The New Rules of Negotiating Your Tech Job Offer in 2024+

200+ negotiations later, negotiation expert Annie Murray shares the tips she's used to help tech professionals get millions in offer increases, even in uncertain times

Can you even negotiate in such a competitive tech job market?

We know first hand that the answer is yes.

Meet Annie Murray, one of the best negotiation coaches in the tech world.

I've personally negotiated compensation at all levels, from junior roles to 7-figure executive positions. That's why I'm so excited to share this article from Annie Murray - she's one of the best negotiation experts I know, with a wealth of experience as both a recruiter and a negotiation coach.

I personally selected Annie to lead a success-based tech negotiation coaching service, Valued.

Annie has helped over 200 tech professionals negotiate job offers for higher compensation and up-levels. Using her Microsoft and Amazon recruitment experience, she has developed a strong reputation among top tech talent.

Over the course of her career, Annie has worked with a diverse range of clients, from Commercial Counsel to Chief Operating Officers, across a vast array of tech companies, including FAANG, Microsoft, Airbnb, TikTok, and many high-profile startups.

She has also shared her expertise with Her Skill Academy, Grace Hopper, and Oxford University.

Annie and I have very similar approaches to negotiation. Many of the strategies she outlines here are ones I've used successfully throughout my career, from entry-level to the C-suite. I highly recommend paying close attention to her insights.

Now, let's dive into Annie's expert advice on navigating the post-2023 negotiation landscape. I'm confident it will give you a serious edge in your next compensation discussion.

Can I negotiate my tech job offer in 2024?

It was the summer of 2022. Amazon had just amended their long held policy of keeping the entire staff (from L7 to L3) at a base salary cap of $160k, to now being able to offer folks bases more aligned with their level and experience. I’d just helped a client get an increase in their offer that was well above the top of the listed salary band, something that was extremely common to do with Amazon at the time.

It was a boom market in the tech industry, where if you weren’t negotiating, you were guaranteed to be leaving huge sums on the table. The percent likelihood of an offer being rescinded was 2%, and in my 2 years of negotiating competitive compensation for tech leaders across hundreds of companies, I had never had an offer pulled for any client.

Then, in a blink of an eye, the whole playing field changed. Amazon kicked themselves for changing their base salary policy, and doubled down on a new no-negotiation policy, regardless of level. I saw L7 individuals being denied increases in their comp, even with strong competing offers as leverage.

But the wheel of time continues to spin forward, and now we’re seeing positions opening up again at major tech companies across roles and locations. While the dust is still settling, the question on many folks minds is - are we re-entering the negotiation space we left behind in 2022, or are things still as dire as they were last year?

The answer is more complicated than you may think. It’s really coming down to whom the market is deeming as worthy of heavy comp increases. In 2022, that really meant anyone on the technical side of things. These days, it’s not as universal as it once was. It’s been evident that the tech industry is funneling more and more money and effort into the AI space, so now, the strongest job title to get a great negotiation outcome is Research Scientist. It’s always had the highest bar of pay, but now it’s at a point where just having that job title alone is extremely strong leverage.

That’s not to say that negotiation is impossible without that job title, far from it. In the past year alone, I’ve helped Data Scientists, Product and Project Managers, and Software Engineers get increases in their offers. It just takes more strategic planning and a different way to present your leverage to get those substantial increases. In the following steps, I’ll outline how to set yourself up for success and help get the odds in your favor in your next negotiation in this uncertain market

Step 1 - Don’t talk yourself out of it before it happens

The number one thing I hear from clients of all leveling placements and job titles is “I’m bad at negotiating”. That, in and of itself, is a huge hurdle to overcome in the negotiation process. 

If you go into a conversation where your objective is to advocate for yourself, but there is an inherent doubt within yourself if you’re worthy of advocacy, that fully undermines your argument. Recruiters may not have the technical knowhow regarding the specific work and skill sets you need to be a strong hire, but they can read people very well, and get a good sense of their confidence and general character from brief dialogues. That’s why they are appointed as the gatekeepers for first round interviews - they can do a great job of weeding out folks at a glance.

