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Anonymous User
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an Elementary School Special Education Teacher
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Have you had a good rapport with your recruiter? When I received my current job offer, I asked the recruiter, “do you know if the hiring manager is open to any negotiation?” She told me they were, and immediately asked me how much I wanted. I wasn’t prepared for her to put me on the spot (doh!), and bashfully suggested, “10K more would be great” (but no worries if not kinda vibes). We ended the call and she called me back about 30 minutes later with 5K more. I took it because I wasn’t prepared to fight for more.
10+ years experience, 6 full time jobs - here’s what I can tell you from my experience:
- ALWAYS ask for more (unless they tell you this is the very top of their range).
- Rule of thumb: ask for 1.5x - 2x more than you’re hoping to receive (within reason — if it’s under $150K, I’d say asking $10-20k is safe territory to play in). But be ready to accept 1/4 of what you asked for, or know what your real threshold is.
-Don’t forget: you are allowed to ask for time to digest the offer (“thank you! Okay, Is it okay for me to sit with this and give you a call back in a few minutes?”).
-Use your break to take some deep breaths and then congratulate yourself - YOU DID IT!
-Before you call back, be prepared to justify WHY you are worth your requested salary. Practice saying it out loud. You may not need it, but you should have it ready.
-Unless you have a very specific need for it, I wouldn’t recommend using PTO days as a negotiating tactic. I know very few people who have successfully negotiated additional PTO days, but that could just be me. Unless it’s a small company, extra PTO days are usually highly regulated - and your allotted amount is tied to your tenure with the company (my current company doesn’t offer more PTO days until you’re 10 years in 🫠).
-Salary is probably the only “universally” expected negotiating tactic from employers. it’s what they’re expecting you to try to negotiate, and they have a finance team on call that is responsible for reviewing and signing off on your increased salary request.
Only negotiate salary (unless they do not have anymore money). Any other type of request may require sign off from other teams (who may not be available to review the request immediately), which could down the process, and could complicate your offer situation.
Congrats and good luck!
Always ask for the highest number within the pay band. The holding company agencies have become very rigid with adhering to the pay bands. Back in the day you could negotiate more, but unfortunately there isn’t much flexibility now when employers hold almost all the cards. They know there’s a line around the block to get a job these days.
There’s more room for negotiation with an indie.