What is the best way to negotiate a salary for a new position?

How to negotiate a salary as an engineer for a manager position?

• My husband is being offered a manager position. He works as an engineer, but the thing is it won't be a higher position even though it's a manager position. The pay will stay ...show more

• Answer:

  I'm assuming that your husband has been told that this position will not pay more than he currently makes. If so, my suggestion if he is really interested in trying out management is that he might say he is highly interested in this opportunity and is strongly considering it, and that since it represents a different career path than straight engineering, he would like to inquire as to what the standard 'salary band' for this position might be for someone who is experienced as a manager. He could suggest that he would expect to prove himself in management, and that perhaps a six month evaluation period (nice term for trial) is a good start, to be sure it's a fit for both the company and him. Holding that thought for a moment, my guess is that while the company feels your husband is valuable as an engineer they are not sure if he will transition well into management. (Many engineers who are great employees don't find they like management). That said, the company should have a salary range or band for that position and unless he was a super high paid engineer who makes more than management then being in Management should have a higher range of salary than the highest paid engineer. By asking the question I suggested he can find out if that is the case. By the way, the company should have already told him an overview of what it's like being in management, but may have held back in case he doesn't accept, as they wouldn't want other Engineers to know too much about salaries. If for some reason the Management in his company really doesn't offer a bump in pay, ever, he might still ask for other non-paid compensation (such as fully paid medical, more vacation time, etc) which make the promotion more appealing. This is a very common practice. Anyway, if it's never going to pay more at least he'd know and then want to think about what motivates him in making an informed decision. If experienced management does get paid more, what he could then do is offer up the 6 month evaluation period I mentioned earlier, with the understanding that if he meets certain goals (which he has control over to a large part) during the last 3 months of that period (the first 3 months are really a learning curve), then he would either receive a bump in pay or some type of bonus going forward. This type of arrangement protects both newly promoted people and the company. The company should put this offer in writing. Note: Before having this conversation, he could go to Salary.com (no cost) to see what engineers and engineering mgmt. makes out there on average. Best of luck!