That’s not to say that the fear isn’t coming from a legitimate source - considering how rare opportunities are these days, it can feel like a massive risk to push for more. The state of the economy has triggered a mindset shift in the general employment market - folks used to think “What value am I bringing to this organization?”, now they’re thinking “I can’t afford to lose this opportunity, so I should be open to whatever they offer me”. And companies are using this mindset shift heavily in their favor.

The most important thing to remember is that successful negotiations are still occurring on a daily basis. Just last month, I saw someone make the transition back into tech after years in the academic space, and of course they were very nervous about their leverage and potential for upside in this negotiation. By having someone there to affirm their value and encourage them to push back, they were able to get a substantial increase in their compensation. 

There is no opportunity without risk, and as scary as it can be to put yourself out there and ask for more, oftentimes folks are willing to work with you if you approach your request from a position of kindness and authenticity. So many times I would be on calls with clients where they had just done their counter offer, and they remarked at how easy and straightforward that conversation had been, and how they had agonized for weeks about what ended up being a 5 minute dialogue that went very well. The biggest enemy in any negotiation is ourselves and our inner saboteur, don’t let that voice tell you that you can’t - because you can!

Step 2 - Make sure to ask the right questions

One of the more challenging aspects of negotiating in today's market is getting a solid understanding of the risk level for any given opportunity. A job posting could pop up that seems secure and optimal, but that same posting could get reprioritized and no longer available in a matter of hours. In my own job search experience, there were countless examples of times where I did well in interviews and expected an offer, when suddenly I’d be told that they were doing a last minute evaluation of all open roles, and the role would no longer be open at this time. 

It may seem impossible to get that internal context without having someone on the inside feeding you that intel, but there are definitely strategies to gain that insight. It partially comes down to the types of questions you ask, and to whom you pose the question. 

In the first round phone screen, make sure you ask how long the role has been open for. This piece of information can really help you get a better understanding of the potential risk for layoff/reprioritization. If a role has been open for a considerable length of time (longer than 2 months), the probability of that role being cut is pretty low. More often than not, the longer the role’s been open for, the more dire of a need it is for the company. It likely has already gone through a few rounds of reprioritization and since it’s survived those, it’s improbable that the role will be impacted in the future.

The other big question to ask in the first interview is the proximity of this role to the profit arm. Unless you’re a salesperson, it can be hard sometimes to know how impactful your team is on the overall gain for the company. Particularly if you’re working on a new product or piece of technology, it’s not often clear how much stake the company has put into that teams specific project. If your job title is recruiter, you know for a fact how far away your team is from the profit arm (in the massive tech layoffs last year, 70% of those impacted were recruiters). A good example is Microsoft - the two teams on the biggest profit arms of Microsoft are Azure and Security, so you know if you’re placed there it’s unlikely you’ll be laid off.

As you continue moving forward in interviews, see if you can get time with team members. I know it can be tough with companies like Google and Meta, where team matching occurs later on in the process, but for most other companies it’s pretty standard to have chats with the hiring manager and team members before hearing a first offer. On those specific conversations, see what context you can glean regarding the overall team culture and morale - you don’t want to commit to a toxic work environment, and those questions can give you some insight before you’ve signed the offer letter. 

Also, while talking to the hiring manager or team members, try to get insight about what problems the team is facing, whether thats a bug in the code that they’re struggling to overcome, limited team finances for the scope of the project, or retaining customers long term - this is going to be key insight for what you’ll be working on day-to-day. This will lay the foundation for you to present your potential impact to the hiring manager after you’ve been given the first offer (see Step 3).

Step 3 - Getting creative with leverage

Another roadblock that is commonly put up by folks is that they don’t feel they have sufficient leverage for this negotiation. That begs the question - what is sufficient leverage? There are a few schools of thought on that, and it’s partially predicated upon the company you’re talking to, as companies like Google will demand for proof of competing opportunities in writing, while most of the other big techs don’t ask for such things.

