Will being accommodating risk my chances to land my desired salary?

Question

A company reached out and I've been nothing but accommodating to them. By accommodating I mean: I let them set the phone interview schedule and I rescheduled accordingly.

During the aforementioned phone interview, they asked me about my salary expectations so I honestly informed them about the range I'm expecting and added that I was open to negotiation; they said they were glad that I welcomed negotiating my salary.

They then sent me an email inquiring about my availability for an onsite interview. I said that I didn't mind any given day of the week.

Have I been too nice/ accommodating? Would that affect the number they have for me?

Answer 1

Have I been too nice/ accommodating?

Absolutely not. Being "nice" is (almost) never wrong. Being "accommodating" is (almost) never a bad idea. You seem specifically concerned about how "nice" you were when scheduling the interviews - I think we can completely ignore your "niceness" in terms of scheduling interviews, because it's a total non-issue in the bigger picture. Discussing dates and being flexible on interview times is just a normal part of the process, it wouldn't be seen as extra nice or different.

That said, I do think you may have made a mistake, although it has nothing to do with being nice. You said:

they asked me about my salary expectations so I honestly informed them about the range I'm expecting and added that I was open to negotiation

If your primary concern is landing a specific desired salary, and that salary was the bottom number in your range, you're probably in the right ballpark. If your concern was getting the most money possible, then yes - you absolutely made a mistake.

Most employers have a range or a target salary in mind for a position - typically it's the maximum they're willing to pay. When they interview, they want to know your desired salary for one (or both) of these purposes:

1. If your desired salary is way above their number, they don't want to waste their time interviewing you, under the assumption that you wouldn't take their offer.
2. If your desired salary is way below their number, they now know that they can save money by offering you your desired salary instead of the number they already budgeted for.

If your number fell into the first bucket, they wouldn't have scheduled the interview. So, by default, you now know that there's a very high chance that you're basically going to be offered less than their maximum number, even if the offer is within your desired range. To put it another way: You may get the number you want, but it probably won't be the highest possible number you could have gotten from them.

There's lots of good advice on the internet and on this very site about negotiating during the hiring process. Most people recommend giving a generic answer to questions like "what is your desired salary" in order to avoid being short-changed. You should read up before you continue your job hunt. It may be too late to salvage this offer, but you will be better off in the future if you're prepared before you start the negotiation versus coming and asking for help after you're halfway through it.

Here are some questions on this site you should look at. None of these are exact duplicates of your question but they all have some relevance. Taking an hour to read and prepare for negotiation can make a huge difference, it may be one of the most valuable hours of your process in terms of return on investment.

Is it advisable to negotiate salary during job offer even after answering the salary expectation question?

Does the first person to mention a number in a salary negotiation lose?

How to negotiate salary when range is unknown

How to negotiate salary with an extremely unprofessional in-house recruiter?

How to negotiate a job offer effectively during and after an interview

How to counter questions about expected salary? [duplicate]

How to respond to a direct ask of salary earned and expectations?

How to negotiate a better salary in a job offer when the recruiter says that he or she does not want to create a salary imbalance within the company?

Answer 2

The only mistake you did and a huge one is that you gave them a range.
Once you give a range they will never go over your accept minimum.
They already know the min that you are happy with and now you can’t challenge them.
If your range is above what they have in mind they won’t even interview you.
If you range is within what they are willing to pay they’ll low the offer near your min

Answer 3

It is almost never wrong to be kind to someone. So I do not think what you have done to date will risk your desired salary. The only exception is that you mentioned "you are willing to negotiate", that shows a bit of weakness but I feel you can turn this around. You need to take charge of the negotiations.

I assume that you are only mildly interested in this company, and would turn down a job that does not offer a better salary then the current one. If you are very interested, then things shift in their favor. However, lets assume that is not the case.

So they requested an onsite interview, this is a perfect time for you to take charge of the negotiations. I would say something like: "Before we decide on an onsite interview date, we need to talk about my salary expectations. Will you be able to meet $x per year?" They might retort with something like well you said you were open to negotiations. And you can respond with: "Well sure, for $x less per year, I would expect an extra weeks worth of vacation (or some other benefit you desire)".

And in this way both you and they can make a better decision. One or both of you may decide it is not worth to pursue this further. You can learn where they are at, and right now you just don't know.