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Your most powerful tool in negotiation is the ability to say no. That comes when you have competing offers.
The "when it rains, it pours" phenomena I think most of us (anectodtally obviously) think we've seen is especially amusing in this context. They're really shooting themselves in the foot by only hiring people everyone wants already instead of finding people who they can train for two weeks and bring up to speed.
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Even if you have one offer there is room for negotiation if you’re willing to accept that you might end up with 0 offers.
Not even. You have to handle the negotiation like a complete asshole before your counterparty will withdraw their offer entirely. For the most part, asking (respectfully and politely) for the moon will just result in a "no, we can't accommodate that". Then you decide if you're ok with that, and accept or decline.
You’re making the negotiating mistake of projecting onto counterparties. “I wouldn’t pull an offer except to an asshole” becomes, “My counterparty won’t withdraw the offer unless I’m an asshole.”
If you absolutely 100% need a job and can leave nothing to chance then you should probably not negotiate with only a single offer in hand.
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The problem comes with progressive taxation, especially in vaguely-socialist countries. When you're in a high-enough tax bracket (in taxation regimes where such high tax-brackets exist), adding a marginal dollar to your net income becomes impractically expensive for the company, compared to basically anything else the company could offer you. For some people, in some places, getting an extra $20k/yr tacked onto your…
I’m not sure I follow. In a progressive tax system you pay in brackets, so that extra $20k doesn’t mean the rest of the salary is entirely in the new bracket, so why would it cost an exorbitant amount?
Googling "personal assistant salary", it looks like the average in the US is ~$50k/year. So a personal assistant would cost more, but it is in the right ballpark where that could be a better choice than that raise if this is the reason for the raise:
> with the skills necessary to do enough of your job that you go from "overworked" to "takes off early most days to go play golf."
It's long for today's attention, but negotiation guides are fairly consistent maps of a territory. They teach you it is a way to relate and a perspective to start from. It's a way to protagonize yourself instead of competing to debase yourself more than the next person. Focus on a high quality agreement and a process that feels good independent of the numbers and you will be happy with the result. My confidence comes…
Thank you for your reply. I'm not a native speaker and find your writing style quite intriguing, which always makes me wonder "what does this person read?". Could you suggest a couple of your favourite books? Apologies for this public private message, there seems to be no contact info in your profile.
Not sure but if Trump wins and turns H1B visas on its head again, we might see a reversal.
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Thank you for your reply. I'm not a native speaker and find your writing style quite intriguing, which always makes me wonder "what does this person read?". Could you suggest a couple of your favourite books? Apologies for this public private message, there seems to be no contact info in your profile.
thank you, they are of an era, but read something by W. Sommerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, Robertson Davies, P.G. Wodehouse, the economist and weekend FT newspaper columnists. add Christopher Hitchens, Martin Amis, Stephen Fry, Julian Barnes, Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro, Douglas Hofstader, and Douglas Adams. Do a pass over poetry, so Blake, Auden, and Kipling and try to remember anything funny. Then forget all of it and…
As such, demand for me is so high that I’ve simply retired from all the money that was thrown at me (it’s also pretty easy for me to start my own business…although exiting is another story). I have no LinkedIn or other online presence and I still get headhunted despite having no interest.
Just remember your BATNA when you enter a negotiation.
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I’m from France where the market is still tense, so I have hard times understanding whether it’s a general trend or a local problem: - How do you know it’s not just your surroundings (technologies, skills, area) which are dry? - Are you maybe getting aged? (The programmer market is very ageist, hopefully I’m not turning the knife into the wound, but I’m not young either) and maybe you are experiencing the dry part of…
Well I would love to have found a $500k job, that's definitely not my point of reference. The problem is that I'm not even getting to the stage of asking about salary, because I'm not getting any interviews in the first place. Neither is anyone else in my friend group. I am probably overqualified for a lot of jobs, but my friend group, which has a lot of variance in age and experience, would definitely not fall into…
I hope I didn’t come across, my comment was not delicate but I was genuinely curious about the answer. I’ve created a product which luckily works for now, so I’m out of the job market, but I think everyone on HN knows that your situation is the normal one that awaits all of us in the second half of our career.
Ok yes this guide is fine, a lot of things are up for negotiation, and I think it’s a lot more widely known these days to negotiate for stuff. But man, a lot of the people out there absolutely still do not grok negotiating. They know it’s something you’re supposed to do, but they will try and negotiate things that are not negotiable (like making it a hard ask for extra contributions per paycheck for healthcare to mat…
> But man, a lot of the people out there absolutely still do not grok negotiating. Unless you have some kind of very unique skill or you have other offers and the company really, really wants you, how exactly are you supposed to negotiate? Every comp negotiation I've ever had with a company has gone kind of like this: [Company]: Here's your offer for $X. [Me]: I'd like $Y. [Company]: Your offer is for $X. [Me]: Well,…
> [Me]: I’d like $Y
You could try:
> [Me]: That matches my base salary at the moment but my current employer gives me healthcare and a car allowance so I would be out of pocket if I moved from my current job. In addition I currently am eligible for a 10% bonus. Would you consider an additional $5k/yr to cover some of this? I would love to move… although I can’t justify a pay cut, but think this is a really good opportunity and would love to work with you so hope we can make something work.
Ie you gotta give them a reason to justify paying you more, and to think that paying more is required for you taking the job. Also you have to be realistic in how much you ask (smaller amounts are more likely to be accepted, larger amounts pay more but are more likely to be rejected outright as if something is too large you can’t really counteroffer)