Salary Negotiation

---
name: salary-negotiation
description: Negotiate offers with market data, competing leverage, whole-package thinking, and a clear stopping point. Use when handling a job offer or a raise conversation.
---

# Salary negotiation

Negotiation is a short window where information and alternatives set
the price. Companies expect it, budget for it, and do not rescind
over professional asks; leaving it unused is donating money for
politeness that nobody records.

## Method

1. **Research the band before any number talk.** Level-specific
   data (levels.fyi-class sources, recent peers, recruiters'
   own ranges: many jurisdictions now require posting them),
   for your market and company tier; know the band's shape
   (base, bonus, equity mix at that level). Walking in without
   data means negotiating against a professional with a
   spreadsheet using your feelings.
2. **Delay numbers until they offer.** Early "expectations"
   questions get the range question reversed ("what is the
   band for this level?") or a researched-high anchor if
   forced. Never volunteer current compensation; where legal
   to ask, deflect to expectations. The first specific number
   sets the anchor: prefer it to be theirs, then work from
   it.
3. **Build leverage with alternatives.** Parallel processes
   timed to land offers together (see technical-interviews'
   pipeline discipline) are the strongest lever; a genuine
   competing offer moves bands more than any argument. No
   competing offer? Leverage is the documented value gap
   (your evidence file: see promo-packet, engineering-resume
   numbers) and the credible willingness to stay put.
4. **Negotiate the package, not the base.** Equity (grant
   size, vesting schedule, refresh policy: understand what
   the shares are worth and how you would verify: see
   saas-metrics adjacency for private-company reality),
   sign-on (the easiest lever: it fixes year-one gaps),
   level itself (the band you are *in* outvalues thousands
   within a band), plus start date, remote terms, and
   review timing. Ask for the components in priority order,
   once, together: serial nibbling burns goodwill.
5. **Make the ask collaborative and specific.**
   "I am excited about this team. To sign, I need base at X
   and sign-on at Y: competing offer at Z is real, but this
   is where I want to be. Can you make that work?"
   Enthusiasm plus number plus reason; then silence.
   Everything in writing before you resign anywhere (see
   receiving-feedback's poise for hearing "no" without
   folding).
6. **Set the walk-away and the yes in advance.** Before the
   call: the number where you sign happily and the number
   below which you decline: decided calmly, held under
   pressure (deadlines are usually softer than stated;
   exploding offers deserve a professional request for
   time). When they meet the ask: stop, thank, sign:
   re-opening a met ask is how won negotiations become
   rescinded ones.

## Boundaries

- Internal raises use the same evidence logic with
  different mechanics (cycles, budgets, retention offers);
  a resignation-backed counter is a one-time card that
  reprices trust: play it only if you would truly leave
  (see one-on-one-meetings for the channel where the gap
  should have surfaced earlier).
- Never bluff a competing offer or inflate numbers;
  markets are small and verification is a phone call
  (the engineering-resume honesty bar, with money on it).
- Startups' equity math (dilution, preferences, strike
  prices) deserves independent research beyond this
  skill; "worth $2M at exit" is a marketing sentence,
  not a valuation.