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Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#11

Post by sircastor »

I’m curious if this is actually a low ball offer, or something like not-a-FAANG-or-SV-Startup-offer. Outside of The Valley salaries can be much lower, and outside the industry they are even lower. So, assuming US, are we talking 100k-ish or 50k-ish

That said, definitely push back. I wouldn’t be surprised if you can get 20% more on a first offer, or you might negotiate other parts of compensation.

How interested are you in the role? If it’s something that makes your days better then a pay cut might be worth it.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#12

Post by CRConrad »

itamarst wrote: post #5

You're assuming you have two options: 1. Stay at current, unpleasant job. 2. Take a huge paycut. But there are other jobs. So what you do is, you start applying elsewhere, and meanwhile you try to negotiate with the startup. The chances are that they won't go up that much. That's OK, you can: 1. Stall them, and use existing offer for negotiating with another company that gives you an offer. Even just mentioning you h…

> "...Would you be willing to raise it by 20% and then have me work 4 days a week?" I haven't done the math to figure out if this makes sense,

At three days a week, it "makes sense" arithmetically: that gives the same daily salary they have now. Working on the money end in stead, you'd need to ask for a sixty percent raise to achieve parity at four days a week.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#13

Post by simonblack »

It's very unlikely that they would double their offer to what you are now receiving. If they did, it would point out that they have the mindset to nickel and dime you to death whenever they can. That would indicate a bad place to work.

Stay where you are to keep a good income coming in while you actively keep looking for a better job at another company.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#14

Post by shmapf »

I've been given the "we're a small start-up so can't afford to pay what you're currently on" line. I believed it at the time, and told them that's ok, I understand but I'm not willing to take such a big cut.

Then they multiplied the offer salary by 2.5X.

This dishonesty left me with such a bad taste in my mouth I no longer wanted to work for them and declined.

I've personally found honesty to be the most effective way to negotiate. Identify what you want, and what they want, then you've got nothing to hide and can have a grown up conversation to see if you can find a mutually beneficial agreement.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#15

Post by mxmpawn »

Update: I've (politely) declined the offer and told them to 2x the number if they wanted to bring me in. They've asked me if I can work some hours for the rest of the year in order to help the engineering team launch the first iteration of the product and then revisit the proposal in January.

Thanks for all the comments, you're all being very helpful.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#16

Post by rdtwo »

mxmpawn wrote: post #15

Update: I've (politely) declined the offer and told them to 2x the number if they wanted to bring me in. They've asked me if I can work some hours for the rest of the year in order to help the engineering team launch the first iteration of the product and then revisit the proposal in January. Thanks for all the comments, you're all being very helpful.

Did you laugh at them?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#18

Post by mxmpawn »

rdtwo wrote: post #16
mxmpawn wrote: post #15

Update: I've (politely) declined the offer and told them to 2x the number if they wanted to bring me in. They've asked me if I can work some hours for the rest of the year in order to help the engineering team launch the first iteration of the product and then revisit the proposal in January. Thanks for all the comments, you're all being very helpful.

Did you laugh at them?

Why?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#19

Post by mxmpawn »

p0d wrote: post #17

You say you are burned out and now you are about to take on more work on a promise. I would be cautious.

Yes, I'm not really thinking about doing freelancing hands on work. The only possibility would be to help them come up with a high level solution, as I had built a very similar product in the past.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with a low ball salary offer?

#20

Post by landa »

shmapf wrote: post #14

I've been given the "we're a small start-up so can't afford to pay what you're currently on" line. I believed it at the time, and told them that's ok, I understand but I'm not willing to take such a big cut. Then they multiplied the offer salary by 2.5X. This dishonesty left me with such a bad taste in my mouth I no longer wanted to work for them and declined. I've personally found honesty to be the most effective wa…

This doesn't seem dishonest to me. I'd do the same thing. If my company is truly strapped for cash, I'd offer a low salary (to "keep the lights on") and give more equity instead. If someone told me their bills are too high and they need more cash, I'd double the salary but give almost no equity. The whole point of going to a startup is to have ownership of something small that you grow to become something big, so you usually don't care too much about the salary.
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