[Patrol8394]

Negotiation is all about leverage. More often than not leverage is on the employer side.

People look for a job because they most likely need one; unless they are in the fortunate position of working for fun and they don’t want to retire just yet.

Negotiating means you should be ready to walk away: let’s be honest … how many with their first offer at their dream job (e.g: FAANG) would be ready to walk away from it?

Unless you have very specific skills and knowledge, you are rarely in the position of bumping the numbers much.

That said, you must negotiate the first offer (usually low), then you counteroffer much higher with the goal of usually settle somewhere in the middle.

Recruiters know how to play the game.

Also, I believe everyone should have a good idea on how much they should be paid. I usually give the first number, if asked (high) I don’t see anything wrong with that.

I already know they will lowball me and then we will settle somewhere halfway.

[aleksiy123]

Having multiple job offers is probably the most achievable way to negotiate for the average SWE. Its a clear signal that you can walk away to the recruiters.

It also gives you the psychological safety to be more aggressive in your negotiation.

[flarg]

This is why one should never look for a job and just let the job find you; and where linkedin works so damn well. In my own case I just let jobs find me and I tripled my salary in 5 years.

[intelVISA]

One should always strive to become a valuable commodity - consistently solving hard problems is the best recruiter :)

of course, the issue then becomes why settle for only ~1% of the value you produce as a salary?

[nazka]

No you have to do the total opposite. Blitz search and pursue 20 job offers at the same time all packed in a month. Then start to pick and chose the few best ones and make them compete against each other on salary, stock options, career opportunities, perks…

That’s how you get the leverage back at the table.

And if you like your current company you talk to your employer about the oh so much better job offers you got. With real job offers, or they come with a better offer or in the worst case you will end up in a better company with a better salary, perks, tech stack, etc…

[phpisthebest]

You have made alot of assumptions

First and foremost there are many times when leverage is not on the employers side, today it often is not as there are more open jobs than people to fill them. Given the current population decline this trend will likely continue unless we see massive reduction in the number of employers.

Then there is the assumption that the dream job is working at a FAANG company. Many people, myself included, avoid large companies like the plague. Even if a large public company wanted to pay me 2x what I make now I would infact turn that down.

Finally there are multiple studies that show there is a wage curve which in today's dollars any salary above around 80-90K (average US COL, Adjust where needed for high COL regions) there is a reduction in how much the base salary factors into job choice. Instead other things start to play larger factors in the choice to accept an offer.