February 15, 2019 at 16:15How I got a job with a salary of $ 300,000 in Silicon Valley
- Transfer
At the end of January, we published a translation on the topic “How I Successfully Passed Six Interviews in Silicon Valley” . It's time to share the continuation, where we will talk about a more burning topic - about money and how to get more.
“Within a week, I was offered the position of software engineer at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn and Yelp. This is how I interviewed them.
What if I tell you ... that the interviews are not as scary as they seem?
So, you are almost done with a long preparation for the interview. You are almost free from the stress of interviewing large IT companies. You have almost imagined how you send them the final “I agree”.
However, you are not quite there yet .
There is one last hurdle to overcome: the interview itself.
You have already proved more than once that you can go through interviews, but how successful and profitable for yourself?
At the end of last year, I was interviewed in 6 leading companies of Silicon Valley for 6 days and received 6 job offers. As a final task, I had to make sure that my work was not in vain. Here are the principles that I followed, the rules that I followed, and what I did to get a job with a salary of $ 100,000 a year more than I planned.
First, we agree on the initial premises:
Congratulations! You have several interview invitations. I am sure that you are nervous. I am sure that you are telling yourself that you do not deserve this, and that you are just lucky. You think that fail miserably. The last thing on your mind is the question of exactly how to talk with a recruiter.
Take it easy. We all go through this!
This can be understood. But you do not want to do a disservice to yourself in the future. In any case, you need to remember only a few things.
My first important tip: do not make this process adversarial .
I read many authors who look at this very cynically.
This is our confrontation with them.
Candidate against recruiter.
That is, you are trying to maximize the benefits of the company while it is trying to cheat you to the fullest. Do you see this?
I think you didn’t know that during the fight Google recruiters wear cloaks of superheroes?
Wrong . Sometimes this may be so, but I think that such an attitude is far from a healthy atmosphere of negotiations. I had a very good relationship with my recruiters, and in the end it paid off. Perhaps it would be better if I were more aggressive or resorted to lying. I will never know how events would develop in this alternative scenario. But I know that I do not regret it. I am sure that I can easily contact any of these recruiters again to resume the process. Recruiters are also people. Be friendly!
As a next step, throughout the process, try to show that you have other suggestions. It is important to ensure that they can provide similar conditions. Once I happened to deal with a really great offer. I was forced to refuse, as their company refused to move the deadline. This deprived me of some advantages. But if I had not let everyone know about my situation, I would have lost even more.
It is up to you whether you want to tell where else you are interviewing.I would share it if you think it is “impressive”. Keep in mind that in any case you have reason to be proud of yourself, no matter where you are considered. However, you will have more benefits if you have an offer from Google. My recruiters showed great respect in this matter. The companies understand that the one with whom you are negotiating is your own business, so they will only have the right to know about it if you deem it appropriate. With this in mind, the threat that you will receive (and accept) an offer elsewhere is a powerful advantage in everything: from negotiating conditions to getting you a job.
Well, the moment of truth has come. Now you will hear how much you were rated.
All my recruiters preferred to broadcast this news over the phone. Almost all calls went through the same pattern:
I would never designate a range for a company that usually offers large amounts. With all this in mind, I would not waste time with a recruiter if I know that they are not going to surpass an existing offer from another company. Recruiters themselves will not want to walk in circles and keep returning to the same issue all the time, offering you new conditions. If they are far from what you need, let recruiters know where the range begins . Spending time on an uncompetitive offer is not beneficial to anyone.
At the same time, if you are dealing with a company whose budget is endless, use it wisely. Levels.fyi is the best resource I've ever seen (much better than Glassdoor) when it comes to learning what is usually offered. Mark as high as possible and never, never think that you cannot receive an offer with even more favorable conditions.Observe the situation and be prepared to adapt to it. As a result, I received much, much more than I had ever expected from any company, and I owe much of this to the fact that I never mentally limited myself to the “upper bar”.
