You found a great job, submitted your resume (with a terrific cover letter), had a great interview, and now you're hoping for an offer of employment. Now it's time to negotiate.

What to Look For

Salary
This one's pretty obvious: how much will they be paying you on a regular basis? Beyond that, however, keep in mind that your future raises will be based on your then-current salaries. If you start with a low salary, your raises will likely be in smaller amounts than if you start with a higher salary. And if/when you change jobs, your next salary will be based in part on your salary history.

Bonus
If you do a great job, is there some kind of reward incentive, like an annual bonus or stock options?

Health Insurance
Unless you want to hold out for government health care, you should find out what kind of plans your future employer will offer. You may want to pay attention to how much you will have to contribute out of your paychecks, as well as what your co-pays will be for each appointment. Just don't be upset if the folks who make the job offers don't necessarily know all of that information off the top of their heads.

Vacation/Holiday/Sick Time
How many vacation days will you get, and is it paid time off? What about sick days or maternity/paternity leave? How many holidays does the organization close for, and are you still paid for those days?

Retirement Plans
401(k) plans are generally far more popular these days than a company retirement package. (Basically they invest your pre-tax dollars now and you only pay taxes down the road when you cash in your plan.) What kind of matching contribution might the organization make for your plan? Note: non-profit organizations will generally have something similar called a 403(b), which does not typically match contributions.

Opportunities for Growth
Most studies these days estimate that you will change companies (and even careers) several times over the course of your life. But are you going to want to have to search for a new job in a few years just so you can have a raise and a little more responsibility?

Perks
These little extras can vary widely from job to job, and are frequently job-specific. You probably don't want to demand anything, but it's best to know if any perks are available, especially if you're lucky enough to be comparing multiple offers.

Other
If the job will require you to move, is there any kind of relocation stipend? Will your company match donations to your favorite causes? Is there anything that they might do to make the offer just a little more attractive? If you have something in mind, it rarely hurts to ask (as long as you don't make it sound like a demand).

Decide What It's Worth To You

Why list so many factors? Because the first thing you have to do is figure out how much they all matter to you. If you only care about money, then a decision on whether or not to take an offer can be relatively easy. But once you start factoring in even such standard things as vacation time, sick leave, and health insurance, it can get complicated really quickly. So try to monetize the things that are important to you: how is one more or one less week of vacation per year going to make a difference for you? Ask yourself that sort of question for any of the things listed above that you have even the slightest interest in, so that when an offer is made, you can add it all up into a nice clean dollar figure.

BATNA

Now that you have a nice easy number to look at, you feel ready to negotiate your job offer, right? Not quite. First you need to determine your BATNA.

BATNA stands for "Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement." If something goes horribly wrong in negotiations and you end up not taking the job, what's going to happen? If you already have a job (that you presumably don't like), then your BATNA is to continue your current employment. Similarly, if another job offer arrived at same time as the one you're negotiating, then your BATNA is to accept that other offer.

Please note: Your BATNA is completely independent of the value of the offer you're negotiating. If you are jobless and have no other offers, then regardless of whether the potential job would pay minimum wage or $100 an hour, your BATNA is still going to be staying unemployed.

Other Figures to Consider

Speaking of unemployment, you might also want to consider your WATNA, your Worst Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. You might think your BATNA is that you'll have to wait another month before you'll find the perfect job (so why take less than perfect?). But what if that "perfect job" isn't coming? Considering your WATNA can help prevent you from negotiating from a stance of false pride.

All the same, you should try to get a sense of your target value for your overall compensation package. What does a "good" compensation package look like in your head? What would qualify as a "great" package?

And if you can research your potential employer's side of things, try to figure out their values as well. How much do they likely value your extra week of work versus an extra week of vacation each year? Is their BATNA going to be as simple as hiring someone else with the proposed package? Unemployment being what it is, that's probably going to depend on industry standards for the position. A "good" agreement would be one just a little bit cheaper than industry standards, while a "great" agreement is one that gets you for significantly cheaper than what you're theoretically worth in that position.

The Negotiations

Regardless of who first begins the discussions of a job offer--whether the potential employer asks how much you're hoping to get (in which case your answer should be a rough estimate of your ideal salary couched in the phrase "but I'm open to discussing that figure based on other factors") or the employer initiates the discussions with an actual offer--remember that the first offer (or "position") from either side will bracket all future positions. By standard practice, the employer will not suddenly offer you $2,000 less, and you cannot suddenly ask for $45K if you started out looking for something "in the upper 30's." So at the very least, start out by asking for your ideal "great" salary.

Salary is in bold here because it's usually the principal figure of the negotiation. Remember, though, that your aim is not just to negotiate salary. While you inevitably lower that figure from your initial position, look for other ways the employer might sweeten your compensation package. In particular, try to ask for the things that will mean the most to you but will cost your employer the least. With so many potential issues, these negotiations are NOT zero sum--it's entirely possible for both you and your employer to get what you consider a "good" deal, maybe even a "great" one.

In the end, you're logically better offer with any offer that's better than your BATNA. Psychologically, there's a tendency to judge things based on how much you and the employer moved from your initial positions. Strictly speaking, though, any job offer better than your BATNA is an improvement, and you should be willing to accept it.

Additional Tips

Firstly, be mindful of the potential relationships involved in your negotiations. If you're negotiating with a Human Resources representative at a large company, you may never see that person again. But if your negotiations are with your direct supervisor or the head of a small company, you'll have to deal with that person on a regular basis for the length of your employment. With the former, you may be able to get away with staking positions as firmly as you might with a random Bangkok gray-market street vendor, but with the latter you'll be better off treating the negotiations as you would a discussion with a family member or close friend.

Secondly, remember that these negotiations are not an inherently one-time thing. After you've shown the quality of your work, you might be able to renegotiate your entire compensation package. But also, the way things go with your initial negotiations will determine how much you get from future negotiations of raises. If you change jobs, your salary history will, in part, dictate your salary at your next job.

Thirdly, keep in mind that the negotiations are NOT just a competitive zero-sum activity. There are a lot of different factors to a compensation package. Some of the things that are most important to you could be unimportant to your employer, and vice-versa.

Finally, you should absolutely try to negotiate, even if the initial offer is an amount you're reasonably okay with. Academic studies suggest that part of why women tend to get less pay for their work is because they're less likely than men to negotiate for more money. Don't let that happen to you.