Some folks feel that the only leverage they need is the data points they’ve found doing online research and heard anecdotally from colleagues. While those data points are valuable, the argument “Based on data points I saw online, I’d be looking for X” is less useful. Most recruiters want to hear what makes your situation unique, and Googling “Comp L6 SWE Bay Area” isn’t very unique to you. Same goes with arguing about cost of living and family expenses - while those are legitimate reasons for needing more pay, recruiters don’t typically agree, as many folks have families and are living in expensive areas. The best thing to do in terms of leverage is to make it specific to you.

This is why most folks will agree that having a competing offer in hand is a great source of leverage. But what if you’re still interviewing with other companies, and don’t have offers yet? Is that still useful? 

In my professional opinion, being in interviews with another company can be even stronger leverage than having an offer in hand. If you don’t have a firm offer from your leverage company, you’re not obligated to share numbers or level placement with the recruiter you intend to negotiate with. 

But without that offer in hand, how can I use that opportunity as leverage? It depends on how willing you are to risk that opportunity and use it to get more compensation elsewhere. For ease of understanding, let’s say you’ve gotten an offer from Meta, and you’re still in the early stages with DoorDash. Meta knows you’re interviewing with DoorDash, but not much else. You could go to your DoorDash recruiter (regardless of how far along you are in that process) and tell them “I got an offer from Meta, based on what they offered me, I’d be looking for a compensation of X base, Y equity, and Z annual bonus”. Those numbers you called out should be well above the offer you got from Meta, that way, you can go back to Meta and say “Well I chatted with DoorDash about a compensation of X base, Y equity, and Z annual bonus”. 

Technically everything you’re telling Meta is accurate - you did discuss those numbers with DoorDash, but it’s not as if DoorDash is committing to offering you that. All we have to tell Meta is “we discussed this compensation”. That should be sufficient enough for Meta to go back and try to increase your offer.

But what if you have no competing opportunities? What if this is the only company you’re interviewing with? Well, you could try to leverage eventual raises or promotions at your current company (if you’re still employed), and in most states in the US, recruiters cannot legally ask you what you’re currently making. That doesn’t mean they won’t still try to ask you, but you can hide behind “I’m not comfortable sharing that as it feels a bit too personal, but based on what I expect to make post promotion/post raise, I’d be looking for a compensation package of X, Y and Z”.

If you’re not currently employed, and you have no other competing opportunities - what are your options? In situations like that, it can seem impossible to be able to successfully negotiate. There is an opportunity for leverage here, one that I’d even encourage folks with other leverage to still pursue due to its high value and ability to increase your internal standing with whichever company you present it to. We call this your 30/60/90 day goal conversation. This is a dialogue you want to be having with the hiring manager, ideally after hearing the first offer. This is because the first offer can give a ton of context about where you stand within the company, including your finalized leveling placement, which you’d want to know before presenting your goals.

The 30/60/90 day goal conversation consists of you writing out your goals for your first 30, 60, and 90 days in this role. You should weave in your knowledge of the issues the team is facing and solutions they’ve attempted to implement in the past (see Step 2), that way your goals are very specific to the teams needs and will further demonstrate to the manager that you know what you’re getting into and you’ll make a huge impact. Make sure to include anecdotes of similar goals you’ve accomplished in the past and how you did it. 

For example, let's say you’re presenting your 30/60/90 day goals to Amazon, and you’ve been at Phillips for the past 3 years in a product manager role. You know the team at Amazon is trying to implement a new tracking tool to see how customers are feeling about the product after purchase, and you designed a similar tool at Phillips. Include verbiage like “based on the tool I built at Phillips that helped 50k customers report their feedback, I’d implement a similar tool here at Amazon to get that data”.

By presenting your 30/60/90 day goals to your manager, you’re indicating the level of impact you’ll have in this role, and further solidifying that you’re the best person for this role. Particularly if you’re lower to mid level, this isn’t something that’s usually done by other candidates, and signals a high level of seniority and motivation. When the manager is inevitably shown your counter offer for approvals (see step 4), it will be significantly easier for them to understand the value that you’re bringing to the company and why you’re deserving of higher compensation.

