Which job and how to negotiate

[Greenshiner]

I'm great at negotiating in my job, but when it comes to negotiating my pay, not so great.

In my current role I'm paid below market rate, am upper middle management but working above my level and have vague promises of promotion. Overall, I enjoy the work and there are other benefits to working there.

I've been offered a more senior role paying significantly more in a business I don't really have any desire to work in. I was headhunted for the role.

How can I use the job offer to my advantage? I'm certain my current employer wouldn't want me to leave, but there will surely be a ceiling to what they will offer.

I am prepared to leave if they won't budge. It's not an idle threat. I've done it before and didn't regret it, but I can't get excited about the new role.

Give me your best strategies for getting more money now and an agreed time frame for promotion without making my employer lose faith in me. I'm a loyal employee but not if I'm not paid enough. I know how much people are paid at levels below me and the gap between them and me isn't big enough based on what I bring to my role.

I did this a couple of years ago. I’d had vague promises of promotion, was told I was key to the company and then they hired someone in to the position they’d promised me. I was offered a much more senior role at a company I wasn’t excited to go to and so got to the almost signing stage and called a meeting with my MD.

I told him how much I loved the company and the role and had seen my future being there but I’d been head hunted and with the promotion not happening was considering leaving. I was pretty straight and asked if there was anything they could do to better the offer. He offered me a £10k raise straight away (it turned out that as well as not promoting me I’d been being significantly underpaid compared to low performing males on my team).

My only warning is that if they weren’t doing what they could to keep you up to this point are they really where you want to be? I still didn’t get promoted, my career stagnated and 2 years down the line my company’s colours have really shown and I’m leaving under less than ideal circumstances wondering where my career would be now if I’d taken that other job.