#Womenintech and beyond
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When we don’t negotiate, what do we lose? There’s a systemic reluctance to negotiate for a higher salary or benefits package especially as a woman in tech, but this is not confined to just women. There is a pay gap; helping to close it requires negotiating with employers to compensate us for our actual worth. If we do not negotiate and we undersell ourselves, we allow that wage gap to remain. Salary negotiation is intimidating and difficult to navigate if you don’t have the right tools and knowledge to do so. You need to know how to assess your value, identify target salaries, ask the right way, respond to red flags, and evaluate a total benefits package. Negotiating takes having a strategy in place and knowing tactics to be successful. Of course, success isn’t always the outcome and you may choose to walk away from a job offer. Knowing your breaking point is also important. We’ve had our fair share of successes and failures in past negotiations at a variety of institution types (public and academic libraries, state government, and private corporations). This talk will present what we’ve learned and share tools and tactics that helped us along the way.
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#Womenintech and beyond
- 1. #WomenInTech & Beyond Interview and Negotiation process, how not to lose your head. Callan Bignoli (@eminencefont) & Whitni Watkins (@_whitni)
- 3. Get to know your resume.
- 4. Skills? Projects? Think about what you’ve accomplished.
- 5. Study the job description.
- 6. Pinpoint. Pull out the major parts of the job description.
- 7. Outline. Answer the required skillset with examples of your own.
- 8. Questions. What questions come up while studying the job and employer? Bring these to the interview.
- 9. Get to know them.
- 10. Matchmaking How do you align with them? Do you?
- 11. Find that thing that helps you keep your head.
- 12. Negotiating.
- 13. You are not alone.
- 14. 47% are reluctant to negotiate.1
- 15. 79% of millennials didn’t negotiate for first job out of school.2
- 16. 66% Report not knowing how to ask for more.2
- 18. Shop around. Do your research. Glassdoor, Salary.com, Bureau of Labor Statistics and ask your colleagues.
- 19. Reflect. Skills, experience, education -- what do you bring to the company?
- 21. Cost of living. What do your basic needs cost?
- 22. Benefits. Traditional and non-traditional perks.
- 23. Priorities Support for professional growth? Vacation? Flex Schedule? Telework? Mentoring? Working environment perks?
- 25. They want you; you are their number one choice.
- 26. Define What is your value to your potential employer?
- 27. What if... You’re unemployed? First job in field? Just graduated?
- 29. HR has one job To get you in for as little as possible.
- 30. Knowledge You’ve done the leg work, you know whether the offer is competitive or not.
- 31. Pause & think Don’t accept right away. Take your time to evaluate.
- 32. Thank you!
- 33. References 1. Linda Babcock, Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation - and Positive Strategies for Change 2. Levo League, “Over Sixty Percent of Millennial Women Say They Don’t Know How To Ask For More” [link]
Editor's Notes
- Thank you Becky for the introduction. We’re here to talk about going through the job interview and salary negotiation process without losing your head. I’m Whitni Watkins, Callan and I both live in Boston, I currently work in the corporate library sector but spent most of my library career working in Academia. I’m Callan, I’ve spent most of my career in the public sector at municipal and state jobs. There is usually little wiggle room for higher salaries, but that can be offset by nontraditional perks.
- Whitni Starts: Interview prep, the points touched on here are things directly related to preparing for the interview itself, however a lot of the interview prep will be useful in negotiating and preparing you for negotiating.
- (Whitni) Get to know your resume. You’ve already spent a lot of time with it in preparing it for the application, now take the time to go over it and think about “how you did?” as well as what you did. Knowing your strengths & weaknesses is the first step to developing the confidence you need to succeed.
- (Whitni) Go through your resume, look at the last 3-5 years, make note of the positions you’ve had or the projects you’ve worked on, specifically the ones that apply to the job you’re interviewing for. Make note of the projects you’re exceptionally proud of. Make note of any sour moments and how you handled them. This will help you tie examples you were directly involved with to the job you’re interviewing for. It gets you thinking about them so when the questions come up in the interview you’re already ready to answer.
- (Whitni) No really.
- (Whitni) Go through the job description pull out the specific responsibilities. Get rid of the filler information about the place, hone in on what YOU are expected to do. Write these down on a separate page.
