How hard do you negotiate if offered a job

[Merryoldgoat]

It seems my role is in demand and I’m getting a lot of requests to interview. I’m not especially looking for a new role so I’m being fussy.

I’m not some high-flier - just middle management finance but it’s that level companies often add in when expanding or need to beef up financial control.

Do you negotiate hard on salary?

Can you get more holiday? Higher pension contributions? More wfh than advertised?

Eg a job I’m interviewing for is advertised at 60k-65k, 5% pension and 2 days wfh

Salary is fine, but I’d prefer 3 days wfh and more pension (currently get 8%)

I’ve never really had to in the past - I’ve not had loads of jobs and been internally promoted a few times so not moved about much.

Advice/insight much appreciated.

Depends on the employer. In large companies terms such as pensions, days holiday, WFH etc are standardised across the company so there's nothing they can do to change it. Never harms to ask though.

I'd just say to them that your current WFH days are 3 per week and pension is 8% and what can they do for you in respect of that.

Like PP said, company policy may restrict them but they may offer you more money e.g. to cover the extra day travelling to the office. So don't say your happy with the salary. Just leave it as an open ended question. Good luck, let us know what they say

At my place, you could negotiate the salary (within the band) but not the pension. You could have a stab at getting more days WFH but that would depend on the place s.policy and if there are other colleagues in the same role that have to follow it to ensure there is no unfair treatment.

That’s all really helpful - thank you.

You really don’t know how sheltered you are sometimes! 🤣

My last salary negotiation was my boss saying a figure, me saying one a bit higher, and him saying ‘fine’

I suppose if pension isn’t negotiable I could push on salary to make up the difference.