Let's Negotiate Your Next Job Offer

Intro

Negotiating job offers…this topic will never get old.

There is so much info out there that most job seeker’s have no other option but to second guess themselves.

There is some really good info out there. At the same time, there is a ton of bad info out there as well.

Realize the recruiter is on your side. We actually hate negotiating. Most of us would rather get you the offer you want, save us some time, and move onto the next role.

So use the recruiter as a tool and partner to land the offer you want instead of seeing them as an enemy.

In my opinion, you don’t “lose” a job offer as long as you are able to get at least what you’re looking to target, something you’re happy with, and can sleep soundly accepting that offer.

That being said, no one likes to leave money left on the table. That being said, you also don’t want to out-price yourself and risk off annoying the hell out of your prospective employer.

Realize that there is a major difference between negotiating something fair & something worth you believe to be worth your value vs. being what the employer will think of as a risk.

Let’s go over how to get you PAID!

Step One: Negotiate compensation on the first call.

You should be negotiating your compensation - with a firm number - on the very first recruiting call for X job you apply for or get called for. At the very minimum, a targeted range.

Anyone telling you to wait until the final round or offer stage is giving you information that will likely just end up wasting your time. The last thing you want to do is go through the entire process only to have the offer come up way short of your expectations.

Sure, you can negotiate the offer once given, but that negotiation comes after settling on a base number from the original call.

Step Two: Get rid of the terrible advice in your head

Boiler room. Wolf of Wall Street. Grant Cardone.

I never worked on wall street, sold stock or real estate. But let me tell you, do not apply the advice you see from these types of movies or social media accounts to negotiating your salary.

No one - and I mean no one - likes being backed up into a corner. 

Especially when money is at stake. No one will respect you more because you’re trying to channel your inner Jordan Belfort.

There is a difference negotiating a better offer and asking for too much & outpricing yourself from an offer.

If you come out asking for an extra 30-50% once you get the offer, you’ll probably get denied and risk getting the offer pulled from you.

For every person you see that’s able to pull this off on social media, there are probably at least 10 others that fall flat on their face. It’s one thing if you have “leverage” in the form of a ton of other final round interviews or offers, where you can afford to lose an offer and not care. But if you don’t, I suggest not doing this.

Step Three: Industry Research

Not every industry pays the same, even for the same skillset.

For example, let’s say you’re a Sr. Full Stack Developer.

If you’re coming out of Big Tech, you might be making a TC of anywhere between $300k even all the way up to $500k.

For that same level/title, in banking you might make anywhere between $200-300k.

In healthcare or telecom, you might make between $150-200k.

So if you’re one of these jacked up engineers coming out of Meta, Amazon or Goldman, Nomura, and salary is the #1 factor for you, don’t bother applying to Verizon or Cigna.

At the same time, if you’re coming out of AT&T and applying at Verizon, and your buddy gets a $400k total comp offer at Amazon, don’t automatically assume you can go to Verizon and ask for $400k. They don’t have it. Either accept the offer at Verizon, or turn it down and apply to big tech roles.

Step Four: Understand Your Worth

There are a ton of salary tools out there to help you figure out your market value.

Levels.io; LinkedIn Insights; Salary.com; Glassdoor, etc.

The issue is that those usually provide the median salary, which is not necessarily accurate for everyone (especially for those top performers).

I always recommend taking calls from 10-20 recruiters. Write down the salary that you’re quoted for each (make sure to also note the title and industry). From there you can start to guesstimate and figure out what the market is willing to pay someone with your skillset.

If you’re well connected to peers within the industry - at your company and it’s competitors - you can also ask what they’re making and add that into the mix.

Step Five: Realistic vs Optimistic Ranges

Now that we have an idea of numbers out there, let’s start coming up with salary ranges.

I like to break it down into two parts: Realistic vs. Optimistic.

Realistic is something that you’ll definitely be able to land but also still happy with.

Optimistic is something you might not be able to land but you’ll be ecstatic if you’re able to.

Think of it like applying to college. Safety schools, the schools you’ll likely get into, and the stretch schools. You should have the same mindset when applying to jobs and negotiating salary.

When you are coming up with these ranges and giving them to the recruiter, make sure you’re also absolutely OK with the low end of the rage, because your low end may be their high end.

So if you’re giving a range of $150-180k, make sure you’re actually OK with the 150. If you’re not, then bump that number up to what you’re actually OK with.

Step Six: Priorities

Earlier we went over that usually Big Tech & Banking pay the most. But sometimes they can be the most demanding.

On the flip side, other industries and smaller companies might not be able to match their compensation, but they make up for it with other things such as remote work, work/life balance, PTO, ect.

So if you’re coming out of JPMC who’s onsite 4 times a week and you want to cut that down to 2 (with a closer commute) or fully remote, it may be worth taking a pay cut to land that offering. Especially when you realize the vast majority of banking clients are onsite right now.

Or if you’re already making good money at Big Tech Company 1, but working on boring internal tools, and Big Tech Company can only offer you a lateral move salary wise but amazing business facing work, it might be worth making the jump.

Some “priorities” to consider outside of salary

• work/life balance

• commute or remote work

• benefits such as 401k match, insurance, etc

• PTO

• meaningful work

Step Seven: The actual negotiation

Realize when a recruiter offers you the salary - on the first call and on the official offer - they are working within a budget set forth by the company. We do not determine the budget. Further - when an offer is made - it’s also usually signed off by both HR and the hiring manager.

Knowing this, and going back to one of the examples in the steps above, there is only so much more we can negotiate.

A solid bet is 5-10% more than agreed on. You can leverage information from other companies.

Let’s say the offer is at $100k to make the math easy. You’re interviewing at JPMC and just got the offer. You can ask mention you’re interviewing at BAC or WFC and they’re offering $115-120k.

If they offer to match that, great, it worked. But more times than not, it would end up being 5-10% more, making it $105-110k.

If you’re not able to negotiate the salary up to your liking, consider negotiating other factors such as:

• sign on bonus

• performance bonus

• more pto

• rsu’s or equity

• certain expenses - gym/internet/phone or commuting

Step Eight: Compromise

Negotiating is all about leverage. If you have a ton of interviews & offers going on, great, you have more leverage to ask for more.

If you don’t, you’ll likely have to compromise somewhere.

Sure, there is a chance that you might leave money on the table. No one can fully predict you’re getting 100% maximum offer that is available.

But - chances are - following the steps above will land an offer you’re satisfied and happy with which is all that matters.

Certain companies can pay certain things. Usually that comes with a price - i.e. banking with high salaries but onsite work & demanding hours vs. healthcare with a lower salary but better work/life balance and more remote options.

The most important thing is making sure you can sleep at night knowing that you have an offer you’re happy with.

If you made it this far, we go over negotiating offers in more detail (plus a bunch of other stuff) in my job seeker’s ebook.

50% off for my substack subscribers :)