How to ask for a signing bonus
Hello! I recently received an offer letter for a senior software engineer role. It seems pretty good. When asked for a range, I gave $215 to 305k. They came back with somewhere around the midpoint. Also, the equity is very generous for a Series A startup... it seems like a good faith offer.
I'm expecting two other offers next week and have a work trial in another interview pipeline for a director-level role. Should I attempt to negotiate a signing bonus to take the offer without waiting for my other options to come through?
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(2 comments)- 018 days agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
Whether to wait or not depends on:
- How much do you like the other opportunities?
- How likely are you to receive an offer from the other companies?
- Are the other offers you'll receive also Series A startups? If they're much different (e.g. a Big Tech offer) you'll have a hard time using them for leverage.
If you like the founding team and are happy with the existing offer, you could take it. The tactic I recommend is called Closing The Deal to get a substantial increase in your signing bonus. Something like this:
I'm expecting a few other offers over the next 2 weeks, but I've loved meeting the team and am eager to commit. I'm willing to sign the offer today if you can add a signing bonus of $15,000.
This would make the offer compelling for me so I can commit to [COMPANY] for the next phase of my career.
I'd only do this if the answer to the above 3 questions is very decisive. You want to avoid the situation where you get an outlier offer from somewhere else and now you regret your decision. If the pending offer you have isn't going to expire, I'd just wait.
- 118 days agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
When asked for a range, I gave $215 to 305k. They came back with somewhere around the midpoint
Wow, so around $260K base salary for a Series A company!? Maybe I'm out of touch with the market, but that feels very high 💸💸 nice job!
For context, my salary as a Staff Eng at Meta was a bit more than $230K in 2022. I'd expect that the cash comp for a Series A co would be lower than FAANG.
