The academic job market is not easy and people struggle with jobs here. You may get a job offer but you have to always negotiate it. Not everyone would agree with me, as there would be people saying that one should always accept a good offer and not explore negotiating opportunities as it may lead to losing the offer altogether. But here I would give you a few tips that would help you to negotiate better.
In my first job offer I did not have the skill as well as the courage to negotiate. Though I had heard from the more experienced bunch that negotiation is always advisable, but, because it was my first time, I did not have any clue about from where to start so I consented on whatever the chair had to offer to me. I give myself the explanation that since it was my first academic job and I was any which ways very happy to have a job in the first place that not negotiating for a better package seemed quite justified.
If I may take the liberty to add some statistics here, only nine per cent of women negotiate on having a job offer as compared a much greater percentage of 60 men out of 100.
It took me a long time to realise that my salary was nowhere near to the competitive packages being offered in the market and the only way to get a raise was now to jump into the market to find another suitable job offer. In the process of getting my new job I got an opportunity to negotiate on a great number of perks that had been actually missing from my then current position all these years. It seemed like such exploitation.
I specifically asked for more resources in these categories, particularly:
- Basic salary
- Funds for research
- Funds for attending seminar and conferences
- Development fund
- Moving allowance
- Housing fund
I can tell you with experience that for each thing I demanded, I had to keep a justification ready and that helped. In you negotiation stage as well, keep a list of categories you believe you would negotiate upon and have a valid reason for each one. That makes your case stronger. Have a explanation ready for why you need research funds. Get a critical perspective on the justifications by few experienced people. That surely helps. I did not get all things I asked for but from the list, the chair did consent on some of my demands. Eventually I moved with a feeling of satisfaction and happiness that I could negotiate well and was switching some gains that I felt I was deprived off for a long time. The important lesson here is that you never know what you will get if you ask, but you can be sure that if you don’t ask, you won’t get anything.