Step 4 - Who to negotiate with

Once the impact conversation is coming to a natural conclusion, this will be a great opportunity for you to pivot into compensation. Wait until the last 5 minutes or so, then you can transition by saying “thank you so much for helping me finalize these goals, really excited to dive in here! Based on the impact of this role, a compensation that would make sense for me is X, Y and Z”. 

You’ve just asked the manager for your compensation based on the 30/60/90 day goal document you put together, what if the manager responds with “this isn’t my job, go talk to the recruiter about it”? It happens more often than you may expect, usually managers feel it’s outside their purview to negotiate compensation with you. But if we are so confident that’s how the manager will respond, why bother doing the comp request during the impact dialogue?

Ultimately, the person who has the most influence over your future compensation that you have direct access to is the hiring manager. While the recruiter may be the person that is expected to discuss the offer with you, every counter offer you make will be taken by the recruiter straight to the HM to get their approvals before going to the compensation committee to finalize. 

So while it may seem like a fool's errand to ask the manager about compensation, it will not only prepare them for that impending counter offer, but also connect the dots that you’re leveraging your value add here. That signals a huge amount of excitement for the company, and that you want to get your hands dirty right away (won’t have onboarding syndrome and wait 3 months before diving in).

After making that compensation ask, and being told by the manager to go talk to the recruiter, best to follow that advice and set up time to chat with them. Now this is presupposing that the recruiter is an internal one for the company, but the more senior you become, the more probable it is that you’re working with an Executive Recruiter. These individuals are top-tier headhunters who are motivated with regards to the commission they’ll receive by placing you in a quality role. Contrast this with internal recruiters, who are motivated through their metrics to get you to sign an offer with their company, particularly if you have another opportunity with a competitor.

This is fundamentally why using external competing opportunities with internal recruiters is so effective. Telling Meta that you have an offer from TikTok is a great way to light a fire under them and get you that great compensation. Leveraging your potential impact with the internal recruiter won’t be as effective as it is with the manager, so following the leverage tips laid out in Step 3 would be the best practice with those individuals.

But if you’re talking to an Executive Recruiter, can you negotiate with them directly? Absolutely, but just because they’re outside of the company doesn’t mean you can fully avoid playing the negotiation game. Any compensation that you request through them must have an appropriate justification, and be aware that any information you share with them could inevitably be relayed to the company (particularly around compensation expectations). They may also be far more demanding to get a compensation range from you early, as they want to find opportunities that you’ll realistically accept.

The best way to utilize the Executive Recruiter while keeping yourself in a position of strength with regards to the negotiation is to share that: “based on what I’ve discussed with other companies about compensation, a yearly comp that I’d be excited to accept would be X, all in with equity and bonuses”. That way, you lay the foundation that you will be leveraging other opportunities after an initial offer is given.

If you’re at a senior level or above, and are struggling to find opportunities to apply to, definitely consider reaching out to an Executive Recruiter. Many jobs at a high level never get posted on career websites, as lots of these companies would prefer to utilize outside headhunters to get quality candidates. Like Contract Recruiters at the lower level, a good Executive Recruiter can get you into unique opportunities and take the lead on the job search for you.

Step 5 - What’s negotiable

If you’re nervous to negotiate, and are a high level individual, it’s not just money that you’ll be leaving on the table if you don’t speak up. Even if you’re a lower level individual, everyone who is getting a job offer from a company should inquire about that company's severance policy before signing the offer letter. 

You may be thinking - how can I ask about that before I’ve even started working there? Won’t that come across as me not having faith in this organization? Considering the recent events of the past 2 years, not inquiring about a severance package could really hurt you in the long run, as many folks directly experienced last year. Often times, once you’ve been laid off and are trying to negotiate severance, it’s much harder to do so without an internal contact at the company, and if you’re going up against a MANGA org, it’s even harder to get any change in the package since they like to standardize it as much as they can.

