I wrote a little lengthy (sorry!) blog post once about how to nail the negotiations, so hope you find it useful. Stole most of the ideas there from this professional poker player in the US who doubled his initial offer (and along the way scored offers from Google, Yahoo, Uber, and Airbnb), but made them more relevant to the Malaysian context.

https://www.careersifu.com/ultimate-guide-t...ies-and-tricks/

Salary conversations can happen very early so it is useful to know what you will say. In fact, I like getting my candidates to hone in on a range during the initial phone screen itself (expectations management begin from the first contact), to kind of lock them in and get them to commit before they find out more about the role.

But you see, how can anyone know what they want salary-wise before finding out more about the company's benefit plan, medical coverage, culture, work hours, scope, future career prospects, how nice/awful their line manager is, the team dynamics, side benefits, networking opportunity, etc. etc.?

So the next time that question pops up in a phone screen, say you'd like to find out more about the company and role before deciding.

Ahead of a F2F interview if you sense that things might get serious, ask HR beforehand about everything you need to know about benefits, annual increment rates, bonus payout, etc. any kind of monetary and non-monetary rewards.

During the F2F it is highly likely you'd get asked that question. You can either be all cagey and say you're looking at a market increment / to be paid at market and that you are interviewing elsewhere / are currently at offer stage with several other companies (if indeed true, always try to apply and interview at several places at once because this leverage works like magic).

Or you could also just aim a little higher than what you're comfortable settling for, expecting to negotiate. And say you are open to negotiating as money obviously shouldn't be your only reason for taking a job (even if it is which is fine really, never say that to a line manager!).

No need to bother giving the employer a range you are looking at, you can guarantee they'd go straight to the bottom end of the range rather than start at the top ;-)

When asking, I think it always helps A LOT too to mention why. So why a 30% increment on base salary? Why not 40% or why not less? Employers always respect an employee who isn't asking for the sake of asking, but asking because they want to start a family, pursue an MBA, buy a property, support family members - one thousand good reasons so cite them!

Also, final tip to remember - most companies cannot actually bend over backwards to give you the eye-watering package you'd love to have. Internal salary bands exist, and pay compression is a real problem everywhere (where inflation has outpaced the growth of wages of the existing team, so the role we are replacing pays far more than the existing team who have been there long). Pesky HR policies basically, but that hiring managers need to take into consideration.

How then? Be creative! Can't increase base salary? Can they do a sign-on bonus, increment upon confirmation, education stipend, 1-day of work from home for you, etc etc.? Be more imaginative basically. Nothing you can lose by asking.

Okay to state risk of a new job but that kinda comes with any new job anyway, even at tier-1 companies that are supposed to have first-class everything. You still might not be a fit for whatever unlucky reason and might hate it only after you joined. So be careful not to overemphasise it.

Also matters if you applied to the role / were headhunted. In the former case, you definitely want to be more eager in your approach, and in the latter case, might be able to play hard to get.