Believe me, recruiters will do their best to offer you less. Do not help them!
Never show that you are "dizzy" . Keep yourself in control even if you are sure that you will accept the offer. This also applies in many ways to telephone conversations, especially if the conditions offered to you exceed all that you have ever expected, and you are probably not able to think sensibly. Always consider any suggestion for some time.
Make it clear that you will not accept the offer until you negotiate with everyone . In my experience, recruiters were sympathetic to this. I let them know that I would like to first have an interview in all the companies from which I received offers. I definitely had a dream company throughout the process, but in reality it was not someone else's business, but my own.
I will not advise what exactly needs to be said in such situations. I will give here only my impressions. This should help those who do not know where to start. Please do not take this as a ready-made script (it would be strange and unnatural). However, this is what I would say in order to maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and to remain open during negotiations. Let's assume that you were offered conditions that you could agree to (that is, they suit you):
Do not give out more information than necessary, do not be aggressive and do not indicate the exact amount, if this is impractical. In addition, all of the above allows you to remain honest, so you do not need to worry about being caught in a lie. In fact, you just try to maintain your status in the eyes of recruiters and avoid the hassle until you have all the offers for comparison. That's when the fun begins!
So, you have learned the suggested amounts from everyone you are considering. Now you can make counter offers based on the information you have. When I did this, I never gave the exact amount - I designated the ranges . I don't like the idea of the exact amount until it comes to the very end.
There are several reasons for this:
Some may object to what I have stated above, because recruiters are able to show great flexibility. You can always name the exact amount, make them agree to it, and then ask for an increase. I do not deny it. However, during the interviews, I set myself the goal of maintaining good relations with recruiters, and in the end it paid off in full.
I certainly looked just as cool during the negotiations.
My first counter sentences sounded something like this (I came up with these amounts to give them as an example):
As soon as one of the companies increases the amount, it makes sense to change the designated range. Here is how this conversation went in my case:
It seemed that they always had a great deal of doubt about the possibility of changing their amounts. They always said that it is more than they can usually yield.
They always explained that the mission and atmosphere of their company offset the difference in remuneration.
But almost always they increased the amount.
Some of them will meet you. Someone not. Some of them will come so close to your expectations that you can make the final decision so as not to miss such an exciting opportunity. But you should definitely try.
I add the following because many have asked me about this. I don’t know how useful this will be, but I’ll post it here anyway. I will give here all the tips that I can give.
I was able to find out the approximate amounts from each company before I designated any for my part. All amounts are listed under fictitious brands and in random order. Format: basic salary + premium / shareholding for 4 years / primary bonus.
After each of the companies changed its initial amounts, the picture changed:
In addition, I had much more time to consider the features related to the corporate culture, benefits and other advantages, and in this aspect there were differences between the companies.
Formally, I did not reject any of the proposals until I officially accepted the most suitable one and signed the corresponding contract, however, mentally crossed out several companies and stopped negotiations with them. I just asked them a few more days for a decision.
Recruiters constantly told me that they could not offer the conditions even better, but nonetheless they always did . I’m sure that there is a “ceiling”, and I’m sure that it’s quite rare to agree on an amount that exceeds a certain limit, but it was very similar to a lie when I constantly heard that they could not offer more (“you have no experience ”), And then watched them increase supply by 10%. I guess this is part of the business.
After the next stage of negotiations (and a few more days), the number of companies was reduced to three:
At Delta, they wanted me to decide on the final amount and stick to it. They insisted that I designate it for them.
I asked them to give me a few hours and called my Bravo recruiter.
I explained that Bravo has something for which I value them more than Delta, but that Delta wanted me to clearly indicate the amount in order to move on.
I was going to work in Bravo or Delta. They offered similar conditions, but I did not know how much more I could get from Delta. I was very uncomfortable to lead such a game.
Break up in case of emergency.
Everyone should someday make their last request . The moment has come when you must take the decisive step, so use it wisely.
For me it was just that moment. It's time.
