Should You Let a Headhunter Negotiate Your Salary?
Should You Let a Headhunter Negotiate Your Salary?
Many job seekers, when working with a recruiter get to the job offer phase and often spend hours determining how they should negotiate or even if they will be allowed to negotiate their own compensation package.
Questions to Ask
Should the job seeker just circumvent the headhunter and negotiate the salary themselves? When it comes time to negotiate a salary, the stress level of both the employer and, especially the job seeker increase significantly – sometimes to levels that are not realistic when given the situation.
Regardless of stress, the answer to whether a job seeker should just take the salary negotiation initiative is “no.” He or she could risk losing their entire offer by showing what may be perceived by the employer to be a level of unprofessionalism prior to even signing the agreement.
If the potential employee really feels that they have a better shot at getting a higher offer than the recruiter, they should simply ask the headhunter. If reputable, that individual should not mind.
Using the 3rd Party to Your Benefit
If you’re smart about negotiating salary, you will use your headhunter as a buffer between the hiring organization (party with the upper hand) and yourself. Sometimes, job seekers get intimidated when they receive an offer from corporate – feeling as if nobody is in their corner and everybody is in the corner that just offered them a lower salary than they wanted.
When a third party recruiter who is effective at salary negotiation becomes involved as the intermediary between both parities, emotions tend to be lower between both the hiring company and the prospective employee as both sides use the recruiter as a sounding board to vet any frustrations they may have with the other party.
When the Headhunter Can Go Against the Job Seeker
Contingency recruiters who are amateur and underpaid have a tendency to price their job seekers out of the market simply because they have incentive to inflate the salary requirements of the job seeker whom they are recruiting. Contingency recruiters are paid on a percentage basis which is based off of the salary of the employee whom they successfully place at an organization.
Therefore, the higher the salary of that job seeker, the more commission they get. It’s no different from most real estate sales transactions, except that it’s a lot easier to appraise a piece of land than it is a human being.
If a job seeker feels that their recruiter is asking for too high of a salary when negotiating for them, they should step in and accept a lower offer as many times sitting back can result in the employer taking the offer off the table because of the asking price for your services.
In the End
In the end, it’s your salary and your career. Make sure that you are not a silent partner when having a headhunter negotiate your next salary, but also ensure that you are not overbearing and piss that recruiter off because he could ruin a potential job offer.
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Even if you are dealing with a recruiter, you still have an obligation to yourself to research the job, the company and be aware of the salary range. Furthermore, things like vacation time or other benefits may not benefit the headhunter, so it’s always wise to investigate what the company’s compensation package is about before entering negotiations. I found some helpful information at http://www.negotiatingsalary.com about how to keep a cool head and maintain business-like, professional negotiations. Handled well, the employer will respect the request for a higher wage, but if it’s not handled well, you’ll quickly become a pain and they’ll regret wanting to hire you in the first place. A slippery slope for sure.
This is very good advice. Thank you.