How To Feel Confident About Negotiating Your Salary

Feb 2

How To Feel Confident About Negotiating Your Salary

Do you feel confident about negotiating your salary?

If you said no, you are really not alone. It's not something we do very often - so it would make sense that you would rather clean out the vegetable bin in your fridge than have a weird conversation about money. (If you said yes, let's talk!)

But I can help turn that around for you. If you have an upcoming job interview (congrats!) or just want to get ready now, here's a mini step-by-step path for you.

Research Dietitian Salaries

There are several resources out there, including DietitianSalaries.com (see below) and this article. When researching make sure you do all the math, including whether it's a 1099 consulting gig where you are just getting an hourly rate or a full W2 employee with all the additional benefits. There are loads of jobs out there so you don't need to take that job offering only $30/hour. Seriously.

Beef Up Your Value

Make sure your resume and LinkedIn profile demonstrate what impact you will have in this new job. Lots of examples here. Gives you more negotiating leverage and the power to feel confident. Upskill if you need to, but you might already be enough - just show it and talk it up.

Be Curious

Learn about the job, learn about the team offering the job, learn how you can leverage your skillset (and talk it up), and enter into the conversation with curiosity and kindness. Negotiations are also about fostering a relationship.

Wait

Enter into compensation conversations after you get the job offer. It's ok to get a salary range ahead of the offer but wait to talk specifics until after they choose you.

Practice, practice, practice

Get your dialogue memorized and ready. Know what you want, practice saying it, and practice replying to their response. We are just talking about money so no need to feel emotional about it - its just simple math!

Next Steps

This is just the beginning. Grab my Compensation Negotiation Action Planner to help you plan out your talking points, your salary conversations, and your walk-away number.

Get On The List

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Search for Jobs on NutritionJobs

Are you looking for a new job or just want to see what else is out there? Browse all jobs on NutritionJobs today. Also, check out the Featured Jobs on NutritionJobs. Share with a friend in need, as well!

Search Salaries on DietitianSalaries.com

Are you curious about which dietitian job titles pay the most, or the least? Search the sortable database of real dietitian salaries from thousands of dietitians in real-time on DietitianSalaries.com.

About the Author

Stacey Dunn-Emke, MS, RDN, is the Founder Owner of NutritionJobs and DietitianSalaries.com and is an established dietetic career expert. She helps steer dietetic and nutrition professionals to a successful job search process with the top-ranked dietetic job board platform, NutritionJobs.com. Stacey is the author of The Dietetic Resume Guide and numerous dietetic career action-ables. She gives the tools to create a modern standout dietetic resume to land that job interview, help with job interview prep, and with creating Compelling LinkedIn profiles. Stacey has interviewed and hired many dietitians. Since running NutritionJobs in 2000, she has reviewed thousands of dietetic resumes. She works closely with dietetic hiring managers and recruiters to know the standout elements on a resume that land a job interview. Stacey speaks on successful compensation negotiation at professional conferences and frequently consults with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics at FNCE and co-created the webinar series, Dietetic Career Hack: The Complete Networking and Resume Guide and Dietetic Career Hack Part II: Interviewing Tips and Tricks. Her previous dietitian jobs have been in clinical, nutrition support, and research.