- (Whitni) Take your resume, the parts you’ve studied and highlighted -- align them with the major components you’ve written down from the job description. Sometimes it helps to physically write these down, starting with the components of the job description and then listing which pieces of experience apply to these. Think about standard interview questions. “Greatest strengths, greatest weaknesses, your proudest accomplishment, etc.” Rehearse your answers to them with specifics from your resume. While you’re focusing on these specifics think about which ones you definitely check off? What do you bring that goes beyond what’s asked for, in terms of qualifications and experience? What is at the core of your interest in the position? If there’s anything you know you’re a little light on skills- or experience-wise, how will you address that if asked? Something to note -- likelihood of doing this will show you that YOU are qualified for the job and reinstate your confidence and show that you have indeed done things!
- (Whitni) As you “study” your resume, reflect on good and bad, and study the job description there’s bound to be questions that don’t have answers, both directly related to the job responsibilities as well as things that you learned from past job experiences, things you wish you would have known before taking the job. Are any qualifications or duties unclear? Make note of that, and ask for clarification in the interview. Some example questions can be: Will you be working on a team? What does that team look like? What major projects will I be expected to take on in the first 30 days, 60 days, 90 days? How does this position contribute to the organization’s overall success? --a favorite I (Whitni) like to ask is “How long someone has been working for that organization and depending on the time length, either a follow up as to what interested them to come work here OR why did they stay? What about this employer/city/job keeps you around? -- this can tell you A LOT about the organization/team/department you’ll be working for and with.
- (Whitni) Go beyond what’s in the job description. The way employers describe themselves in job descriptions is often exceedingly positive or vague. Are they actually an “innovative, forward-thinking, cutting-edge organization?” How so? Even if they have a reputation or you have an impression of what they’re like and what they do, you have to go deeper to define what you personally will bring. Do your research.
- (Callan) Look at the organization’s strategic plan/mission statement, press releases, social media presence, etc. Does it resonate with or interest you? How does it match up with your own professional passions and career goals? Know how the library relates to its parent organization. For academic positions, this is the school as a whole; for public positions, this is the city or town you’d be working in. Is there a good community fit as well? Specifically think about why. If you understand your potential employer, and you understand your own strengths and skills, you can easily demonstrate the value you’ll bring to them. It’s also important that you determine if the organization is a good fit for you and where you want to take your career.
- I’m going to pause here to remind you to take care of yourself. Interviewing and then negotiation is very high stress and very demanding on your psyche. What do you normally do to relax or blow off steam? I go dancing. I also listen to a lot of high energy music. If you’re like me, you tend to go head on into stressful situations rather than endlessly preparing for them. It’s OK to do that, but make sure you’ve done your homework and you’re prepared to go off script. How many of you know about the Wonder Woman Pose? (demonstrate it) Put your hands on your hips, roll your shoulders back, and jut your chest out just a little bit. It might feel silly, but try it and let yourself feel the confidence in that pose. You can embody confidence with your posture and body language. Don’t forget to dress to impress. Clothing Music
- (Callan) Maybe you’ve heard a lot of what we just told you before in school or at job placement workshops, but now for something completely different. Negotiation! In other words, “They are offering you the job, so now what?”
- Negotiating is hard, really hard, and you are NOT alone in thinking this.
- 55% women and 39% men were reluctant to negotiate on jobs.
- We both didn’t.
- You might learn interviewing techniques in school, but not what to do next. In our experience, there wasn’t any guidance on what to do with the job offer, until we talked to friends who had experience negotiating. There are some inroads to progress. The wage gap between men and women has been discussed more openly in recent years. And some places, like Boston, have specific initiatives to offer free workshops to help with salary negotiation throughout the city. We’re really just getting started, though.
- (Whitni) Actual dollar amount, so you can judge if it’s a competitive offer. Think of the value of the total compensation package later - but as a first step, focus on the salary.
- (Whitni) Do your homework. Compare the job to other jobs, what do people with similar titles/circumstances make? Use things like Glassdoor or Salary.com Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics learn about the market of the field you’re applying to work in and the working conditions, and price changes in the economy Ask your colleagues/friends what tools they used or what a good range would be, but don’t rely 100% on that.
