What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

The Fifth Secret of Salary Negotiation
Research the Range That the Employer Likely Has in Mind, and Then
Define an Interrelated Range for Yourself, Relative to the Employer’s
Range
Okay, I admit this is a bit sophisticated, and you may not have the stomach
to do this much research. But you ought to at least know how this works.
Just in case.
It begins by defining your goal. What you want, in your research, is not
just one salary figure. As you may recall, you want a range: a range
defined by what’s the least the employer may offer you, and what’s the
most the employer may be willing to pay to get you. In any organization
that has more than five employees, that range is comparatively easy to
figure out. It will be less than what the person who would be above you
makes, and more than what the person who would be below you makes.
Examples:
One teensy-tiny little problem here: how do you find out the salary of
those who would be above and below you? Well, first you have to find out
their names or the names of their positions.
If it is a small organization you are going after—one with fifty or fewer
employees—finding out this information should be easy. Any employee
who works there is likely to know the answer, and you can usually get in
touch with one of those employees, or even an ex-employee, through your
own personal “bridge-people”—people who know you and also know
them. Since up to two-thirds of all new jobs are created by small
companies of this size, that’s the kind of organization you are likely to be