Hey guys I received an offer for a development associate role and want to know what if any luck I may have negotiating in this COVID environment.
As a 2nd year analyst I’m around 100K in my existing role.
Received an offer that was 85K + 25% bonus
Ive considered asking for
a) relocation assistance/ signing bonus to the tune of $10K
b) payout of my bonus approx $15K since I’m leaving the firm basically a full year bonus on table to leave
c) pushing the base pay closer to 100K
During initial HR interview he told me we pay $65-100K for this role, assuming it was $65-100K on the base? I can’t imagine anyone with 2 years re dev experience would work for $65K all in?
Which lever would you pull first? I don’t have a competing offer, only ongoing employment at my current firm.
I’d start with the base since future comp is based on that and bonus % based off that
Any tips? I’ve never done this. What exactly do I say? Where would you start at?
Bonus % is pretty solid, and commensurate with market expectations for a 2nd Year Analyst. Base is a tad low from what I've seen/heard on a macro scale, but depends on your specific market. When I've negotiated my offers, I always start by saying 'thank you' for the offer, and then be frank with them based on your market research on salary comps, your current situation (if it's to your benefit). I've used this line before that worked well:
"Thank your for the offer _______. As I mentioned in our previous discussions, I'd love to come work with XYZ Capital because of _______ and ________. However, when researching the current market, I've found that base salary is between $XX and $YY. Is there any room in your offer to meet within that market range?"
Now, I've had people say no, and I've walked away from the offer. Often times it just opens up the conversation for the person to negotiate against themselves. As a last resort, if they're staying firm or lowballing you, I've thrown out that the offered salary is commensurate with my current compensation, and I'm not looking to make a lateral move. Careful how you work that, though, as some folks might take offense if it sounds like you're attacking them for not making what you deem is a market offer.
The best thing to remember is negotiating is that the folks on the other side of the table are people too; just trying to earn a living. If you show them that you've done your homework, that if you're able to maintain a calm, friendly demeanor in negotiating your own salary, while respecting the other party, you'll likely use those same skills to benefit their company.
hillhopper thanks for this advice!
Yeah I’m totally ok with the bonus, but the deal would be even sweeter if base was $10-15K higher.
$95 + 25% would do the trick, $90 + $10K signing bonus + 25% would do the trick as well.
I think based on my research all in comp for development associate level roles should be between $100-150K
I think that is an entirely reasonable expectation.
Can you give a sense of what market you are in and what market you would be relocating to? Generally, I'd say you have a strong point to make in that you already have a base of $100k. But if you are going from San Francisco to San Antonio then the case falls quite a bit. I think the bonus is good, but without some market idea, I can't judge. Overall, your "counter" is not crazy, but I'm not sure of the actual degree of leverage.
How bad do you want this? Are you doing this so you can relo for your own reasons?
Chicago to a /MKE/STL/INDY market. It’s a national developer so they don’t limit their activities to their home city.
To clarify I am at 85K Base Pay + 15% Bonus, so assuming max bonus in both scenarios were talking max increase in wages of $8.5K
Well, those are all markets I am not familiar with personally! Clearly Chicago is more expensive than the others, but you are also doing a relo, so I think you have reason to expect same/raise for a job hop. That said, their offer is not unreasonable, and if they want to hold or just go up a little, I can totally understand it also.
I would with the honest approach "Geez this is a great offer and I'd love to your firm, the issue is that I am already making X and I'm finding it hard to get my head around this. Is there anything you can do?"
In this approach, you are not really giving a number or counter (thus risk of rescind should be near zero, if you do it right), and if they go up in any fashion they are negotiating with themselves or least they are tipping their hand. Then if they raise to X, you can still counter, but they opened it up so you are in a good position. The more you explain your facts/rationale, the better chance.
In short, I would absolutely negotiate if I were in your position.
This is tricky, I've actually had an offer pulled because I countered too high and the CEO scoffed at it. I think my counter was 25% higher than the initial base offer. I should have known better but the original offer was way too low for me to move to another city so I took the risk. Never thought they would pull the offer though.
I think asking for a 10%-15% higher base is reasonable in your case. If you're moving from another market a signing bonus or relocation assistance is more than reasonable. Just straight up ask them if they're able to offer any relocation assistance and be prepared with an estimate of what it will cost you to move.
I've heard a few stories of offers being pulled as a result of making a counter, it is a real risk, have to understand the playing field to do this correctly
SBPref12 redever
Absolutely, but given ongoing employment at my current shop I’m not really concerned about an offer being rescinded, while it’d suck, I wouldn’t really be that bothered by it which is why I’m willing to ask for more and take this risk.
Curious though if this includes the big names as well as smaller shops? My gut feeling is that boutiques would be more sensitive to (what they deem) outrageous counters and could react by pulling offer. Conversely, can't really see a Hines pulling an offer to a highly qualified candidate over a few grand. Is my thinking flawed?
Also will drop this link here, was helpful for me while negotiating offers: https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/blog/15-rules-for-negotiating-a-job-offer
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