I asked Bravo to improve the conditions by increasing its shareholding by a modest 5 thousand dollars a year (a very modest request, as it seems now ...), in this regard, companies usually show more flexibility. I said that if they can do this, I will agree and be sure that I will not lose anything. He said that he would contact me and that we would definitely find a solution.
The Bravo recruiter replied by e-mail and wrote that he had developed new conditions for me and would like to discuss them with me over the phone. Then I already decided that if this would correspond to my request (180 thousand / 270 thousand / 70 thousand, a total of 265 thousand), I would immediately agree to this proposal. I thought carefully over this last move for a long time.
Wow! What I think? What do you think I think?
I am going to summarize all of the above:
Bonus tip : Never say or hint to potential employers that you are not interested. I saw how people “agreed”, insisting on larger amounts and justifying this with the fact that they are less interested in this company. It’s like a recipe for disaster — why tell the company that you don’t want to work there? Find a different approach.
All of the above worked. The terms of the offer, which I ultimately agreed to, amounted to approximately $ 300,000 per year (for 4 years, including a varying annual bonus and initial bonus / reimbursement for relocation). I agreed on this, starting at about 225,000 * dollars, which means an increase of 33%.
After my previous post, I most often see 3 questions:
I answered two of them here. Perhaps you can logically set the rest. I would prefer my advice to be useful rather than to advertise my employer. I do not want all attention here to be focused on the decision that I made in my life. I rather seek to help everyone else make the same decision.
There are also much deeper, more thoroughly written sources that I would recommend. This is a terrific article by Patrick Mackenzie and another Hasib Kureshi. Above, you only got acquainted with my personal thoughts (and at the same time the answer to all the questions I received regarding the amounts).
Please subscribe to my page (and chat!) With me on Twitter,if you want to leave a review or you have any questions. I would like to know if there are other topics that interest you. I received a ton of private messages on Twitter and Discord, and I tried to reply to them where possible. I prefer to reply primarily to Twitter, so if you want to chat, try there first.
Successful negotiations.
* The original offer did not include reimbursement for relocation; probably I would have received it anyway, so the actual starting point of the total was probably higher. ”
PS Surfing the vastness of the App Store, our developers came across an interesting application for My Russian Market My Dreams Salary. We liked the idea of evaluating “what are you worth” and “what to pull up” in several steps, although the project itself is still rather damp. We could not find an analogue on Google Play.
“Within a week, I was offered the position of software engineer at Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn and Yelp. This is how I interviewed them.
What if I tell you ... that the interviews are not as scary as they seem?
So, you are almost done with a long preparation for the interview. You are almost free from the stress of interviewing large IT companies. You have almost imagined how you send them the final “I agree”.
However, you are not quite there yet .
There is one last hurdle to overcome: the interview itself.
You have already proved more than once that you can go through interviews, but how successful and profitable for yourself?
At the end of last year, I was interviewed in 6 leading companies of Silicon Valley for 6 days and received 6 job offers. As a final task, I had to make sure that my work was not in vain. Here are the principles that I followed, the rules that I followed, and what I did to get a job with a salary of $ 100,000 a year more than I planned.
Introduction
First, we agree on the initial premises:
- Your potential may vary . Naturally, I am not saying that everything I went through can be easily repeated by any other person. I just use this as an example to outline a few tips that I think every newbie should know.
- You have suggestions, and not one . There may be two, or ten, but you definitely need to have more than one sentence at the same time. I have negotiated work on behalf of (many) friends in the past without any advantages, but I am not going to dwell on this scenario.
- You are not afraid to negotiate . On the eve of my interview with Google, I talked with another candidate at the hotel where I was staying. His strategy was to behave modestly in order to increase his chances of success. This is not the path that I choose, and this is not the tactic that I would advocate, and I'm not even going to take this option into account. You must always be open and ready for what you can achieve.
- You will not use Prohibited Tricks. I have no doubt that you can be interviewed using false information. From a moral point of view: hmm ... yes, drop it. From the point of view of practice: if you are caught in a lie, it certainly will not help you.
