Got this offer, negotiate?
Dear monkeys,
Seeking your wisdom here, is it normal to negotiate a lateral offer for a boutique management consulting firm?
To give you a bit of background - I currently work as a senior analyst in a corporate finance role at a multinational and I received an offer from a boutique consulting company specialised in my current company's sector. I am happy for it but hesitant because I was expecting more money, I would be coming as a senior associate (as I have 4 years of industry exp) and was offered $85k base with 20-30% bonus.
What's the norm in management consulting? Are offers for experienced hires negotiated? Appreciate your thoughts!
Firstly, congratulations on your offer, it's always exciting to see your skills and experience recognised and be successful in job hunting.
Now, I don't know how boutique firms do it, but the offer I got from MBB, entering via the Experienced Hire route, did not seem negotiable. I do have to caveat this by adding that negotiating isn't really in my nature, but from what I am given to understand about the big firms, it appears that since they get such a large influx of new hires, they don't negotiate systematically. Boutiques may be different, as they might not have the luxury to pass on candidates as easily.
However, this is mostly my intuition, rather than solid fact. Generally speaking, I think there are limits to what they can do (they can't hire you at the Sr Consultant level and pay you Project Manager salary, obviously, and I doubt they can change a 20-30% bonus to a 30-40% bonus). If anything, getting a boost to base pay would be best (it has a multiplier effect on other compensation types), and you might be able to eke out a few G's.
Again, not an experienced negotiator, and I don't have your experience, so I would not be in a position to leverage anything. Probably won't hurt to enquire to your HR contact, and ask if there is scope for a higher base pay. If they say no, well, then it'll be decision time for you, I suppose.
Best of luck!
Base and bonus ranges are standardized at the big firms, so they will likely not budge on that. I'm not sure about your boutique, but for MBB/T2s, experienced hires may have a bit more leeway in negotiating than fresh undergrad/MBA hires in the following 2 areas:
1. Negotiating signing bonus
2. Negotiating tenure (maybe not up an entire level, but perhaps getting an accelerated promo timeline)
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