Help requested with job stuff and salary negotiation

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m in a very strange pickle. I’ve never had this experience before, so please, if anybody has any advice, I’m all ears!

I was offered a job yesterday at a law firm. Decent salary, good benefits. This morning I heard back from a state job that I interviewed for (actually, there are 2, but only heard about one). The woman wants me to meet with one more person to check for personality conflicts. The problem is that I am going to CA this weekend for a wedding and won’t be back until Monday afternoon. I told the law firm that I’d let them know on Monday whether I would take the job or not…but I can’t really do that until I know if the state job is going to be offered to me. The state job woman asked me about my other salary offer, and I know she can offer me more (the range goes to higher than the law firm offer). But I DON’T know if she’ll offer me the job! or for sure whether she’ll offer me more! The twist is that the other woman for the OTHER state job might be calling me, too…

So here’s my question. How do I go about negotiating a higher salary with the law firm? Should I even try? Should I count on getting the state job offers, and assume that they’ll offer me more than the firm because I told them what the offer was? I don’t know what to do or how to do it.

Please help me! I’m leaving for the airport in 4 hours! ARGH!:smack:

2

anyone? bueller???

3

Assuming the salaries are equal, which job would you prefer to have? If it’s the law firm, say “yes,” and forget about the money.

Also, call the state and ask for the interview to be held Monday morning. That way you’ll have the information in time to talk to the law firm.

As far as salary is concerned, if you don’t hear from the state before Monday afternoon, contact the law firm and tell them you’d like the job but may have a better offer elsewhere. Ask if there is anything they could do to sweeten the pot. Say you would really like their job, but you’re afraid that you may have to go for the better money.

4

I hope it’s not as a lawyer otherwise you may want to brush up on your negotiating skills.

Call up the company and say “this offer is completely unnacceptible.” Then say nothing else.