So if you’re able to bring it up early, after the offer’s been extended but before you’ve accepted, it can create a space where you get more context at the minimum, and at the maximum potentially protect yourself and your family from a tough experience in the future. The best way to make this inquiry with the company is to be more general. If you’ve had a layoff affect you in the past, that can strengthen this ask further. 

By asking about the policy instead of making a demand of X amount of compensation to be paid out, it opens the door to a dialogue where you can gain context on how negotiable or standardized these packages are.

If you’re talking to a big company, it’s less likely they’ll be able to customize the severance package very heavily, but if you’re looking at a smaller startup, it’s considerably more flexible. Oftentimes if you’re an early higher at a company, they may not have even thought through their severance policy yet, so it’s good to call it out early and flag to them that it’s something you’d like context on.

Depending on if the company is public or private, you could not only push for a different dollar amount to be given to you post-layoff, but also ask for expedited equity vesting or a vesting triggering of stock options. This can be advantageous if you anticipate the company to go IPO within a specific time frame, or if you need to build up cash before purchasing your options in bulk. Talk to your recruiter and see what can be possible, as you could potentially double or even triple your total cash gained from the severance with these negotiables.

The severance package isn’t the only thing that can be negotiable with regards to benefits, but we do see a direct correlation with level of seniority and flexibility with these bonus negotiables. If it’s a smaller company, again there’s a chance those benefits could be more malleable, but they’re level of incentive to adjust will be related to how big of an impact you’ll have on their company, and that is tied to seniority.

For example, I’ve seen clients before who were L7 or above with offers at companies where they were expected to travel 75% of the time. The client in that case was encouraged to ask for first class accommodations while making those trips, and the company was willing to accommodate. Again - it helps if you’re talking to other companies about similar benefits, as we know how internal recruiters are motivated (see step 4).

PTO is another thing that you can definitely bring up, but there is more potential for movement at smaller companies than larger. I’ve seen L7 and above individuals try to push for longer PTO at Amazon and get denied, so don’t die on that hill if you can avoid it. But if you’re looking at a midsize or early startup, there’s a decent chance you could get some traction there. Same goes with health insurance benefits, when I was hired at a startup they were unable to offer benefits, but I was able to get them to give me a stipend to cover my benefits added to my offer. Goes to show that you should ask and see what’s possible.

Step 6 - What happens if the offer is rescinded?

This is the question I’m confident most folks are asking at this point in the article. It can seem almost short sighted to make recommendations about negotiating without flagging the potential of an offer being pulled, especially with where the market is today. From 2021 to 2022, in the 150 negotiations I oversaw during that time, I had 0 clients get offers rescinded. But things took a turn once layoffs began hitting.

We saw the market do a 180 from companies eagerly hiring the best and brightest to having a massive influx of employees desperately vying to get any offer they could. All of the power shifted from the employee to the employer. While of course much internal tribulations were going on at the time, these companies noticed this trend within their hiring dialogues and doubled down on it. When so much fear is instilled in the general employee market, it really becomes a company's dream.

Amazon flipped from paying whatever it took to get top talent to denying requests for slight comp changes from L7 individuals and above. I did see more companies outright declining requests for compensation adjustments more than ever before, but I still wasn’t seeing a ton of offers getting pulled, at least not at MANGA orgs. 

We’d see opportunities get removed as roles would get reprioritized, but we knew that if an offer rescind was to occur because of a compensation request, that decision was likely made by the hiring manager. We also knew that it costs the average company anywhere from 10k - 30k to get a candidate moved through the process to the final round and get an offer extended, so it wasn’t in their best interest to rescind offers based on compensation requests. The only time a company seemed to be very motivated to pull offers was if the candidate revealed something about themselves that could be a liability, like saying something offensive, or asking for a massive amount of compensation that could never be accomplished (think asking for 2 million dollars yearly comp for an L5 SWE Meta role). 

