If you want to learn something it is best to learn it from someone who has been there are done that with flying colors.This is written by a person who got interviewed by six companies in six days and got six job offers. He managed to increase his initial offers by almost 33%. That's a huge lot. Imagine getting extra 33 cents for each dollar you make because you did few things right somewhere in the past. This is a nice little jackpot like that. This person only had about 2+ years of experience. So it'snot some veteran in the tech industry.
Your mileage may vary. I’m obviously not stating that everything I went through is easily reproduced. I am using it as a backdrop to color some advice that I think anyone totally new to this to keep in mind.
You have offers, plural. This can be two or this can be ten, but you need to have more than one offer concurrently. I’ve negotiated on behalf of (many) friends in the past with no leverage, but I’m not going to focus on that scenario.
You’re not afraid to negotiate. The night before my Google interview I spoke with another candidate in my hotel. His strategy was to low-ball himself to increase his chances of getting an offer. That’s not the path that I took, it’s not a path I’d advocate, and it’s not one I’m going to even entertain. You should always be willing to see what you can get.
You won’t practice the Dark Arts of Negotiation™. I’m pretty sure you can negotiate by lying your way through the process. From a moral perspective, though, c’mon. From a practical perspective, getting caught in a lie is not going to help you.
You won’t renege on an offer. Could I have squeezed a bit more out of the eventual offer I signed if I had? Maybe. But I’m not comfortable accepting an offer and later rejecting it. I’m sure other candidates do it and I don’t think it gets you banned from the Valley. It’s just not something I wanted to do.
You’re willing to work at any of the companies if the price is right. I definitely had a personal ranking of which companies I’d prefer over each other, but each company had a chance. No one was just there to beef up offers.
I’m going to both anonymize the companies I negotiated with and fuzz their numbers. My goal is not to answer “how much does MegaCorp offer if you have competing offers.” My goal is to answer “how do I respectfully ask for a larger comp package?” for people that don’t know where to start. The total compensation for each offer is accurate (within 5%).
You’re starting at square one. I give my personal experience in this article and some examples of conversations I’ve had when negotiating. I don’t draw on decades of experience with very in-depth detail. I link some pieces at the end that are more suited towards that type of read.
Wish You Best of Luck!
