May also be phrases as, "What salary are you worth?"...or, "How much are you making now?" This is your most important negotiation. Handle it wrong and you can blow the job offer or go to work at far less than you might have gotten.

For maximum salary negotiating power, remember these five guidelines:

► 1. Never bring up salary. Let the interviewer do it first. Good salespeople sell their products thoroughly before talking price. So should you. Make the interviewer want you first, and your bargaining position will be much stronger.

► 2. If your interviewer raises the salary question too early, before you've had a chance to create desire for your qualifications, postpone the question, saying something like, "Money is important to me, but is not my main concern.

Opportunity and growth are far more important. What I'd rather do, if you don't mind, is explore if I'm right for the position, and then talk about money. Would that be okay?"