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Negotiation - done via phone call or email? Modes and stating a number?

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Senior Software Engineer at Taro Community3 months ago

These are questions for Rahul since he put together a great negotiation course that I completed the other day.

I recently skimmed the Design Guru's course on negotiation, and two questions came up

  1. How/when do you negotiate? - Live on a phone call/in-person right after the interview, after the interview via email or via phone? What is the most ideal? Design Gurus said email is the best mode.
  2. What do you do if they explicitly ask you what your salary # amount is? - They actually asked via email (hiring manager at Meta) before my phone screen what companies I was interviewing at (to name them). Is there a script to be able to not disclose this?
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Discussion

(5 comments)
  • 3
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    Staff Eng @ Google, Ex-Meta SWE, Ex-Amazon SDM/SDE
    3 months ago

    My experience is that your point of contact has absolutely no ability to make a decision independently when negotiating. They have been trained in the art of candidate jiu jitsu, trying to use leverage against you to get a number. When they do tell you a number, they can’t change it themselves. You can make a counter, you can ask for at least TC of X, etc. You can say “nope, just higher” they will have a hard time. They know the first number is (possibly) below your minimum, or you’re bluffing. When you do give a counter offer or whatever, they just go to some unknowable entity and come back with a new offer. Doing this by phone gives you no advantage. They don’t have to make any decisions or have any pressure at all. At least by email you can craft a response, get feedback, etc.

  • 2
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    Thoughtful Tarodactyl
    Taro Community
    3 months ago

    Best to negotiate once you have a written/verbal offer. Typically you want to avoid giving a number.

    Before Interview

    Dodge the question "I'm more interested in understanding if this role is a fit for me. I'd like to first understand the role more before coming up with a number". They will typically give you a range based on JD and say ok just so you know this is the alotted range. I typically just say yes here. This is also typically base which has less room for negotiation

    After Interview

    I would definitely do it by email. If they put you on the phone and ask for a number pass it back and ask for a range. If they press you for an amount give a lower bound for alignment. Never give an upper bound. I would not initiate negotiation until they roll out some form of verbal/written offer

    Never disclose what companies you are interviewing for. Just say I have no details regarding deadlines to share at the moment

  • 1
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    Tech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course Hero
    3 months ago

    How/when do you negotiate?

    Definitely do email instead of phone. Negotiation is a game of information warfare, and you reveal less information via email. When you're on the phone, they can hear the tone of your voice, how you respond to things, etc. Even with audio-only, body language cues can shine through. In terms of when, play it reactively (i.e. when they give an initial number or ask you for one).

    What do you do if they explicitly ask you what your salary # amount is?

    Rahul's course covers this in-depth: https://www.jointaro.com/course/the-insiders-guide-to-negotiating-your-tech-salary-and-compensation/what-if-i-have-to-give-a-number/

    In terms of revealing other companies, you can reveal it vaguely if you have leverage - In Meta's case, you would need other Big Tech companies or top startups. If you do have open loops at those companies, you can just mention that you're interviewing with other prestigious Big Tech companies (this makes Meta afraid that they'll lose you to a competitor).

  • 1
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    Tech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    3 months ago
    1. To be clear, you should negotiate after the offer ("Negotiation Starts Now"), which is different from after the interview. Talking about numbers immediately after the interview is premature.
      1. Prefer email over phone calls, since the information asymmetry between you and the recruiter will put you at a disadvantage during phone calls. It's hard to avoid phone calls, but best to keep them brief and just say "Let me think about this and I'll get back to you over email."
    2. Asking for your prior compensation is actually illegal in most states 😅 Don't Give A Number First. If the question is over email, you can simply leave that question blank or put $0 and move on.

    I'm curious where do you live?

    • 2
      Profile picture
      Senior Software Engineer [OP]
      Taro Community
      3 months ago

      Silicon Valley. And yes, it was with Meta, and the recruiter on initial on the phone screen (internal) gave the starting salary number in the VERY beginning of the phone call before even doing in the interview and asked "is this ok?" I knew this was HELLA shady.

      I did that interview months ago (before watching this course), once I watched it it reconfirmed HOW shady it was, since most negotiation I do is AFTER an interview and AFTER an offer is given, and oh ya, all of that was BY PHONE not email which also really bothered me A LOT.

      Thanks for this tips, it reconfirms that ideally in negotiation, it should be done at offer stage (of course) and via email (ideally) - which to me is like (duh), but this is why I hated my Meta interview so much because a lot of stuff threw me off and made zero sense (including asking systems design questions in the initial phone screen and giving me like 5 minutes to talk it through...ya seriously that happened. X_X.