Never accept the first offer…what’s with this?…who ever said the first offer wasn’t a good offer?…some of the firms that I work with  are only going to make one offer and the candidate can either take it or leave it… Now if you want to ask something like “is that the very best you can do?” I can live with that, but in most instances, if you operate with the principal that you’re not going to take the first offer, you are playing games… on top of that, it’s stupid

He who brings up money first loses… I don’t know the idiot who  dreamed this up, But if you follow this advice you’re a fool… (obviously, I feel fairly strongly about this… and all the other stuff too) … the discussion of money is like any other issue in the interviewing process… If you are asked, for instance, “what are you earning?” What are you going to say, “I really don’t want to discuss money?”… Right!… Stupid advice !… don’t buy it.

Everything is negotiable… We had a brand-new MBA graduate get to the offer stage from the company… they  asked him what kind of compensation he had in mind. The candidate responded that he would like a salary of $150,000, a generous 401(k) plan, a car and four weeks vacation in its first year as well as a salary review in six months.” The hiring authority responded by saying, “how about $250,000 salary and an expense account,  a brand-new Mercedes and a salary view in three months?”  The excited candidate, with wide eyes, looked at the hiring authority and said, “are you kidding?” To which the hiring authorities said, “yeah, but you started it.”..

Okay, it’s a joke…but everything is NOT negotiablein fact there are a very few things in the job offer that are negotiable… maybe money, once in a very long while, title, some benefits and, again, once in a while a few other things… but for goodness sake don’t believe this adage… it’s foolish… you can simply ask the hiring authority what might be negotiable… but please, don’t go in to a job offer situation thinking “everything is negotiable” you will be sorely disappointed and won’t get to first base… As well as stupid

We had a candidate sometime back who, upon getting an offer, even said to the hiring authority “well everything is negotiable, can we begin with the salary”… the hiring authority stood up and said, “it doesn’t appear that you have any common sense, I don’t think are going to proceed beyond here. Thanks for coming by.”