- (Whitni) As you’re gathering information, also reflect on your experience, education, cost of basic living. The goal here is to learn how to recognize whether an offer is competitive and pays you what you’re worth. Focus on a big project/recent success Focus on specific strengths & value you bring to your institution
- (Callan) Now you’ve got to think holistically about what you’re being offered - what you’ll be compensated with in exchange for the level of work you’ll be doing. This can be tricky, so remember to talk to others. Bounce ideas off of them. Ask for advice.
- Are you moving somewhere new to take the job? The salary may be more than what you currently make but if cost of living is higher where you’re going, you need to factor that in. Consider housing, food, transportation, health, family, other costs personal to you like student loans, etc.
- Can be traditional and nontraditional. Traditional - health insurance, sick time, vacation. Nontraditional - car, gym/pool membership, work cell & computer, conference attendance budget, continuing education funds, access to resources through the library
- What are the things that you MUST have at a job? These are priorities you cannot (will not?) negotiate on, and then there are the priorities that are would like to have. It’s important to know these things. For me (Callan), this was reliable free access to a car at work. I don’t own a car but often have to drive to meetings or other libraries, so I needed to make sure there was a free, easy way for me to do this. What are your MUST haves and your like to haves? Write them all down if that helps.
- (Whitni) When negotiating, you’ll have greater success if you feel confident that what you’re asking for is fair but also, that YOU are worth it. Negotiating is hard, so feeling your best is important.
- (Whitni) First and foremost in confidence building is to remember, you’re at the end, you’ve crossed the finish line, they have offered YOU the job, they want YOU. It’s easy to let yourself get into a mindset that “you should be grateful they offered you the job and to just take it” Honestly, that’s poppycock, you’ve worked hard to get here and you’ve impressed others along the way.
- (Whitni) Defining what you bring to the potential employer is another step in reminding you that they think you’re the best fit for the job. Remind yourself of the things you’ve done, the areas you’re strong in and what you bring to the table. Anticipate the employer’s needs as well. What did they identify as priorities during the interview? Don’t assume they memorized your resume. This prepares you to be more successful in negotiating because YOU KNOW what they want and what you bring.
- (Whitni) The hard part about negotiating is you have to determine your bottom line and if that isn’t met, you must be willing to walk away. I think it’s important to note that your bottom line could very well be “a job” and that’s totally acceptable, but just because you may be desperate, feel unqualified or inexperienced, or have this ridiculous notion that you need to “pay your dues” do NOT sell yourself short. Remember, there’s usually room for negotiating. Do it. If they don’t meet your bottom line then what?
- (Callan) Remember, more isn’t always just money. You can negotiate for more vacation, for professional development, for a flexible schedule… Side note: When you’re getting ready to negotiate, if you’re on the phone, make sure you’re somewhere comfortable where you can talk for a while without interruption. Maybe not around the corner from your boss’s cubicle, but at the park across the street.
- For me (Callan), I wasn’t able to negotiate for a higher salary. Municipal budgets often make that difficult, if not impossible. But I did learn that between a cost of living increase and a regular step increase, I would be making my target salary within a year. Even though they said no, I didn’t get in trouble for attempting to negotiate, and I learned something I might not have if I hadn’t asked.
- Knowing your bottom dollar in the field, based on the info you dug up with some of those sites Whitni discussed earlier, tells you if you’re actually getting screwed. With that in mind: --You can ask flat out -- is there room for negotiating? --Be prepared to counterargue with specific numbers: “The average salary for this job is X, the cost of living here is Y, I have THIS to bring to the table. I was expecting an offer of Z.” But do not make it personal. Do not request money because you have kids, or because you’re paying off loans, or because you take a trip to the Bahamas every winter. Requesting more money because you’re moving across the country and your S/O will need to leave their job in order for you to take this job however IS an acceptable negotiating point.
- Do not give an answer right away. You’re not obliged to - and if they expect one right away, that could be a red flag, that they might be getting desperate. Give yourself a day or two to evaluate the offer, to let your nerves calm. Remember to communicate you’re doing this to the hiring committee! Ask when they expect a response.
- Give yourself a day or two to evaluate the offer, to let your nerves calm. (Remember to communicate this to the hiring committee!)