Negotiating & Celebrating
Series:After The Interview
Hello and welcome to the final post in my After the Interview series! If you've already been following along, welcome back! If not, I would highly recommend reading through my first post of the series, Getting the Offer, as a precursor to what will be a very informative series on what to do after the interview. Throughout this series, we'll be discussing topics like receiving and evaluating your offer letter, as well as handling the negotiation process afterwards. There's a lot to cover though, so let's continue the discussion with negotiating your offer letter!
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy
At this point in time, you should have been able to review the offer letters you've received and determined what criteria might be lacking in each of them. That's right! It's very unlikely that you will have received an offer that satisfied each and every one of your criteria. Even if there was, it's still highly beneficial for you to go back to your recruiter to start the negotiation process. While this might seem like the path to take if you want the offer rescinded, trust me, it's not. It's highly unlikely that a company will take back your offer letter as long as you're reasonable in the negotiation process. How can one be reasonable in this process though? I'm glad you asked.😊
Negotiation
Now that you've selected the offer that best suits you and your values, it's time for the fun part of negotiation! This can be a very intimidating process to under go but it can also be very valuable to getting a little extra added onto your salary or signing bonus. The best way to go about this process is to think about how important it is for you to get this job and just jump right into it. If you need to get this job, start the negotiation process with a value around 10% more than your current offer. If you have other job options, start the negotiations somewhere closer to 20% more than your current offer. Also, be sure to go back with an actual dollar amount, not a percentage. It's much more effective to ask for an additional $10,000 on the offer than to just ask for more money.
A company is very unlikely to revoke an offer just because you decide to negotiate the terms, as long as you don't come back with something absurd. It also helps if you have alternative options, like your current job or the other offers you hopefully received. If a recruiter knows you don't need this job, they're much more likely to negotiate with you. By going somewhere around 10-20% more on your offer, it gives you a little wiggle room to overshoot the amount you're actually looking for without asking for too much.
When starting the negotiation process, be sure to do so in a manner that's comfortable to you. While it's best to negotiate with the recruiter over the phone, it's more important that you just start the process. If talking about this over the phone is not something you're comfortable with, get things started over emails. Also, consider the possibility that they might come back with a counter-offer on something other than the salary. Many companies have salary tiers for their various positions and might not be able to increase your salary any further. To compensate for this, they might offer you a bigger signing bonus, or improved stock options in the company. If you're moving to join the company, you could also ask for a relocation bonus instead of an increased salary as well. Whatever their response is though, just be sure to evaluate it to see if it aligns closely to your original negotiation amount.
Celebration!
Congratulations, you did it! You successfully navigated through the interviewing process, received an offer from an incredible company, and negotiated the deal that you wanted. Now you can bask in your victory and let all of your friends and family know you got the job at the company of your dreams! I'm so proud of you and your accomplishments and I can't wait to see what good you help bring about in this world with your unique set of skills and values.
The interviews you'll have are not over yet though. While you may be in the company of your dreams now, who knows what you'll be doing in a few years from now or what you would like to be doing. Whether you're looking for a new job or not, it's always a good idea to keep practicing on your interviewing skills. Doing an annual refresher of your resume and applying to new jobs, even if you don't intend to leave your current one, is a great practice to undergo. This will help keep yourself fresh and ready for whatever opportunity comes your way. Who knows, maybe one of these practice interviews will open a brand new door of possibilities that you could never have imagined. So remember to keep practicing and continue to improve yourself, one step at a time.
If you enjoyed the post, be sure to follow me so that you don't miss my future content, where I continue to dive deep into what I'm learning and how we all can grow as individuals! The links to my social media accounts can be found on my contact page. Please feel free to share any of your own experiences with the interviewing process, general questions and comments, or even other topics you would like me to write about. If this series of posts help you land that dream job of yours, be sure to let me know as well. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!👋