# How to negotiate a job offer

## Don't sign right away

Unless you're desperate, *never* take a job offer as soon as they give it:

- No job is perfect, but some jobs are extremely dysfunctional.
- Working for a terrible job *will* damage your reputation, so consider what you're walking into.
- It's far better to keep [hunting](jobs-5_interview.md) than settle against your principles.
  - If you've spent months looking for a job without getting what you want, you may need to rethink your principles!
- Accepting a job offer immediately makes you look desperate.
- Research industry-standard salary and benefits information for at least a day before [negotiating](people-conflicts-negotiation.md) with a potential employer.
  - Research salary surveys and salary guides, and consider the geographic area.
  - Depending on how much responsibility you want, lower pay might be worth the [unrelated work activities](fun.md) or career-advancing skills you can pick up.

Even if you plan to take the job, it's a good idea to give at least half a day to think about it before signing the [contract](people-contracts.md), just to be sure it's a wise decision.

If you have any plans (e.g., a large [vacation](fun-vacations.md) a few months in the future), tell them when they give you the job offer.

Make sure you know what you sign, since quickly signing without reviewing the paperwork can [legally destroy you](legal-safety.md) later, and many hidden clauses in a [contract](people-contracts.md) may follow you *years* later (e.g., noncompete agreements).

## Never take a job when you see warning signs

Closely examine *anything* you feel or might feel disrespected or violated.

Pay close attention to who you'll likely work with:

- You might experience several rounds of interviews before meeting a potential coworker.
- Research with job social media or spend time on-site to see if you identify with the culture.
- Never take a job where you'll work closely with someone you don't want to become.

Signs the company doesn't care about your career:

- They take forever to respond to you:
  - If a hiring manager takes weeks to return a call or email, they won't respond promptly *after* they hire you.
- You receive a barrage of tests and assignments before the company even talks about hiring you:
  - Many companies use tests and analyses to commoditize and dehumanize workers.
- The job is over-sold, the job description is vague, and they're not asking about your experience:
  - Scammers don't care about your background.
- Strange buzzwords or enigmatic phrases:
  - They imagine you in multiple roles simultaneously and don't understand how your skills apply to them.
- Nobody discusses a career progression path:
  - The role is a dead-end job.
- The employer assumes you'll automatically take their job offer:
  - The manager presumes that hiring you is doing you a favor.

Signs the company doesn't care about their employees:

- The interviewer complains about the current staff when they first meet you:
  - It's a trickle-down abuse culture.
- Managers make jokes at the expense of the team:
  - It's a passive-aggressive trickle-down abuse culture.
- The employees either look away from the manager or act like they don't want to be there:
  - The manager is either controlling or the employees are embarrassed by them.
- The workers are brutally honest and hate their job:
  - The manager maintains a [false image](image-distortion.md) of a great workplace.

Signs of deep corporate dysfunction:

- Many new employees in a long-standing business:
  - The company is experiencing a high employee turnover rate because people keep quitting or getting fired.
- Not enough appropriate communication in the office:
  - You won't know what to do, but everyone will frequently panic.
- Little or no respect for others' time and talent:
  - Nobody will care about your time.
- Little or no sense of remorse for wrongdoing or violating boundaries.
  - Nobody respects your skills and talents.
- The potential employer asks for money from you before you begin working there:
  - You're there to perform a service *for* money *from* them, not the other way around.
  - The company is in a serious financial crisis, or they're a scam.
- Employees see pay grades as a type of status:
  - Gifted, intelligent people don't care about money and don't determine their worth with paychecks.

Over-controlling company policies:

- A no-moonlighting policy:
  - In other words, you can't work another part-time job.
  - The company doesn't want you to develop your career through a different path.
- A no-reference policy:
  - Your manager is forbidden to give a good reference.
  - You can only discover a no-reference policy by asking "Does your company allow managers to give references for their employees, or are those inquiries sent to HR?"
- Progressive discipline:
  - Gives increasing penalties for more failures.
  - While it was once common in the Industrial Revolution, the policy treats you like a child.
- Payroll deductions for workplace items:
  - This can include gas expense, company lunches, and supplies.
  - This is a corporate money-saving trick that completely disrespects you and your ability to work.
- Dictated hours for salaried employees or mandatory office time for a job that canb e completely work-from-home:
  - Every employee is required to work a certain number of hours.
  - Dictated hours force salary employees to loiter in an office.
- Managers dictate internal job transfers:
  - If one manager fully determines promotion and transfer opportunities, the company treats you like a machine.
- Formal performance management:
  - Tasks and goals are broken into daily, weekly, and monthly measurements.
  - A great company should respect that a great worker doesn't need every hour specified for them.
- No casual time permitted:
  - No flexible time allowed to take a day off for minor events that need it.
  - If you only receive vacation, sick, and holiday times the company gives little to no freedom to live your life outside work.

Be careful with unions:

- Labor union leaders' first goals are to keep that labor union in power.
- What this means is that the unions want workers satisfied enough to not get rid of the union, and collecting as many union dues as possible.
- In practice, labor unions will work tirelessly to defend the lowest-performing workers, while removing any chance you'll be rewarded for hard work by measuring the time from your hire date instead.
- Work in a union if you want job where you'll never get fired, but don't expect any [meaning](meaning.md) or recognition for your work.

