What are your salary negotiation success stories or fail-proof methodologies?
Posted by deleted_by_reddit@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 11 comments
I do not see this being discussed here more... but I often find myself in a distressed state after the interview is done.
First of all, you are super relieved that you got a new offer, after probably weeks if not months of trying to get an offer.
You're waiting to get an offer - you don't even know if you are going to get it -- so your mind doesn't really go to prepare for negotiation, because chances are you are probably still applying to other jobs and interviewing....
It seems that the negotiation strategy has to be prepared well in advance so that when the time comes you are ready to lay it out on them?
-- Obviously the best way is to have multiple competing offers and pair them against each other, but that is easier said than done.
-- The other piece is - don't accept a job with a pay lower than what you make now -- in other words -- you have leverage and you don't care. ...
---- But what if you don't even have a job right now? Where does your negotiating power lie then?
---- What are some Tips & Tricks to get the salary you want, and not accepting the first offer they come to you with ?
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My best success story was just letting the Recruiter go with it ... he said for you we are thinking of X base, which was a lot more than mine, and then a bunch of other stuff too... so I just said yeah that sounds good.
- If I was to say what I was making before that, I'd be fucked as they would offer me much lower....
-- but other than this I have never been able to get a 2nd or 3rd reviewed offer from a company.
I hope this is considered valuable talk on here as it applies to all of us.
Cheers!
EDIT: For people who come in late and don't want to reach thru all the comments but want to read an in depth article, this one seems really good (I didn't get the chance to finish it yet, though), posted by a few of the users below: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/
salaryscript@reddit
Negotiation coach here that specializes in big tech. Always always negotiate. My advice is that you should figure out the market salary range on levels.fyi or glassdoor for your position then use salaryscript to help with negotiation. That's my strategy and I have helped my clients get up to an extra \~$120k in Total compensation.
hostilereplicator@reddit
This is probably the GOAT article on negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ How well it works will depend on your leverage, the market conditions, and the specific circumstances of the hiring company. But the methods and mindset make good sense.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit (OP)
I read the whole thing. Definitely not good advice in this job market and if you don't currently have a job.
Curious-Money2515@reddit
Agree 100%, following that can blow up an offer very quickly. It really depends on the market and skillset. I wouldn't follow that guide blindly without realizing that.
It is also dated, suggesting to negotiate vacation. No major company I'm aware of now allows that due to fairness and the possibility of it being discriminatory.
apenam7@reddit
This book has it all - https://a.co/d/g5qDa3y
Intrepid-Stand-8540@reddit
Be visibly valuable.
Have other job offers regularly, so you know your market worth.
Be willing to take an L. Meaning, be willing to job hop, if they won't give you what you want.
ghunny00910@reddit
6 months ago I had a 105k and a 83k offer. The 83k was at a really cool avionic system engineer position that’s a bit outside of my mechanical engineer 4 year product engineer experience, and the 105k offer was a bio med sr mechanical role but with terrible toxic small company reviews, which I was running from. I used it to leverage my first try at negotiating but she denied me and countered with 5k at a 6 month review. At 6 months and wanting more bc it’s tough work and I’ve been killing it, and hearing that she’s a stickler to salaries and it has me on edge. I just want to go in on why I deserve it, health insurance raises and inflation, blah blah. So much anger around it ha, wondering if you have any tips on how to send an email asking about the 6 month bump, and potentially asking for more, or at least hinting at it at 12 months? Would really appreciate it, thanks
Red_Army@reddit
You need to have a strong best alternative (or, failing that, convince the company that you have one). Competing offers are the best for this, but your current job, internal moves, upcoming promotions, etc. can all be good best alternatives. If you get creative, your best alternative can even be something atypical such as taking a year off to travel or volunteer. The important thing is that the other party thinks you are willing to walk away if you don't get a really fantastic offer.
I will die on the hill that it is incredibly important to negotiate and that taking a few hours to negotiate an offer probably has the best financial ROI of any action you will ever take. My last offer I bumped my TC by \~60k by negotiating, even without a competing offer. It would have taken years of raises and probably a promotion to equal that if I had taken the original offer.
deleted_by_reddit@reddit (OP)
Holy Smokes u/Red_Army - this is the kind of shit I am talking about -- care to elaborate how you bumped that initial offer by \~60k?
-- My situation I went from $115k base salary to $200k base salary - and I just let the recruiter do his thing HAHA, I didn't negotitate or ask for more or whatever, it's just what they offered me .
Red_Army@reddit
I negotiated aggressively because I was honestly quite happy in my current job and had a promotion lined up so my best alternative was very strong. I read both of these articles (along with some more that I can't find immediately, I just googled around a lot) and would recommend them:
- https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/
- https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ten-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer-ee17cccbdab6
You can also look for experiences with the specific company if it's large enough or more general advice on forums such as reddit or blind.
I basically explained to the recruiter why my alternative (staying) was compelling for me and asked for a package on the very high range of what I had seen for the role on levels.fyi. They ended up increasing the offer by \~35k in response to that. I told them that the offer wasn't compelling enough for me and thanked them for their time, then they asked me to give them more time and added the rest onto the offer a few days later and I signed.
The first part is pretty risk-free and most companies will either bump the offer a bit (how much depends on how much they like/need you) or say the offer is firm unless you ask for something ludicrous. Obviously trying to walk away is much higher risk, and I only took that step because the offer was really not compelling enough for me to take it.
Good luck with your negotiations!
RavenwestR1@reddit
Woah quite a story, I personally wouldnt be able to do that but I should learn more about negotiating because this is quite something