I did negotiate for my first developer role at a startup. I felt really nervous about it. They said they couldn’t budge on salary (in retrospect that wasn’t true) so I asked for more stock options, which they were happy to adjust. I ended up losing money on those stocks after the company was bought by Google, who paid out the stocks at a price less than I paid for them. So ultimately I guess I negotiated myself out of money, but it was a great learning experience.
I do think it’s smart to have a rule of always making a counter-offer even if you feel like it doesn’t make sense to. I suggest developers choose their first job optimizing for learning opportunities if possible, but then still negotiate when you get an offer.
Here’s a little mind trick I play on myself to get me to remember to negotiate.
Me to myself: It’s an unwritten rule that the employer expects you to negotiate. They have a little bit more budget they’ve left out of your offer because they expect you to ask for it. If you don’t make a counter-offer, you’re not fulfilling their expectations and they will think you don’t value yourself enough.
It’s kind of twisted, but I’m a people-pleaser, so I have to convince myself that I need to make a counter-offer in order to fulfill their expectations. Otherwise I would never negotiate.
Also I try to be creative with what is open to negotiation. If they can’t offer a higher salary, maybe more stock options, vacation days, remote work flexibility, or a signing bonus? Often salary is less flexible, but accounting is complicated, and not everything that matters to you shows up on a company’s bottom line. Employers that are inflexible with salary can still be open to non-salary benefits.
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I did negotiate for my first developer role at a startup. I felt really nervous about it. They said they couldn’t budge on salary (in retrospect that wasn’t true) so I asked for more stock options, which they were happy to adjust. I ended up losing money on those stocks after the company was bought by Google, who paid out the stocks at a price less than I paid for them. So ultimately I guess I negotiated myself out of money, but it was a great learning experience.
I do think it’s smart to have a rule of always making a counter-offer even if you feel like it doesn’t make sense to. I suggest developers choose their first job optimizing for learning opportunities if possible, but then still negotiate when you get an offer.
Here’s a little mind trick I play on myself to get me to remember to negotiate.
Me to myself: It’s an unwritten rule that the employer expects you to negotiate. They have a little bit more budget they’ve left out of your offer because they expect you to ask for it. If you don’t make a counter-offer, you’re not fulfilling their expectations and they will think you don’t value yourself enough.
It’s kind of twisted, but I’m a people-pleaser, so I have to convince myself that I need to make a counter-offer in order to fulfill their expectations. Otherwise I would never negotiate.
Also I try to be creative with what is open to negotiation. If they can’t offer a higher salary, maybe more stock options, vacation days, remote work flexibility, or a signing bonus? Often salary is less flexible, but accounting is complicated, and not everything that matters to you shows up on a company’s bottom line. Employers that are inflexible with salary can still be open to non-salary benefits.