## Negotiating the Job

Most people miss out on the extra advantages of negotiating their role:

- It takes courage, but is *always* worth it if you do it correctly.
- Getting more pay has a compounding effect.
- $5,000 additional annual income at a job, repeated across multiple jobs, could turn into $50,000 extra yearly income across 20 years.

You *must* have a firm job offer before discussing salary:

- If you hear discussions about compensation before you've gotten a job offer, your manager is trying to undercut the wage discussion.
- Be brutally honest with yourself about your skills, aptitude, and experience compared to the market.
- Address taking on other work responsibilities, but don't over-promise or expect them to trust you.
- For more autonomy and job satisfaction, ask for complete control over specific projects.

Negotiate salary from a position of power:

- With the exception of easy-to-measure work (e.g., digging holes, food preparation), your monetary value is extremely relative.
  - To the employer, your 5-15% request for more pay is a small amount, though they'll often fight you on it.
- With the exception of an *overwhelmingly* hot job market, the manager is *far* less invested in the negotiation than you ever could be.
- If you were able to find the job [through a personal network](jobs-4_hunt.md), you have a *lot* more latitude for negotiation because you're more a relationship than a commodity.

The type of need your job fills determines your negotiation power:

1. Leadership roles give the most room for negotiation.
2. Follower roles' power comes through background and expertise in specific tasks.
3. Mindless laborer roles give little to no room for negotiation even with *years* of experience.

Do *not* give them a number until they give one:

- If they say they need a number, they're [lying](people-lying.md) to you to compromise your negotiating position, though they'll rephrase the concept:
  - "I need a number to move forward in the system."
  - "I just need a number so we can see if this role is a good fit."
  - "We want to find out if you're a good candidate for this position."
- However, instead of outright calling them liars, choose [more polite words](people-3_respect.md) to express it:
  - "I'm more concerned if we're a mutual fit right now."
  - "To me, money doesn't really matter as much as the work."
  - "So what number range are you looking at for this position?"
- In general, if you ever *do* drop a number, make it 5-10% more than your last role but still within the range of your industry's salary.
  - If you want, you can add the benefits you received (e.g., health insurance divided out by hours in a month), *then* add 5-10% to that number.
  - Be very careful about [lying](people-lying.md), since employers *constantly* share sell previous wage data to large organizations.
- Bear in mind that more money means higher expectations, which often means you have less time to [pursue your own hobbies](fun.md) on company time.

Discuss every negotiable benefit you want:

- Ask whether they'll re-evaluate your compensation in six months to a year if you've met their expectations.
- Ask if the salary is base or can involve bonuses, stock options, a sign-on bonus or other benefits.
- Ask for a loftier title for your resume, which in the long-term is worth a pay cut.
- Since you're representing them, ask for a clothing stipend built into your contract.
- Ask for transportation reimbursement to be in the office on time each day.
- If you have a heavy commute, request a housing subsidy.
- If you can't control if the job stops existing, ask for a guaranteed severance package.
- If you want it, ask for an office with a window.
- Request tuition reimbursement or on-the-job training to offset the costs of building your skills.
- Ask for [daycare/childcare](parenting-children.md) reimbursement.
- If you want more preparedness for life's uncertainties and room for [creativity](mind-creativity.md), ask for flexible scheduling or additional vacation time.
- If the job can be done remotely with a computer, ask for a remote work schedule or partial in-person workweek.

When considering a job offer for a company you've worked for before:

- Determine if the new opportunity will advance your career.
- Think about your prior concerns before you left the last time.
- Recall your experience with the company.
- Observe whom you know and knew at the company.
- Consider the impact that your new commute will have on your [time](success-3_goals.md), [auto condition](autos.md), and [happiness](mind-feelings-happiness-stress.md).

Try to sweeten the deal with other relevant skills you can add to the job:

- You can often promise to use non-job-related skills you enjoy using.
- Employees are rarely ever paid as much as they're worth.
- Don't get greedy or the manager will revert to their original offer.
- If you're *really* concerned about getting paid what you're worth, [start your own business](entrepreneur-1_why.md) instead.

Get any employment agreement in writing:

- An [employment agreement](people-contracts.md) prevents misunderstanding and [legally protects everyone](legal-safety.md).
- Make sure you have all the important details:
  - The position's key responsibilities
  - Salary and bonus information
  - Any special arrangements from the negotiations
  - Start date
  - When any [benefits](money-insurance.md) start

Be very careful about what you sign:

- A non-compete agreement can prevent you from legally working in that same industry for *years* after you leave that job.
- A non-disclosure agreement means you can't even *talk* about the work you do with anyone outside the organization.

If your new employer wants referrals, give them former coworkers and colleagues you'd still like to work with.

If the negotiation doesn't work out, don't burn any bridges:

- You can often build a professional [friendship](people-4_friends.md) that can follow you into your career later.
- Sometimes they'll pass you on that role, but [since you're a consultant](jobs-1_why.md), another job could just as easily open up later.
- If you continue building your skills and maintaining your relationship, you might become an *advisor* to them someday!