But that was presupposing that these companies were playing by the rules that they had set before. I started seeing a trend of companies begin the “reprioritization” process coincidentally right after a counter offer was given. In my own job search in 2023, I had an opportunity with a small recruiting firm for a remote role. I had done a few rounds of interviews, and just met with the CEO. He assured me I was a perfect fit for the role, and gave me a verbal offer. I told him the compensation I was looking for, and asked about severance. He let me know he would see what could be possible and get back to me with the written offer soon.

The next day, I received an automatic decline from the recruiter. I was shocked - I’d never had an offer get pulled so suddenly over such a minor request. But this was a blessing in disguise - after looking into the company further, I saw alarming reports of rampant toxicity amongst higher ups, and even accusations of misogyny and racism. Now of course, not every company that pulls an offer is automatically the worst workplace in the world, but it can send a signal that this company doesn’t value its employees and isn’t interested in supporting someone who advocates for themselves.

While it seems like it’s impossible to know when to expect a rescinded offer, there are a few ways to protect yourself here, and warning signs to look out for. First - wait until the offer has been given to you before you attempt to negotiate it. The company will be less likely to send you an auto-decline when you have an offer in hand. Second, do your research about the company culture beforehand. See if you can learn of anecdotes of other folks negotiating there in the past 6 months - this is very important as any anecdotes from longer than that are likely stale and no longer accurate.

If you’re concerned an offer might get pulled or you want to do your best to avoid it, feel free to reach out.

With regards to warning signs, make sure you have a clear understanding of who you’d be directly reporting to, and work hard to build that relationship. If you’re getting signals that the hiring manager isn’t interested in you or seems cold, that’s something to look out for. Try the impact dialogue with them to help increase your internal standing at the company. If that doesn’t work, it may not be a good fit. And recruiters tend to be pretty upfront if they’re unhappy with a compensation request, they may warn you in advance.

Another helpful turn of phrase to throw out if the offer is threatening to be pulled is “I’m confident we can work together to find a number that works for both of us”. Don’t feel the need to die on a hill for compensation, make 2 - 3 counters but be aware that the more counters you do, the higher the risk is of irritating the hiring team and potentially causing the offer to be pulled.  

If you are told your offer has been rescinded by the recruiter, but haven’t talked to the hiring manager in a bit, try reaching out directly to them and emphasizing your excitement for the role and confidence that a solution that works for all parties can be achieved. Be sure to respectfully step back if the decision to rescind still stands - you don’t want to burn a bridge long term.

I would still say the probability of an offer getting pulled is relatively low, but not as low as it once was. Before the economic downturn, it was about a 2% chance for the inexperienced negotiator, but now I’d say it’s much higher. Be careful in how you negotiate, and always tie back to how interesting and exciting the opportunity is for you.

Step 7 - Negotiating internally

We’ve discussed primarily how to negotiate in a post-2023 market for folks looking at new opportunities, but what about internal promotions and raises? Are those still negotiable? While I’d definitely encourage folks to advocate for themselves at all performance reviews and raise cycles, it’s much more of an uphill battle than pushing for comp at an external company.

There’s a few reasons for this, the biggest one being that you have the most ability to move on compensation before you’ve accepted the offer. Usually on any given tech industry offer, there’s a range of yearly compensation that can vary by upwards of $50k - $100k depending upon how well you negotiate. But once you’re locked in at a company, whatever compensation you accept is what all future raises and promotions will be based upon. Even if you left behind $100k of annual compensation on the table in the offer acceptance, it’s extremely hard to then get that money. 

All raises, annual bonuses, and promotions are usually very standardized with the percentages they will offer. Obviously a bit portion of it is dependent upon performance, but depending upon the company, even if you go above and beyond that doesn’t always guarantee a massive bonus. Look at Microsoft - they advertise the potential to earn even higher annual bonuses above the cap listed on the offer letter if you perform well enough, but what they don’t tell you is that all annual bonuses come out of a budget allocated per team. If one person on your team does an exceptional job, it’s unlikely they’ll get a dramatically higher bonus because if they do, there’s a large chance someone else won’t get one at all, or will get a reduced amount.