- You will not refuse the offer . Could I squeeze a little more out of a possible offer that I could agree to if I had one? May be. But personally, it would be inconvenient for me to accept the offer, and then refuse it. I’m sure that other candidates do this, and I don’t think that because of this you may be boycotted in the Valley. But this is simply not what I would like for you and for myself.
- You are ready to work in any of the companies if the proposed amount suits you. I definitely had a personal rating of those companies that I would prefer over others, but I gave everyone a chance. No one was particularly keen to make super offers.
- I will remain anonymous in relation to the companies with which I negotiated and their exact amounts. My goal is not to answer the question “how much will MegaCorp offer me if I have other offers?”. My goal is to answer the question "how should I properly get the most favorable working conditions?" for people who don’t know where to start. The amounts proposed by companies are presented accurately (with an error within 5%).
- You start from scratch. In this article I give my personal experience and examples from some conversations in which I participated in interviews. I do not have the experience of several decades with detailed instructions. In the end, I give some tips that are more suitable for beginners.
Before the Interview
Congratulations! You have several interview invitations. I am sure that you are nervous. I am sure that you are telling yourself that you do not deserve this, and that you are just lucky. You think that fail miserably. The last thing on your mind is the question of exactly how to talk with a recruiter.
Take it easy. We all go through this!
This can be understood. But you do not want to do a disservice to yourself in the future. In any case, you need to remember only a few things.
My first important tip: do not make this process adversarial .
I read many authors who look at this very cynically.
This is our confrontation with them.
Candidate against recruiter.
That is, you are trying to maximize the benefits of the company while it is trying to cheat you to the fullest. Do you see this?
I think you didn’t know that during the fight Google recruiters wear cloaks of superheroes?
Wrong . Sometimes this may be so, but I think that such an attitude is far from a healthy atmosphere of negotiations. I had a very good relationship with my recruiters, and in the end it paid off. Perhaps it would be better if I were more aggressive or resorted to lying. I will never know how events would develop in this alternative scenario. But I know that I do not regret it. I am sure that I can easily contact any of these recruiters again to resume the process. Recruiters are also people. Be friendly!
As a next step, throughout the process, try to show that you have other suggestions. It is important to ensure that they can provide similar conditions. Once I happened to deal with a really great offer. I was forced to refuse, as their company refused to move the deadline. This deprived me of some advantages. But if I had not let everyone know about my situation, I would have lost even more.
It is up to you whether you want to tell where else you are interviewing.I would share it if you think it is “impressive”. Keep in mind that in any case you have reason to be proud of yourself, no matter where you are considered. However, you will have more benefits if you have an offer from Google. My recruiters showed great respect in this matter. The companies understand that the one with whom you are negotiating is your own business, so they will only have the right to know about it if you deem it appropriate. With this in mind, the threat that you will receive (and accept) an offer elsewhere is a powerful advantage in everything: from negotiating conditions to getting you a job.
First sentences
Well, the moment of truth has come. Now you will hear how much you were rated.
All my recruiters preferred to broadcast this news over the phone. Almost all calls went through the same pattern:
Do you have any new offers from other companies? Is there a certain range that you expect from us? How about about [...] dollars? What do you think of it?Almost all of the authors you usually read write that it’s wrong to designate a range. I generally agree with this, but sometimes it makes sense to at least indicate something. To do this appropriately requires some experience and knowledge of the usually proposed working conditions. I designated a benchmark only for one or two companies, and only because I knew enough about them to suggest that they would offer me about $ 50,000 a year less than other companies that I had offers from.
I would never designate a range for a company that usually offers large amounts. With all this in mind, I would not waste time with a recruiter if I know that they are not going to surpass an existing offer from another company. Recruiters themselves will not want to walk in circles and keep returning to the same issue all the time, offering you new conditions. If they are far from what you need, let recruiters know where the range begins . Spending time on an uncompetitive offer is not beneficial to anyone.
