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To find your annual salary, just take your hourly rate, double it, and add three zeros to the end. If you make PS20/hour, you make approximately PS40,000/year. If you make PS30/hour, you make approximately PS60,000/year. This also works in reverse. To find your hourly rate, divide your salary by two and drop the three zeros. So PS50,000/year becomes approximately PS25/hour.

DON'T MAKE THE FIRST OFFER. That's their job. If they ask you to suggest a number, smile and say, "Now come on, that's your job. What's a fair number that we can both work from?"

NEGOTIATING TACTIC: Most of the negotiation happens outside the room. Call your contacts. Figure out the salary amount you'd love, what you can realistically get, and what you'll settle for. And don't just ask for money. Literally bring a strategic plan of what you want to do in the position and hand it to your hiring manager. Do you realize how few people come to a negotiation with a plan for their role? This alone could win you $2,000 to $5,000. And, of course, it allows you to negotiate on the value you're going to bring to the company, not just the amount they'll pay you.

Psychologists have shown that most people prefer to make $70,000 when others around them are making $60,000 than to make $80,000 when others around them are making $90,000.

DON'T ASK "YES" OR "NO" QUESTIONS. Instead of "You offered me fifty thousand pounds. Can you do fifty-five thousand?" say, "Fifty thousand pounds is a great number to work from. We're in the same ballpark, but how can we get to fifty-five thousand?"

the single best time to negotiate salary is when you're starting a new job. You have the most leverage then and--with some basic preparation--you can earn PS3,000 or PS6,000 in a simple ten-minute conversation, then retire to a nearby cafe for a light lunch. Delightful.

Have another job offer--and use it. This is the single most effective thing you can do to increase your salary. When you have another job offer, your potential employers will have a newfound respect for your skills. It's like seeing the hot girl in the bar who's surrounded by guys. You want her more because everyone else does, too.

Have a toolbox of negotiating tricks up your sleeve. Just as in a job interview, you'll want to have a list of things in your head that you can use to strengthen your negotiation. Think about your strong points and figure out ways you might be able to bring them to the hiring manager's attention. For example, I often ask, "What qualities make someone do an extraordinary job in this position?" If they say, "The person should be very focused on metrics," I say, "That's great that you said that--we're really on the same page. In fact, when I was at my last company, I launched a product that used an analytical package to..."

NEGOTIATING TACTIC: Your line is "Let's talk about total comp," which refers to your total compensation--not just salary, but everything. Treat them each as levers: If you pull one up, you can afford to let another fall. Use the levers strategically--for example, by conceding something you don't really care about--so you can both come to a happy agreement.

NEGOTIATING TACTIC: Your line here is "I understand you can't offer me what I'm looking for right now. But let's assume I do an excellent job over the next six months. Assuming my performance is just extraordinary, I'd like to talk about renegotiating then. I think that's fair, right?" (Get him to agree.) "Great. Let's put that in writing and we'll be good to go."