Asking for what you want: negotiation for researchers

By Danielle Barkley, Research Culture Specialist (Career Destinations)

“A prerequisite for […] success is the mind-set that you live in a friendly universe that is organized to support your highest good — that you can ask for what you need and the right people will respond and provide you with it. To be blunt, the inability to ask for what you need will limit your career.”  Kerry Ann Roquemore

I’ve worked as a Career Development practitioner and International Coaching Federation-certified coach, and questions about negotiation come up frequently in both spaces. I suspect this is because we are all, as interdependent and interconnected human beings, negotiating all the time. (I often open workshops on negotiation by asking participants to reflect on what they would do if they were hoping to have pizza for dinner, while their partner is longing for sushi). Workplace negotiations often feel higher stakes than what to have for dinner (and they certainly can be!) but negotiating is a learnable skill. No one is born knowing how to negotiate well – we can learn how to do so.

This blog post is the first part of a 2-part series: Part 1 focuses on how researchers can cultivate a mindset that sets the stage for successful negotiations. Part 2, to follow, will discuss practical strategies for engaging in negotiation conversations.

Let’s normalise and neutralise

Negotiation can tug on some of our core beliefs about scarcity, worthiness, confidence, and more. It is also often opaque: many people don’t always recognise when others are negotiating, what they are negotiating for, and what strategies they are using. As with many aspects of research culture, transparency and engaging with our community offer huge benefit when it comes to improving negotiation practices. Talking with others about their experience of negotiation can help us to see that, for many types of jobs, negotiation is a normal and expected part of the hiring process. In fact, not negotiating may be a signal that someone is less familiar with professional norms, or that they don’t feel confident in the value they are bringing to the role.

Framing negotiation as asking for what you need (and what you want) normalizes and neutralizes the process. While it can be depicted in adversarial terms, it need not be, negotiation can also be viewed as win-win: how do all parties arrive at a sustainable outcome that meets key needs and allows for successful partnership?

What can be negotiated?

Salary is, of course, an important variable; however, there is a vast array of other possibilities to consider negotiating. Your network can be a great source of inspiration for things you might never have thought to ask for. Some possibilities to consider include:

• flexible hours,
• compressed work week
• funds/supplies to set up a home office
• funds for ongoing learning, professional development, or certifications (this can be particularly useful early in your career)
• relocation expenses if moving to start a new job
• the permission to reshape or restructure your team, and the resources to add new roles to address identified gaps
• job title
• contract type
• Other: Let us know in the comments, what you have successfully negotiated.

It can also be useful, especially when requesting multiple ‘asks’ to think about how you would classify them according to a scheme of ‘needs’ ‘wants’ and ‘nice to haves.’ A need is a deal-breaker – it’s okay to have these! A want would strongly incentivize you to accept the offer but may have some flexibility whereas a nice to have simply sweetens the deal. This reflection allows you to prioritize and will help in the (likely) outcome that some of your requests won’t be possible. Viewing success in negotiation as getting everything you want, in exactly the way you asked for, is likely setting the stakes too high: negotiation will most likely lead to compromise, but your aim is an offer or agreement that is better aligned with your goals than what was initially proposed.

Utilise your research skills

Research can help with understanding the norms and process around negotiation in a specific field or sector, as well as providing insight into what a typical salary range for the position is. Imagine that you are looking for a research study or source of information related to your area of academic study. You’d likely begin by looking at the existing literature. Next, you might query other individuals who research this topic.

Likewise, you can find information to support your negotiations by looking at resources such as Payscale (a tool to find in-depth salary data for specific jobs or employers) or sector-specific resources (many professional associations will publish salary data that can help with benchmarking; for example, a 2024 salary survey for engineers in the UK can be found here). Our own Pathfinder Career Narratives series also typically includes salary range information for the spotlighted roles.

Keep in mind that sector and type of role will shape your experience of negotiation. Roles in the public sector (organisations owned by the government, including government departments and public services like the National Health Service) will differ from roles in the private sector (i.e. the privately-owned, for-profit businesses, ranging from small enterprises to large corporations).

For more, Karen Kelsky’s book The Professor Is In has an excellent overview of items that can potentially be relevant when negotiating for an academic position, including  teaching load, teaching releases, start-up funds, perhaps a junior sabbatical to help you achieve publication goals for tenure, conference or travel funding, space provisions or lab set-up.

Risk management

It’s important to contextualize the amount of risk associated with negotiating a job offer: as career expert Alison Greene writes, “Negotiating salary is a very normal thing to do. Candidates do it all the time, employers aren’t typically surprised by it, and it almost never ends in the offer being pulled.”  Job seekers sometimes conflate the risk of not getting what one asks for (which is possible!) with the risk of having an offer rescinded (which is most likely low).

The best way to gauge the stakes of a specific negotiation is to reflect, research, and draw on your network. Within most recruitment process timelines, you will have time to consult people you trust about times when they have negotiated within their career, and how and when they did so.

Different individuals, at different times, of course have different risk tolerances. For example, how urgently do you need to secure work? Do you have other offers or a high probability of receiving other offers? How do you feel about your current position? It’s normal for someone’s risk tolerance to vary throughout their career. You may have a very different risk tolerance as a researcher with a contract ending next month than you will mid-career with a secure and ongoing job you already enjoy. Reflecting on your personal risk tolerance prior to entering into a dialogue can bolster your confidence and help you to understand your priorities.

When to negotiate

If you have a pending job offer, you have significant leverage in your negotiation. The hiring team has invested in the recruitment process, and it benefits them if you, as the desired candidate, accept the offer. It’s worth noting that you may also end up re-negotiating changes to how you work if and when you experience life changes: if someone becomes a carer, celebrity, or professional sports person for example, they may negotiate for changes to the structure of their role.

 At the job offer stage, it’s normal to take time to review what you have been offered and prepare for a follow-up conversation; you may also wish to ask questions to clarify some components of the offer.  In general, if an employer wants to secure their first choice of candidate, they may have less flexibility on the salary they can offer but more flexibility in other areas and be willing to leverage that flexibility to secure you in the role.

Summing up

Negotiation is not one-size-fits-all. As you progress in your career, you’ll learn about different options for negotiating and land on what suits you best. Taking the time to reflect and prepare before negotiating sets the stage for a successful outcome.

Share your negotiation stories in the comments, and subscribe to the Auditorium blog to make sure you get Part 2 – practical ways to engage in negotiation conversations – delivered to your email inbox.