Related Posts
Hi fishes,
Is hike percentage depends on project review in first year of joining or is it default? I joined on Apr 2022 and got locked with a project in May and got released recently due to some performance issues as per project. I don't think they will give good reviews of mine and appraisal happens in Oct. Any suggestions please? Publicis Sapient
More Posts
Hey Guys, how to get started with CR? any tips??
Additional Posts in Salary Negotiations
After weeks of no contact Goldman Sachs have finally come back to me with an offer of £75k for an associate role within Global markets ops (collateral management) in London. I initially gave them salary expectation of £80-85k and have 2 competing offers around £80k range. I’ve tried to negotiate and tried to ask for higher but they won’t budge or match my other offers. They’re saying the pay is in line with the peer group and my experience (7.5 years). Am I being lowballed? Goldman Sachs
It's fair but honestly the best way to get comp increase is to have outside offers. Companies don't give raises based on merit, rather by cost of replacing you.
That’s a very good point of view. I know annual raises are not nearly as much as finding a new position. But I like this job a lot lol
So there’s two ways thru your predicament:
The first- what you described- I’ve heard it often called a Pay Equity Analysis (I’m not in HR so if someone knows of more proper term please share).
So you could ask for a Pay Equity Analysis based on your role, skill set, years of experience, education. You’d ask for a specific number/percentage of increase. Make sure to do your research on industry standard pay for your role so you know what is fair.
Personally, I think this is a terrible strategy. It rarely works and even if it does it’ll usually come with a barrage of cons/backlash. Doing the Pay Equity Analysis more so works if you're position is under
compensated (as in everyone with the same role is under paid relative to market). So doing research is all well and good, but the moment you use the research as your strategy- management will run. It'll do/imply a few things: 1st, that hr and the comp team are incompetent and did a poor job of assessing market - that won't make you any friends. 2nd, the results of pay equity analysis would apply team wide so this could blow up budgets - meaning it won't happen.
It's literally equivalent to being the guy trying rally everyone at the sweatshop to unionize. And then hoping management warmly receives your ideas.
But, the main reason I think this is a bad idea is because it tells management that you will be content with your current position provided a certain pay. I’d rather tell management that I’d be better positioned to add value to the firm in a promoted role.
Consider this, while the "do research" on comp is floating around all the platforms - the second you comment that you've done your own research, you instantly lose credibility with both HR and your comp team. This is what the second strategy resolves.
Second strategy:
Instead I would highly recommend focusing on what unique value you bring to your team and your unique skill set that is differentiated… And ask them to adjust based on your value. Taking the business case to a senior leader for an exception based on value is wildly more successful than " I did market research"
I’d much rather express my specific value and get my name on upper-managements radar as being a critical asset. You can uniquely shifting managements focus onto you by challenging management to acknowledge the level of value you bring through a specific case study. You put them in a position to evaluate value proposition, already putting you outside of the defined constructs of a generic job titles local market rate. This way the resolution is either a. They say no (zero repercussion, no loss of face, and you’re respect level goes up, and in a better position in the future as some in management may of been in favor), b. They say no, in that they cant right this moment ( but throw you a bone and mention the future in a positive light), c. They say yes (this is what we came up with and what we can do and where we can go), d. they say yes and ask you what you want and what you had in mind numbers wise.
In every outcome, the point that you value yourself as higher than what you are getting won’t be lost on them and you don’t bring up salary in way that rattles he’s ears.
Giving credit to where it’s due, much of this was from a previous dialogue on Fishbowl which I don’t know how to share. So a cheers 🥂 go to Ritz Realty 1 and Gartner 1
In my experience, you can negotiate a slightly higher base but not enough to match the stock. Granted, I may be spoiled cause I work in FAANG. The stocked effectively doubles or triples your TC.
I was in the bay originally, I def understand what it feels like to have friends making way more. My first job was a jr design role for 40k! All my friends were infosec making 6 figures out of school. Idk how tf I survived in SF lol
You didn’t make the wrong choice, getting that first job is hard! I know you like it but the best thing you can do is keep yourself open to opportunities and keep interviewing.
Also. DONT compare yourself to your friends. Half those people I was jealous of, I surpassed. Everyone is on their own journey, focus on yours.
Or would I be limited to only using the base salary of other companies as a “fair market rate”, in order to compare apples to apples? Since stocks aren’t an option, what else could I negotiate for to bump up my TC? I really like this job, and the WLB is excellent. I just don’t know if I could have the potential of eventually negotiating my base salary up to 200K (probably many years down my career path), to match other companies’ TC (e.g. 150K salary + 50K stocks bonus)
Limited to base salary I’d have thought. We all have choices like this on our journey but the bottom line is balancing how much you like the job versus the desire for higher pay, as usually the only way to significantly bump up your salary is to have external offer(s) and be willing to leave if company say ‘take it, we can’t match it or even get close to it’