Re: Negotiating for salary and enhancers

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

First, forget the comparison between your "contractor" rate
and direct-hire rate and concentrate on the actual amount vs.
your needs.  It sounds as if you've already done that.

Since you've already been there for a while, you're probably
not going to get the usual salary discussion opportunity that
comes up in most interviews ("what are you looking for as
a salary, etc."), but you do have the advantage of being able
to talk directly with your future manager about enhacing the 
offer terms.  Unlike HR, your manager is familiar with your 
abilities and accomplishments by now, and knows how
hard it's going to be to find someone else if you don't take
the job.

In your case, the time to bring up a signing bonus or any
other enhancements is probably now; the company has 
already "opened negotiations" by telling you that the 
offer being prepared is going to be less than what 
they're paying you now.  How to do it depends on the 
people, but I would make some generic inquiry as to
whether that "well below" can be sweetened in any 
way, either monetarily or non, and see what they say.  
If they respond positively, one approach may be to 
make a list of possible enhancements and let them 
check off things that would work for the company.  
Most hiring managers and HR people prefer to issue
one offer letter and have it accepted immediately.
Use your already-insider situation to give them the
chance to do that.

If the company is a large one, vacation schedules may
be set in stone.  Discuss with your manager the possibility
of doing it under the table between the two of you, as in
you're "working from home" on "special projects" for 
your manager but not really working.

The office and door:  you can probably already tell just
by walking around.  Are there many empty offices?  Are 
any other offices occupied by individual contributors, as
opposed to managers-only?  If not, I'd forget this one.

STC membership is a fairly low-impact request for
most companies.  Conferences are another matter.
The only way to know is by asking.

Don't forget to factor in the reduced cost to you of not
having to do that 30-50 mile drive every day!

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "TECHWR-L Administrator" <admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com>
> It's entirely possible I'll be offered a staff position after having 
> been working agency contract assignments for the last dozen years or so. 
> I've already been told that the salary range is well below what I make 
> as a contractor but it's close to what I'd want if I can get them to 
> come up with some enhancers (I will probably be showing them the STC 
> 2005 salary survey as well as the STC/BLS 2006 salary survey to see if I 
> can't get them to up the ante a bit).
> 
> They've already told me that after a short period, I'd have the freedom 
> to work from home most of the time. That's a big incentive for me 
> compared to the 30- to 50-mile one-way commute I've had for most of my 
> recent assignments.
> 
> So what I'm looking for are pointers regarding bringing up and 
> negotiating some of the other potential enhancers:
> 
> * signing bonus
> * additional vacation time
> * a real office with a door instead of just a cubicle
> * STC membership and conference attendance (registration, travel and 
> expenses)
> 
> When do I bring these things up? What are some good ways to actually 
> bring them up? When is the right time to give up pushing for one or more 
> of them? Are there any other enhancers I might have missed that I might 
> want to throw into the mix?

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