Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

jacquesmattheij.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 234 posts

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#21

Post by stygiansonic »

heisenzombie wrote: post #18

Nice advice, but I feel like articles like this make marginal improvements to my comfort and skill at negotiation. I think perhaps it boils down to unfamiliarity: I've done it a very small number of times, and it feels alien and weird. Especially some of the language used. Compare that with a manager who has hired $x employees a month for a decade, and doesn't think anything of it. I wonder: Are there any videos avai…

I don't have any videos, but I've found this book, Negotiating Your Salary: How to Make $1000 a Minute[0] to be helpful. Sensational title aside[1], it's actually a fairly concise and easy-to-read guide with examples of questions/answers for various situations, strategies and counters to commonly-used negotiating tactics.

It's mainly focused on salary negotiations during/after an interview, but I get the sense this is what you were after. Apologies if this was not the case.

0. http://www.amazon.com/Negotiating-Your-Salary-Minute-Revised...

1. The title may not be so sensational in my experience; most negotiations don't take hours and thus while the effect may not be "$1000 a Minute", it may not be that far off.

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#22

Post by Bahamut »

z3t4 wrote: post #17

Make sure you start high then request a 5% raise Every year! If you wait five years and request 25% it's Never gonna happen! If possible, try to get 2.5% every six month.

Depending on where you are and how good you are, 5% (or 2.5% semi-annually) annually is likely low. Any competent developer should be able to negotiate $5000+ raises in 6-12 months based on performance (or jump to a job paying much better).

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#23

Post by dasil003 »

eoghan wrote: post #9
Swizec wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Successful "techies" never work at companies they don't believe in. 1) This is from 2011, it was slightly less of a seller's market for engineers back then. It was still a seller's market, but not as crazy as it is now. 2) The author is one of the top 10 all time contributors to HN. #3 in fact. And I don't think he deserves the snark from the last line of your comment. He's done some pretty cool things and I'd defi…

I'm sure he's a very prolific Hacker News contributor. My point is that people who optimize for short-term financial compensation ahead of employment with a company they believe in which is generous with its stock are the least successful in this industry—particularly financially, ironically.

Citation needed for the statistics you're drawing from. Obviously if you want to make millions you need to get that from stock, but that comes from taking risk. How many people ended up with way below market compensation by working for peanuts + stock for a company that went nowhere (or just went somewhere just for the preferred shareholders) compared to those that made had a legitimate payout that put them above market salaries?

Despite what TechCrunch and the VC industry would have us believe, it's nowhere near as clear cut as you make out.

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#24

Post by jacalata »

heisenzombie wrote: post #18

Nice advice, but I feel like articles like this make marginal improvements to my comfort and skill at negotiation. I think perhaps it boils down to unfamiliarity: I've done it a very small number of times, and it feels alien and weird. Especially some of the language used. Compare that with a manager who has hired $x employees a month for a decade, and doesn't think anything of it. I wonder: Are there any videos avai…

Try out Ramit Sethi's videos (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5SeCl_8NE). I haven't watched any yet myself but I've heard they are good. He also has an article on negotiation at http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/salary-negotiation...

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#25

Post by watty »

I'm about to ask for a raise for the first time but I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. I've been with this company for 7 years and only received 2-3% increases the past 3 years. I interviewed at a competitor and they offered me a 20% increase, which I turned down.

During negotiations should I simply ask for them to match? I don't want them to think I'm actively looking for a new job but want to get paid my worth.

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#26

Post by cornellwright »

Swizec wrote: post #16
gaius wrote: post #12

Free food is such a no-brainer, if you're a manager. For £5 of pizza you can get £50-100 of work, easy, and the workers think they're getting the better deal...

This is why I like to say "Just pay me more, I can take care of my own perks. Promise." Sure, free food is great and all. But we're not kindergarteners are we? I'm an adult and I like to take care of my own food (and such). Free beer and pizza is for helping your friend move. Or for giving a talk at a *camp event. It's not for producing hundreds of thousands if not millions in value for your employer.

As an employer that provides free food, I think there's more to it than that in that both sides receive more value. We don't provide free food in order to pay our employees less. We provide free food because we see a lot of value in everyone eating together and employees get a lot of value in just not having to think about lunch or spend the time to go out and eat somewhere.

I think most people get more value you out of the free food than if they were simply paid what it cost to provide. In the case of free food I see it as where both employer and employee do better with the in-kind perk than the equivalent cash alternative.

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#27

Post by [deleted] »

heisenzombie wrote: post #18

Nice advice, but I feel like articles like this make marginal improvements to my comfort and skill at negotiation. I think perhaps it boils down to unfamiliarity: I've done it a very small number of times, and it feels alien and weird. Especially some of the language used. Compare that with a manager who has hired $x employees a month for a decade, and doesn't think anything of it. I wonder: Are there any videos avai…

[deleted]

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#28

Post by [deleted] »

watty wrote: post #25

I'm about to ask for a raise for the first time but I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. I've been with this company for 7 years and only received 2-3% increases the past 3 years. I interviewed at a competitor and they offered me a 20% increase, which I turned down. During negotiations should I simply ask for them to match? I don't want them to think I'm actively looking for a new job but want to get paid my worth…

[deleted]

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#29

Post by Swizec »

cornellwright wrote: post #26
Swizec wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I like to say "Just pay me more, I can take care of my own perks. Promise." Sure, free food is great and all. But we're not kindergarteners are we? I'm an adult and I like to take care of my own food (and such). Free beer and pizza is for helping your friend move. Or for giving a talk at a *camp event. It's not for producing hundreds of thousands if not millions in value for your employer.

As an employer that provides free food, I think there's more to it than that in that both sides receive more value. We don't provide free food in order to pay our employees less. We provide free food because we see a lot of value in everyone eating together and employees get a lot of value in just not having to think about lunch or spend the time to go out and eat somewhere. I think most people get more value you out…

True, it does save time and thought. How much of depends primarily on location. The benefit is greater at something like a Google or Facebook campus, and much smaller at a small office in a downtown area with 20 restaurants in a 5min walk radius.

But one too often sees perks like these offered as "Well, we're a startup, we can't pay you market rate, but we feed you". And that shit ain't right.

Re: Salary negotiations for techies (2011)

#30

Post by bsdpython »

watty wrote: post #25

I'm about to ask for a raise for the first time but I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. I've been with this company for 7 years and only received 2-3% increases the past 3 years. I interviewed at a competitor and they offered me a 20% increase, which I turned down. During negotiations should I simply ask for them to match? I don't want them to think I'm actively looking for a new job but want to get paid my worth…

Why did you turn down the offer? You are in a MUCH stronger position to ask for a raise with another offer in hand.
Post reply on HN