By now, you’ve probably heard about the scholar who had a tenure-track job offer rescinded after she tried negotiating on a number of terms. That incident has stoked a lot of talk on an important question: What’s the right way to go about negotiate an academic offer? We asked our experts to dole out some advice.
Given the hiring climate we’re in, what advice would you give to young academics on negotiating?
Not negotiating over salary my first year on the tenure track was the biggest mistake that I’ve ever made in my career. That’s because the salary a professor starts at is the floor from which all future salary increases start. Therefore, the (let’s say) $1,000 per year that you miss out on by not negotiating is a $1,000 per year that you won’t get every single year that you stay with that employer. That can add up to a significant amount of money really, really fast.
Of course, the natural fear would be that if you negotiate too hard, your offer would disappear. I’ve never heard of that happening, but what if it did? If you can run the gauntlet to get one tenure-track job, then you can almost certainly get another before too long. More importantly, do you really want to work at an institution that would thwart the will of the department that just selected you over a few measly thousand dollars?
Negotiation is expected, certainly over money and probably over other things, too. While your load the first year on the job only lasts a year, your salary is permanent. If you don’t at the very least negotiate over that, you’re hurting yourself more than you might ever imagine.
Here’s what other academics had to say in the Negotiation 101 series:
