

Ask HN: Salary Negotiation Advice - questionmob

Situation: You are working in your first engineer job at a startup, but you are young so you made the mistake of working for cheap on what was supposed to be a 3-week trial contract, but inevitably lasted a little longer. No big deal, the venture is funded the boss wants to put you on salary now. He's already asking you to name a number and for various reasons it feels really wrong to stick it to him and say "no, you name a number and I'll let you know."
What do you do?
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chrisbennet
Something to consider: For an employer, hiring is a risky business. You are
now a _known_ quantity so you should feel comfortable asking for a higher
salary than someone of off the street with "equivalent experience" IMO.

As you may have discovered, instead of just appreciating the work you did for
cheap money, they will be somewhat taken aback when asked to pay market rate.
It's a human thing I think.

("I'm not going to pay Dr Heary Surgeon $500 hr! I didn't pay little Bobby
Surgeon anywhere near that when he was mowing my lawn as a boy! I gave him his
first job fer c __*t sakes!")

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czbond
Depending on where you live, you're in a strong position and he's surprisingly
in a weak position.

This is your career, and your salary. He won't think about this moment 2
minutes after you agree. Use AngelList to find similar offers. Then decide on
the very high end of what you want - say that's $55k (picking a number). Say
"I'm worth $55k and can bring much more in value to you. I'll first do these
three things to make you more money. ...."

<https://angel.co/salaries>

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PankajGhosh
I have read below article many times and recommend this to everyone I know on
this topic.

Hope it helps you: <http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/>

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hacknat
tl;dr So many variables it is impossible to give you good advice without a lot
more information (some of which is probably sensitive). Anybody who pretends
otherwise is lying.

The generic advice you get will be stuff you've probably heard already or
common sense.

Best generic advice: Imagine you are in your employers position, and figure
out what the best possible outcome you can get is by giving him/her one or two
concerns at most.