At the same time, if you are dealing with a company whose budget is endless, use it wisely. Levels.fyi is the best resource I've ever seen (much better than Glassdoor) when it comes to learning what is usually offered. Mark as high as possible and never, never think that you cannot receive an offer with even more favorable conditions.Observe the situation and be prepared to adapt to it. As a result, I received much, much more than I had ever expected from any company, and I owe much of this to the fact that I never mentally limited myself to the “upper bar”.
Believe me, recruiters will do their best to offer you less. Do not help them!
Never show that you are "dizzy" . Keep yourself in control even if you are sure that you will accept the offer. This also applies in many ways to telephone conversations, especially if the conditions offered to you exceed all that you have ever expected, and you are probably not able to think sensibly. Always consider any suggestion for some time.
Make it clear that you will not accept the offer until you negotiate with everyone . In my experience, recruiters were sympathetic to this. I let them know that I would like to first have an interview in all the companies from which I received offers. I definitely had a dream company throughout the process, but in reality it was not someone else's business, but my own.
I will not advise what exactly needs to be said in such situations. I will give here only my impressions. This should help those who do not know where to start. Please do not take this as a ready-made script (it would be strange and unnatural). However, this is what I would say in order to maintain an atmosphere of mutual respect and to remain open during negotiations. Let's assume that you were offered conditions that you could agree to (that is, they suit you):
Recruiter: So what do you think of this?In the above, you tell the recruiter that he “has a chance,” but that’s not enough to defeat you. You show respect and firmness at the same time. This is the main strategy of how to behave during negotiations.
You: This is an interesting offer. I think it almost suits me, but I can’t agree to it right now. First I need to find out what conditions are offered by other companies with whom I am negotiating.
Do not give out more information than necessary, do not be aggressive and do not indicate the exact amount, if this is impractical. In addition, all of the above allows you to remain honest, so you do not need to worry about being caught in a lie. In fact, you just try to maintain your status in the eyes of recruiters and avoid the hassle until you have all the offers for comparison. That's when the fun begins!
Counter offers
So, you have learned the suggested amounts from everyone you are considering. Now you can make counter offers based on the information you have. When I did this, I never gave the exact amount - I designated the ranges . I don't like the idea of the exact amount until it comes to the very end.
There are several reasons for this:
- First, the designation of the exact amount seems strange: why is $ 120,000 acceptable, and $ 119,000 already a little small? I would rather it has designated as " somewhere between 120 000 and 140 000 dollars" . The company has the opportunity to increase the amount if you do not reveal all your cards to them. Please note that as soon as you know the amount offered by the company, it makes sense to be more specific regarding your wishes.
- From my point of view, if you designate a specific amount, it is implied that it is “only”. If it suits the company, you miss the opportunity to agree on a much larger amount if you do not receive other offers. Remember: companies in any case can afford to pay the amount you want, even if this is the upper bar of your range. If you mean a range of $ 5,000, don't be surprised if companies meet your requirements and expect your consent.
Some may object to what I have stated above, because recruiters are able to show great flexibility. You can always name the exact amount, make them agree to it, and then ask for an increase. I do not deny it. However, during the interviews, I set myself the goal of maintaining good relations with recruiters, and in the end it paid off in full.
I certainly looked just as cool during the negotiations.
My first counter sentences sounded something like this (I came up with these amounts to give them as an example):
Bar, Inc .: We offer you a basic salary of about $ 120,000 with a 4-year stock of $ 150,000 and a one-time initial bonus of $ 10,000. What do you think of it?The above provides a lot of useful information for the recruiter, without indicating any exact amount on your part. FooCorp understands that you need to increase the amount to $ 120,000 in order to encourage you to refuse another offer that you have been made. At Bar, they understand that equity is important to you, and stocks are something that companies provide much more willingly. Now you have two companies competing to make you a better offer, and at the same time they are not in contact with each other. And this is largely a welcome turn of events for you.
Me: How flexible can your company offer for stocks? I would really like to stay and grow as a professional. In this regard, equity is exactly what interests me in any company. A base salary of about $ 120,000 is suitable for me, but I would like to receive an offer providing for a larger shareholding.
FooCorp: We offer you a base salary of about $ 100,000 with a 4-year stock of $ 150,000 and a one-time initial bonus of $ 10,000. What do you think of it?
Me: I think the base salary is slightly lower than I would like, especially considering the offer from Bar, Inc. $ 120,000, and the fact that the base salary is very important to me. As for the block of shares, I expected about $ 200,000. The primary prize is generally in line with my expectations.
As soon as one of the companies increases the amount, it makes sense to change the designated range. Here is how this conversation went in my case:
Me: Good afternoon! I finally got a response from Bar. Their offer was much better than I expected. They offered a base salary of $ 150,000, $ 200,000 in stocks, and $ 40,000 as a primary bonus. However, it seems to me that working at FooCorp is more closely related to my interests, so I would really like for you and I to be able to work together. In this regard, I would like to find out whether it is possible to improve your conditions to the same level?I participated in many conversations on the above schemes, and they all went about the same.
FooCorp: Oh, they have a really good offer. Keep in mind that FooCorp {makes the world a better place / has amazing potential / is more promising for your career}, and I hope that you will not make a decision based solely on rewards. I don’t know yet if we can offer the same conditions, but I will see what we can do.
It seemed that they always had a great deal of doubt about the possibility of changing their amounts. They always said that it is more than they can usually yield.
They always explained that the mission and atmosphere of their company offset the difference in remuneration.
But almost always they increased the amount.
Some of them will meet you. Someone not. Some of them will come so close to your expectations that you can make the final decision so as not to miss such an exciting opportunity. But you should definitely try.
My suggestions
I add the following because many have asked me about this. I don’t know how useful this will be, but I’ll post it here anyway. I will give here all the tips that I can give.
I was able to find out the approximate amounts from each company before I designated any for my part. All amounts are listed under fictitious brands and in random order. Format: basic salary + premium / shareholding for 4 years / primary bonus.
Alpha: 180 thousand / 150 thousand / 0 thousand (218 thousand / year)Curiously, for the most part, the amounts were almost the same, despite the fact that the companies did not have the opportunity to see each other's initial offers. It must be a standard rate now ... or something like that. In any case, after receiving all the offers, the time has come for me to constantly interact. I contacted the company that made the least advantageous offer, and, telling them about the conditions of the best offer, I asked them to reduce the difference as much as possible. As soon as the amounts changed, I talked with other companies. Every day or every other day, recruiters contacted me, and the calls were about this content:
Bravo: 180 thousand / 200 thousand / 30 thousand (238 thousand / year)
Charlie: 140 thousand / 180 thousand / 30 thousand . (193 thousand / year)
Delta: 160 thousand / 220 thousand / 50 thousand (228 thousand / year)
Echo: 160 thousand / 200 thousand / 30 thousand (218 thousand / year
Foxtrot: 165 thousand / 210 thousand / 30 thousand (225 thousand / year)
Bravo: Are there any changes on your part?Alpha refused to negotiate and move the deadline, so they quickly dropped out of participation.
Me: Yes, I was informed of the provisional amounts from Foxtrot. They offer 225 thousand dollars or so, but Delta says they can offer more. The offer from Foxtrot did not impress me, and given Delta's position on it, this is probably the last of the offers that I will eventually sign.
Bravo: Great, thank you very much for sharing. I will talk with the team and see what I can do. We would be happy to work with you!
After each of the companies changed its initial amounts, the picture changed:
Bravo: 180 thousand / 220 thousand / 75 thousand (254 thousand / year; +16 thousand)And again, all over again. I set myself the goal of eliminating some of the proposals as soon as the situation began to change in the direction I needed. The real strategic nightmare is keeping track of 6 competing companies. It also became clear that there is a difference that some companies are not able to bridge.
