Woh, lots of question in thereGeorge; but here opinions:
Q) How do you come up with a figure to ask for when looking for a job?
A) It takes current + 10% before I even talk to a anyone about a new position. From that point I check the roles average salary for my area then increase if I am well experiences or decrease if not so experiences in the stated role.
Q) How do you negotiate getting a higher salary than what they offer?
A) Justify it. What will you bring that no one else can? Will you be able to increase the business value of the organization? Do you have any secondary skill sets that can contribute? However, do no go the route of 'Im a rockstar programmer, I can do 10x the work of anyone else'. That is a lie to yourself and the organizations. It will end in frustration. Leverage who you are and what unique advantages you bring.
Q) Do you research salary sites?
A) Constantly.
Q) Do you find those sites to be reliable?
A) Generally, especially sites where the data is reported by current / prior employees. It might be slightly dated but it you can glen if the organization tries to stay on the going rate or low-ball it's employees
Q) Is it natural to ask for more money when moving to a job from another company? What are you thoughts?
A) 10% is my base increase before even scheduling the first round of negotiations. Often times I will position for 25% and let them talk me down to between 12% and 17%. This works well when applying the 'I can bring X value to your organization. I also have experience Y and Z that pair well with the position to be filled.'
I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin from the late 20th century.
These days I do more Javascript and CSS and whatnot, and promote UX and accessibility.
Woh, lots of question in thereGeorge; but here opinions:
Q) How do you come up with a figure to ask for when looking for a job?
A) It takes current + 10% before I even talk to a anyone about a new position. From that point I check the roles average salary for my area then increase if I am well experiences or decrease if not so experiences in the stated role.
Q) How do you negotiate getting a higher salary than what they offer?
A) Justify it. What will you bring that no one else can? Will you be able to increase the business value of the organization? Do you have any secondary skill sets that can contribute? However, do no go the route of 'Im a rockstar programmer, I can do 10x the work of anyone else'. That is a lie to yourself and the organizations. It will end in frustration. Leverage who you are and what unique advantages you bring.
Q) Do you research salary sites?
A) Constantly.
Q) Do you find those sites to be reliable?
A) Generally, especially sites where the data is reported by current / prior employees. It might be slightly dated but it you can glen if the organization tries to stay on the going rate or low-ball it's employees
Q) Is it natural to ask for more money when moving to a job from another company? What are you thoughts?
A) 10% is my base increase before even scheduling the first round of negotiations. Often times I will position for 25% and let them talk me down to between 12% and 17%. This works well when applying the 'I can bring X value to your organization. I also have experience Y and Z that pair well with the position to be filled.'
Hope this help George, good luck out there.
I'd take current minus a percentage for a job I really liked, provided it was enough for me to live on. It's not all about the monies.
Completely right, you spend a lot of your life at work. I wouldn’t take an extra 20k to make that big part of it less happy.