The same goes with raises - usually the budget is very firmly set, and it’s challenging to get an amount above the standard percentage. Doing that 30/60/90 day goal conversation every raise cycle and performance evaluation is a great way to increase your odds of getting a higher end raise, but it’s even better for trying to get promoted, which of course is the best way to earn more internally.

Raises can be tough too, because if you’re close to the top of the salary band for your level, sometimes they won’t increase your compensation again until you get promoted. It’s a very common reason why folks will leave companies after a long tenure, simply because they’ve hit a ceiling that they can’t get past with regards to their pay. 

If you have the opportunity for potential promotion, you want to make sure you’re taking the appropriate prep steps before you go into your conversation with your manager. Lets say you have a promotion cycle coming up in around 6 months - first step that should be taken there is setting up an informational interview with someone at the level that you want to be promoted into. Get context from them on what issues their team is facing, what high level projects they’re working on, and if there’s anything that you can do to assist (maybe in a lower impact capacity) so you can get your feet wet in that role. 

As you work on that project for that higher level role, track the impact it’s having on that team. Make sure you note all the learnings you gained, and we’ll weave all of this information into our 30/60/90 day goal presentation for this promotion. Begin by mentioning the work you’ve done up till this point for the team, this will demonstrate to your manager that you’re already doing work of that level. This makes advocating for your promotion significantly easier on the manager's part, as you’ve already proved yourself to have taken initiative and are eager to learn.

But what if you’ve not got a promotion cycle on the horizon anytime soon? Is it still possible to push for a promotion, even out of the usual timeframe? The answer is absolutely yes, but it does require the same steps outlined above of beginning to take on work of the promotion role, that way you can easily demo to your manager that you’re ready for this advancement. As long as you do that, and present your 30/60/90 day goals to your manager in a one on one, there’s a decent likelihood that your manager would expedite the promotion process.

Remember - you know your manager well, and understand the ins and outs of that relationship more than anyone else that can give you advice. Make sure to hear your manager out and don’t risk alienating the relationship by pushing too hard. While there are select scenarios when you can leverage external opportunities to get a promotion, be aware that once you mention you’re getting offers outside your company, there is a strong likelihood your manager may just say “well best of luck with that new opportunity” and won’t bother pushing your request up the pipeline. 

And be aware too that if you have a massive deficit in your compensation compared to your colleagues (don’t be afraid to ask folks in your company what they make, sharing that info is highly beneficial to both parties, just don’t do it in front of your manager/HR) there is potential that your company could be persuaded to do a “Dive and Save”. That’s when the compensation committee will take another look at your current compensation compared to other folks in your same role and determine if an adjustment needs to be made. Make sure to have lots of evidence of a discrepancy in pay, and use your 30/60/90 day conversation to help justify the need for a bump.

Final Thoughts

Putting yourself out there and advocating for your needs is a risk. But our main goal here is to evaluate the probability of negative outcomes, and ways to avoid them. While you may hear horror stories on social media of what negotiation is like today, be aware that many of those posts go viral simply because of the drastic nature of their story. Usually the stories that go viral are either extremely negative or extremely positive, and don’t often reflect the actuality of the general masses experience, so don’t let yourself get too discouraged by the online rhetoric. There is still definitely ways to negotiate today that can keep you and the opportunity protected, and get increases in compensation and benefits. 

If you can walk away from this article with one nugget of insight, it’s that we are our own worst enemies in the negotiation space. If you tell yourself “I’m bad at negotiation, I can’t advocate for myself, I don’t do money conversations well”, then you’re setting yourself up to fail. If you can look at it from the perspective of “the work I do is valuable, and deserves a rate that is appropriate for that value”, it’ll be much easier to take this step of negotiation. But remember - you’re not in this alone, and if you ever need coaching or someone to talk with during this process, that’s what folks like myself are here for!

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