Charlie: 140 thousand / 200 thousand / 30 thousand (198 thousand / year; +5 thousand)
Delta: 160 thousand / 220 thousand / 50 thousand (228 thousand / year; unchanged)
Echo: 160 thousand / 250 thousand / 30 thousand (230 thousand / year; +12 thousand)
Foxtrot: 180 thousand / 240 thousand / 30 thousand (248 thousand / year; +18 thousand)
In addition, I had much more time to consider the features related to the corporate culture, benefits and other advantages, and in this aspect there were differences between the companies.
Formally, I did not reject any of the proposals until I officially accepted the most suitable one and signed the corresponding contract, however, mentally crossed out several companies and stopped negotiations with them. I just asked them a few more days for a decision.
Recruiters constantly told me that they could not offer the conditions even better, but nonetheless they always did . I’m sure that there is a “ceiling”, and I’m sure that it’s quite rare to agree on an amount that exceeds a certain limit, but it was very similar to a lie when I constantly heard that they could not offer more (“you have no experience ”), And then watched them increase supply by 10%. I guess this is part of the business.
After the next stage of negotiations (and a few more days), the number of companies was reduced to three:
Bravo: 180 thousand / 250 thousand / 75 thousand (261 thousand / year +23 thousand / year from the original)About a week and a half of negotiations had already passed by this time, and that was after months of interviews / preparations. I was already quite ready to finish. Having compared the features related to products, corporate culture, payment, benefits, other advantages and the reputation of companies, I settled on the choice between Bravo and Delta.
Delta: 170 thousand / 250 thousand / 50 thousand (245 thousand / year; +17 thousand / year from the original)
Foxtrot: 180 thousand / 250 thousand / 50 thousand (248 thousand / year; +18 thousand / year from the original)
At Delta, they wanted me to decide on the final amount and stick to it. They insisted that I designate it for them.
I asked them to give me a few hours and called my Bravo recruiter.
I explained that Bravo has something for which I value them more than Delta, but that Delta wanted me to clearly indicate the amount in order to move on.
I was going to work in Bravo or Delta. They offered similar conditions, but I did not know how much more I could get from Delta. I was very uncomfortable to lead such a game.
Break up in case of emergency.
Everyone should someday make their last request . The moment has come when you must take the decisive step, so use it wisely.
For me it was just that moment. It's time.
I asked Bravo to improve the conditions by increasing its shareholding by a modest 5 thousand dollars a year (a very modest request, as it seems now ...), in this regard, companies usually show more flexibility. I said that if they can do this, I will agree and be sure that I will not lose anything. He said that he would contact me and that we would definitely find a solution.
The last sentence
The Bravo recruiter replied by e-mail and wrote that he had developed new conditions for me and would like to discuss them with me over the phone. Then I already decided that if this would correspond to my request (180 thousand / 270 thousand / 70 thousand, a total of 265 thousand), I would immediately agree to this proposal. I thought carefully over this last move for a long time.
Bravo: I have received a response and approval for a new proposal for you, and I would like to know what you think about it. We would like to offer you a {salary + annual bonus} of $ 180,000. In addition, we would like to offer $ 400,000 in promotions that will be available to you within 4 years. In addition, I also managed to get approval to give you $ 90,000 {primary bonus + relocation refund}. Under these conditions, for 4 years you will receive about $ 1,210,000, that is, about $ 300,000 annually . What do you think of it?
Wow! What I think? What do you think I think?
Me: Yes, I agree.And indeed it is. I'm not exaggerating at all. My last request was 265 thousand dollars a year, and I was offered about 300 thousand dollars a year. I don’t know if this happened because of the good relations that I established with the recruiter, or whether they were simply worried that I could refuse. Be that as it may, I have nothing against it. :)
Bravo: Really? Excellent!
