Now, let’s assume that after all of your careful analysis, you find that the job is ideal for you and fits all of your objectives. Should you negotiate just for the sake of negotiation? Probably not, except if you believe that the company expects you to make a counter-offer.

     Think back over the information you gathered when you were diligently researching the company and the people you met during the interviewing process. Is the company known for being aggressive? Does the company have status within its particular industry? Are the people you met with competitive?

     If the answer is “yes” to each of these questions, you should prepare a counter-offer. In this instance, don’t be afraid of losing the deal. Pick some of your more expendable “bargaining chips” for use in your counter-offer. For instance, ask for an additional week of vacation.

     These expendable chips are great for this purpose because you really don’t care if you lose them. Yet, they are construed as being important by the other side. In other words, using these expendable bargaining chips make you appear to be negotiating.

     Now, let’s look at an offer given by a company that does not appear to want much negotiation or is in a non-aggressive industry. Do not pull the company out of its comfort zone. They may just decide that you are too much of a firebrand. Save your aggressiveness for the job at hand. In other words, play your counter-offer off the personality of the hiring authority and the aggressiveness of the company or business sector.