This series began with my experience job hunting in America as a software engineer, where I described how short on talent Silicon Valley was and what my own job search looked like after switching careers to study computer science. The previous post, Interview Preparation: What to Practice, and How to Balance Practice With the Search, covered what your days look like once the search begins and how to split your time between applying and practicing. Another post in the series, on the data structures and algorithms round that every software engineer interview includes, goes deeper on how to prepare for algorithms and the trends I saw in 2020, with a LeetCode discount included. This post is the final chapter of the job search series. You have fought your way through interview after interview at your dream company and the offer has arrived. Can you negotiate for more salary, more stock, or more vacation?

You Got the Offer. Do Not Rush to Sign.

Many people go through every step of a job search and then, the moment an offer arrives, sign it immediately, afraid the job will disappear if they do not. But Google “negotiate job offer” or “should I negotiate job offer” and the results all tell you the same thing. In the American workplace, negotiating a job offer is normal. It is treated as an expected step. If any term of the offer does not satisfy you, you can ask for it to be adjusted.

So once you receive the formal written offer, the first thing to do is read every paragraph carefully. Make sure you understand your job title, your responsibilities, your salary, your stock or stock options, your vacation, your bonus, and so on. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the packages companies offer can differ enormously. Some offer a higher base salary, some offer more stock, some offer unlimited vacation. It depends on what you care about. Once you have listed the items that matter to you, analyze which ones you care about most, and then negotiate.

Before You Negotiate, Make Sure You Actually Want the Job

One thing I learned from this experience is that if you find you have no desire at all to join a company, do not negotiate with them. It only wastes everyone’s time. Beyond that, if you hold more than one offer, it is relatively easy to use one to ask the other company to match or beat it. If you do not, the fact that you are still interviewing elsewhere can also serve as leverage: the Silicon Valley labor market still leans toward the worker, and it costs a company a great deal to interview a candidate and put together an offer.

Exploding Offers: Negotiate the Deadline First

Many companies now make exploding offers. An exploding offer is an offer with a deadline. If you do not accept it by the stated date, it expires. It is one of the company’s leverage points in a negotiation, because it limits the time you have to collect other offers and forces your negotiation to move quickly. When you receive an exploding offer, the first thing you can negotiate is the deadline itself: ask for an extension, while also asking the other companies you are interviewing with to speed up their processes.

Look Up Market Rates, but Do Not Argue From Them

If you are not sure roughly what you are worth on the market, you can use Glassdoor to look up approximate salary ranges. Keep in mind that this data only tells you roughly what other people make. It gives you a sense of the range you might ask for. The final number you can negotiate still depends on your experience, ability, and qualities, so never use an online figure as the argument in your negotiation.

Negotiation Carries Risk. Have Someone Read Your Letter First.

Every negotiation carries risk. Your wording and your requests could lead the company to decide at the last second not to give you the offer after all. So after you write your negotiation letter, have a friend with strong English review your tone and check whether your requests are within a reasonable range.

A Story From a Senior Engineer I Know

I heard a story about a Taiwanese engineer ahead of me. After one or two months of job searching, he received an offer from a mid-size Silicon Valley company of about 500 people. The salary package was already quite good, but he was not satisfied. He wanted: 1. a base salary 20% higher than what the company offered, 2. a sign-on bonus, 3. two extra weeks of vacation every year, because he travels back to Taiwan annually, 4. many more stock options, 5. a free Caltrain pass from the company, since he commuted by Caltrain from San Francisco to the South Bay every day, and 6. a start date two months later, because he wanted to rest and travel first. He asked a friend of mine to help revise his negotiation letter. My friend thought he was crazy. How could anyone ask for so much? Every single ask was huge. But his position was that even if he lost this offer, he would be fine finding another job, and that let him take a hard line. After he sent the revised letter, the company replied within one hour with “Ok” and attached his new offer letter.

Negotiation Is a Psychological Contest, but Some Terms Simply Do Not Move

Everyone’s situation is different, but negotiation is a psychological contest. If you can accept the risk of losing the offer, you have far more leverage. One thing worth emphasizing is that some terms simply do not apply at some companies, and there is no point wasting time negotiating them. When I received my SolarCity offer, one of my asks was a few more vacation days each year. But SolarCity was a large company with more than 10,000 employees. Company policy was company policy. My manager and HR tried to advocate for me, but they could not change that hard rule.

If You Cannot Get Everything, That Is Fine Too

In the end, even if you cannot negotiate everything to perfection, that is fine. If you truly like the company, there will be plenty of chances to be promoted and get raises after you join. Silicon Valley is extremely short on people, and your direct manager might switch jobs before long, which could open up a promotion for you. Or perhaps this is only your first job. Build a solid foundation first, and your leverage will be much higher when you negotiate your second one.

Thank you to everyone who has read this job search series. I hope this information helps you prepare and land a job. If you get a job and come to Silicon Valley, feel free to connect with me!

This post was originally published on my former blog, 「半路出家軟體工程師在矽谷」, on September 19, 2015. The blog is now offline, and the text is preserved via the Wayback Machine. It has been lightly edited for this site.