the job you really want