Help me negotiate offer! Concerns about Title, Base.
I am currently reviewing an offer from Big 4 Financial Advisory – Life Sciences as an industry hire with 3+yr valued niche exp and non-target/low-tier MBA. I have a few issues with their initial package:
• The offer letter says “Advisory Consultant” despite being affirmed via email/verbal that I am “[Experienced] Advisory Consultant”. The title matters because I want to move up to SC quicker. Do you think they left out the experienced part as it is understood internally already, or should I make a fuss?
• HR required a response for expected base salary before sending an offer. I responded with what I think is fair, but higher end of the range. Since I gave an exact amount $XX,000, and they met my request immediately – I feel like I can push for +3-5k higher base…. or have I played all my cards by leading with a figure they matched?
Should I leverage other considerations? Ex) Comparing the firm v. my current employer 1:1, the latter actually has better overall benefits.
Ok, here is some advice.
Title: unless there's a specific title called 'experienced advisory consultant' don't worry. If there is, then politely send an email asking for clarification. The most likely explanation is that the 'advisory consultant' position is probably held for 2 years before a promotion and an inexperienced person would be at the lower end of that time frame whilst you, being experienced, are at the higher end and would be promoted within 1 year rather than 2 for an inexperienced one.
Salary: you asked for a number and they gave it. It's hard (and looks bad) to turn around and say 'actually now I want more'. Your best bet now is to negotiate bonuses if they give them out or your base when your next promotion arrives. General tip for salary range negotiations, if you want $50K give them $50K-60K as a range.
I can speak to the title thing, as I lateraled into a Big 4 from a second-tier firm at the start of my second year. I had the same "Staff" title that any first or second-year staff has, but in the internal system I was marked as a "Staff 2" and was billed out as such. My salary reflected that as well. The title change is when you get promoted to Senior, then you're "Senior Consultant." I'm guessing it's the same at all the other Big 4 firms. Hope that helps.
Depending where you are, the tiers are associate -> Sr. Associate or consultant -> Sr. Consultant. It doesn't matter that you are hired with experience. I came in as an experienced consultant and was promoted within the year to Sr. It's going to be very hard to negotiate salary since they offered your initial request. You should have originally given a band that was on the higher end so you could be more flexible in this situation (xx,000 to xx,000), just to be transparent, for an experienced consultant with 3 years exp you should be looking at 70-80 before bonus, based on location.
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