Main conclusions
I am going to summarize all of the above:
- Consider a few offers. Of course, it's easier said than done, but even if it adds stress to your life, it will certainly pay off. If you let the interview go by itself, it will be quite difficult. If you want to get a new job, do not put everything on one card and do everything possible to get at least two offers.
- Do not lie. Personally, I was not asked to provide evidence of other offers, but they asked for some of my friends. Do not cheat, especially if data about you is stored in various companies. I wish you to successfully get into the company that is looking for you.
- Be kind and respectful. Recruiters are people too. These are the people who can help you get into the company of your dreams. No need to suck, just be friendly. Help them help you! You may have different views, but in the end you both want the same thing: the accepted proposal from their company.
- Be (selectively) outgoing. Let everyone know what your deadlines are and whether you expect news from other companies. Keep people informed. We do not like when recruiters keep us in the dark, and, of course, they just don't like when they keep them in the dark. Let them know if you agreed to another offer or are no longer considering their offer. Let them know if other companies have also sent you their suggestions, and share their names if you think this will benefit you.
- Do not indicate the minimum amount (if this does not make sense). You do not want to receive a smaller amount than the one that the company could offer you. And you also don’t want to waste anyone’s time. If you understand that at first the company does not seem competitive, let them know about the conditions of another company. If they refuse, then so be it. It is better to spend time communicating with companies where you really would like to go.
I suppose this is what IT interviews with an interactive whiteboard looked like in the 1950s. - Reach for heaven. I set myself the goal of obtaining conditions with a total amount of about 180 thousand dollars. This was the amount for which I would quit my job then. As a result, I got 50% more. I did not think that this is possible for someone with only two years of experience. Do not mentally limit yourself to how much, in your opinion, you can get, this can interfere with negotiations.
- Do not reject the offer until you finally accept the other. You never know what might happen. You do not want anyone to continue to insist on your decision, while you would never accept their proposal. But even if the offer is not competitive, you can still agree to it if other companies lose their advantages. Do not burn bridges. After all, you have long walked to this crucial step.
- Think carefully and sort the sentences. During the negotiations, you will meet one or two proposals that you consider to be the “best”. Once that happens, focus on those that really matter, and don't waste time on the rest.
Bonus tip : Never say or hint to potential employers that you are not interested. I saw how people “agreed”, insisting on larger amounts and justifying this with the fact that they are less interested in this company. It’s like a recipe for disaster — why tell the company that you don’t want to work there? Find a different approach.
All of the above worked. The terms of the offer, which I ultimately agreed to, amounted to approximately $ 300,000 per year (for 4 years, including a varying annual bonus and initial bonus / reimbursement for relocation). I agreed on this, starting at about 225,000 * dollars, which means an increase of 33%.
Summarizing
After my previous post, I most often see 3 questions:
- How did I negotiate?
- How much was offered to me?
- Whose proposal did I accept?
I answered two of them here. Perhaps you can logically set the rest. I would prefer my advice to be useful rather than to advertise my employer. I do not want all attention here to be focused on the decision that I made in my life. I rather seek to help everyone else make the same decision.
There are also much deeper, more thoroughly written sources that I would recommend. This is a terrific article by Patrick Mackenzie and another Hasib Kureshi. Above, you only got acquainted with my personal thoughts (and at the same time the answer to all the questions I received regarding the amounts).
Please subscribe to my page (and chat!) With me on Twitter,if you want to leave a review or you have any questions. I would like to know if there are other topics that interest you. I received a ton of private messages on Twitter and Discord, and I tried to reply to them where possible. I prefer to reply primarily to Twitter, so if you want to chat, try there first.
Successful negotiations.
* The original offer did not include reimbursement for relocation; probably I would have received it anyway, so the actual starting point of the total was probably higher. ”
PS Surfing the vastness of the App Store, our developers came across an interesting application for My Russian Market My Dreams Salary. We liked the idea of evaluating “what are you worth” and “what to pull up” in several steps, although the project itself is still rather damp. We could not find an analogue on Google Play.