Negotiation Q&A and Videos

I'm a Senior 2 Engineer who received 'Exceeding Expectations' followed by 'Defining New Standards' in my last two review cycles, demonstrating consistent Staff-level performance. About a month ago, I initiated compensation discussions with my manager, who has escalated this to the CTO. Today, I learned through informal channels about another team member's who got promoted to Senior 2 compensation being higher than mine. How do you professionally handle compensation discussions when you've discovered pay discrepancies through informal channels? Is it appropriate to bring this up with management? I wonder what to do because the conversation about a raise started about a month ago before I knew about my other colleague new salary. What's the best way to balance showing I'm serious about needing an adjustment without overplaying my hand, given I don't have another offer yet? For those who've been in management: how do you prefer engineers approach these conversations, especially when they've already expressed they might leave if compensation isn't adjusted?

In this blog () Rahul mentioned that he got a 125k sign on bonus on intern conversion Curious if meta is still offering such a high sign on bonus. And was/is it just meta or was/is this common with all FAANG?

I have had 3rd party recruiters reach out to me to hire me to work at FAANGMULA level/publicly traded company (a little bit on the older side) for a senior ML research engineer role (W2 and they listed an hourly). The pay is very low, but permanent, should I take it even if it feels like I'm being downleveled after a career break? I feel like I would have applied to the company directly FTE with more benefits (stocks, health, dental vision), and non-contract role at a higher level? My career break was 1.5 years after leaving my last startup which I left for health reasons. Also, this isn't my top choice and wasn't in my tier 1, 2, or 3 companies (never listed them, but they've been a company around Silicon Valley for years).

Hello, One of the developers is leaving my team and the company is planning to handover her work to me in addition to what I have been doing currently. Although I can do that, I also want them to increase my pay. How can I ask for this?

I took the and found it very helpful. Especially the part where we should create a company list, rank them, and then start applying based on tier. It turns job-hunting into a probability and numbers game and it removes a lot of stress However, what do you do when you get an offer from a company that isn't high on your list, so you can't accept the offer because you still want to apply to companies higher on the list? Throughout the interview you have tried to convince them that you are excited for the position, so now how do you tell them you can't take the offer, without burning the bridge or getting blacklisted? How do you also not feel guilty rejecting the offer when you know you are not as serious about the position as the hiring end?

Hello,
I'm speaking to a recruiter at PayPal and expecting to have the compensation discussion with them. I would like to know from folks at Paypal at Taro what is a reasonable range regarding compensation numbers at this level.

tells me there is a high sample point of TC at $473K with the average being $335K . I couldn't find the median, which would have helped as a more representative approximation. Please share any insights you might have.

Thanks!

I got a LinkedIn add request today asking me to join a very small team working at an AI startup for a founding engineer role. I wasn’t sure if the range was correct. How much should I look at as I’ve founded a company before?

I joined my company 1.5 years ago. When my recruiter asked for my salary expectations, I feel like I lowballed myself. I wanna talk to my manager and ask for a salary increase. What's the best way of talking to manager? What should I ask? How should I frame it smoothly? How to negotiate if the manager postpones or doesn't agree? At what cadence can I ask my manager again? Does the approach vary between FAANG companies, other big tech companies, and startups? Does the timing matter? Should I wait for performance reviews and ask my manager only if I get a good performance rating? Or should I ask after successfully launching some project? Or can I ask during any 1-1? Do I need to interview and get an offer from another company before asking my manager? If I negotiate showing another offer, will my manager think bad about me? When asking for a raise, should I aks for an explicit salary figure, or should I ask for a raise without citing any explicit value?

If my manager actually agrees for a raise, what percentage increase is it okay to ask for? When my performance rating is good, will my company automatically increase my salary or do they increase only when I explicitly ask for it?

Situation I was recently applying for jobs at health AI startups after being let go from my previous role. Fortunately, I received three offers: Company A (Series A startup) – Gave me an exploding offer with a three-day deadline after extending the formal offer. They mentioned that since they had given me a verbal indication a week prior, I should have had enough time to decide. Company B (Series B startup) – Offered a reasonable compensation package and gave me a more standard timeline. Company C (Seed-stage startup, my top choice) – Initially made a very low offer, but it was the company I was most interested in. I counteroffered Company C but didn’t receive their response until 10 minutes before Company A’s deadline. By that point, out of fear and pressure, I declined Company A and accepted Company B. Immediately after doing so, Company C sent a much stronger counteroffer—one I would have taken had I known about it earlier. Now, I’ve been feeling regretful, both about how I managed the timeline and the fact that I couldn’t accept the offer I truly wanted. All things considered, all three roles are decent companies with decent roles and with roughly similar comp (in the end). What I’m Hoping to Learn How could I have handled this situation better to reduce stress and ensure I picked the company I truly wanted? How damaging is it to renege on a verbal acceptance of an offer? I hesitated because all three companies are in the health AI space, which I assume is a relatively small and interconnected community. I’d really appreciate any insights or advice from those who have navigated similar situations!

Today is my first day at a new role. I am very optimistic about this role. At the same time, some of the places that I applied are only now following up. One role in particular has the potential for a 100k+ TC increase, or over 30%. This is meaningful to me. What mental checks should I do before accepting the interview? If I interview and receive an offer, would it be best to accept it and leave or bring this up to my current employer and seek a raise? Would that set a sour tone?

Hi there! I have a pretty lengthy story to describe the value I'm bringing in my current situation. I will have a part 2 of this in the comments.

Last November, I started a 6 month contract software engineer job. The role was supposed to be for a junior developer, and entail database and cloud work. I was placed in the most profitable subdivision of the most profitable organization in the business. Honestly, I ended up doing more than what was just in the résumé. I did backend work, coding for the cloud, DevOps, incorporated some front end work early in my time there, and am currently playing systems admin while our systems admin is out. Another way I show worth by continually inventing automation scripts to save hours of labor and eliminate chance of human error. Which is something software engineers are supposed to do anyway, but the way I go about it in this firm - if I see something time consuming that culd be automated, and I invent a solution right off the bat. It’s not like they have to tell me to do something, or how to do it. I just dig in myself. Thanks to that Taro course on onboarding, I remembered to make an onboarding guide, and helped multiple new technologists adjust to working there. Recently, I went to an API convention about API security on my day off, which is something they’re interested in advancing their codebase in and integrating into future architectures.

I was told by my manager “I am happy and proud of all the work you’ve done and continue to do.” Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with his manager as I’ve taken the system admin duties. His manager always compliments the way I approach problem solving. When I’ve asked for feedback, that manager said I “exceeded all expectations of my contract”. Honestly, I LOVE working there. The people are great, and I learn every day. I want to continue my career there for as long as I can, with the best people, best learning, and best culture in the company.

My manager’s manager and I had a conversation a few days ago. They want to convert me to full time in a couple of months. Nothing’s written yet, but it looks like they really, REALLY want to write the official offer letter. He put in a number to HR as a recommendation for what I should be offered. Next, I have to give them a number of what I would like. This number is for HR to run a calculation of a salary they can give me.