So I just got a written job offer for a Sr. Principal Systems Engineer position. The offer was $142k, with a $10k signing bonus.
It is a little bit lower than what a few other people I know have gotten over the past few weeks in similar positions. I want to counter the offer but I want to make sure I'm not going so high that they balk and walk away. Knowing that others have gotten $145k and a $15k bonus, how high would be too high in a counter offer? Is $150k too much to ask?
If you have had good communication with people in the company it is OK to ask for a higher salary. You're only asking for $8K. They will either give it, negotiate it, or say no. And then it is up to you. After nearly 2 decades of being a career coach I have never seen a company pull back an offer because my client asked for more money. And we always ask for more money. Lol! Be respectful. Simply say I am happy and honored to be offered this position, and I am wondering if it is possible to raise the salary to $150K? Don't play hardball for such a small amount of money especially if you want the job. Good Luck!
Thank you for the advice. That's more or less the strategy I took when discussing the offer with the HR specialist. At the end of the day they said they didn't have any authorization to move the salary up at all, but he did boost my signing bonus up by $5,000 so at least I got something. At the end of the day $142k is significantly higher than what I am making now so it's hard to complain about the offer.