

Ask HN: How do you best leverage job enquiries and keep your current job? - Adalric

I get about 2 to 3 job enquiries a week from both recruiters and actual hiring managers. These positions are always step-up positions with salaries 20-30k higher than what I make right now. The &quot;problem&quot; is that I absolutely love my current company and have no plans to leave them.<p>I&#x27;m wondering if there&#x27;s some way I can leverage these enquiries to potentially bring my salary up a bit? I&#x27;m sitting in the 40th percentile right now for my job in my area. Thanks!
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byoung2
First, if you are at the 40th percentile for pay (and you are not a 40th
percentile worker), even without the other potential job offers, you should
have a conversation about increasing your salary. Have you gotten any raises
or promotions? If not, or even if you have, you have a case to ask for more.
Most companies like to stay in the 3-5% range for typical raises, but if you
are under market but are a great employee they want to keep, they can usually
go higher, maybe 10%.

If you are a little more cutthroat, and have an appetite for risk, you can try
the following technique. I have personally used this technique to get raises
as high as 21% and 27% from an existing employer. It involves applying for one
of these jobs and getting an offer letter in hand, taking that to your current
employer and having them match or beat it. You have to be prepared to walk
away from your current company if this goes wrong, and you can only do it once
at that company. Compared to the more civil way described earlier (which will
max out at 10%), this way can get you 20-30%. The risk is that your current
employer will refuse to play ball and call your bluff about wanting to leave.
Or they may give you the money and try to get rid of you later. If this
happens, you will at least have a higher salary to start negotiations when you
start searching again.

The first time I tried this back when I was a PHP developer making $55k back
in 2009. I got a raise to $58k, but I thought I deserved more. I got a job
offer for $65k and took it to my employer who matched, but the new job was 20
miles closer to home and had half day Fridays, so I thought my current
employer needed to beat the offer. I told the new job I was conflicted, and
they increased their offer to $70k, which I accepted. You have to be willing
to walk away if you play the counteroffer game.

~~~
Rainymood
>You have to be willing to walk away if you play the counteroffer game.

This is great advice. Not just for salary negotations. This advice also holds
for relationships. You ALWAYS have the option to simply walk away. Why stay in
a toxic relationship when you can just ... walk away?

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liquidcool
As a manager, I want people to be happy with their compensation. But an
inquiry is not an offer, and furthermore it's for a job you're not interested
in. To get leverage, as byoung2 writes, you need an offer from a job you'd
actually take (your BATNA). Or you need to be able to quantify your value to
the company. That is a skill that pays off.

I recommend patio11's negotiation guide:
[http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-
negotiation/](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/)

Also, the book _Getting To Yes_ , which will be at your local library. It's
all about win/win negotiation.

Finally, don't forget to do a holistic compensation comparison, unless you're
a non-benefited contractor. People frequently forget that average hours per
week, one of the biggest differentiators, will not be in your offer letter
(unless it talks of paid overtime).

