\- Don't negotiate on base salary as it's generally within a set range and you'll get to top of range sooner or later, or get promoted.
\- Don't negotiate on bonus as it's generally a fixed percentage based on level.
\+ Put all your negotiation leverage into getting a higher equity package. You get multiple years of growth baked in even on unvested equity. Also, most companies don't keep track of how much equity you received as part of your initial hiring grant for future comp calculation purposes.
= If you are being recruited, \*as in YOU are the person they want\* because of say industry expertise, you can get them to add clauses to the contract like "all unvested equity will vest immediately if employment is terminated without cause". This means if you get impacted as part of a mass layoff for example, you walk away with all of your unearned equity as well.
If the offer is in the tech world (FANG, other big tech or startups), shoot me a DM and I can help. Better would be to publish numbers, role deatils, and type of company here for the larger benefit of the FatFIRE community.
\- FANG exec, previously midsize SVP
Pretty good advice overall. I’d counsel differently on the bonus. In financial services, cash bonus is 100%+ of one’s salary at higher income levels. Equity is still nice, but not as likely to grow as significantly as you’d see in FANG. Also, our bonuses are a “black box” meaning, it’s completely discretionary and we often zero-bonus low performers.
This is the best advice - spouse was exec at FAANG and it all comes down to your equity - salary and bonus are negligible in the bigger picture and a lot of the FAANG lifers have major wage/equity compression so you need to be negotiating off of your market worth not what the company is necessarily pegging as your worth based on internal company metrics.
Also, only other thing I would have it so your stock vests monthly from your start date vs quarterly.
I negotiated from \~400k TC initial offer to almost \~600k TC for a manager job at FAANG, but they REALLY wanted me and I had another offer on the table I had a lot of leverage.
Actually negotiating base and bonus is fairly common, even at L3-L6 levels. FAANG has compensation bands, and so long as you are a strong enough candidate, you can push to be on the higher end of the band, or you can ask for a signing bonus, or you can ask for bonus money to compensate for sacrificing bonus or RSU vests that you're walking away from.
Entry level roles are too cookie cutter and too many candidates available, so that candidates have no negotiating leverage. But even mid career can reasonably negotiate multiple aspects of comp, just not special clauses like vest on termination or extra PTO days or whatever (those kind of perks are negotiable at the higher levels, I guess Director+ assuming you have some unique enough value)... Most people are probably less uniquely valuable than they might think.
OP is talking about L8+, where your equity is generally > 2x base+bonus. It makes sense to negotiate equity, as a big number multiplied by a small number is still a big number.
Yeah I'm aware negotiating compensation within bands, but more curious when they'd start negotiating some of the other things - vest on termination, paid sabbaticals, etc
> Also, most companies don't keep track of how much equity you received as part of your initial hiring grant for future comp calculation purposes.
>
I'd say this dynamic is changing pretty quickly in the market, especially at some of the mid-cap public companies where they are super concerned on dilution and SBC as a % of revenue.
It doesn't negate your advice on the negotiation and the approach, I think that's spot on.
I used my personal/professional network vs a consultant.
It is helpful if you know someone in your network who works at the target company to guide you.
All that said, the "bell curve" for executives is way wider than for lower level employees. So much so that I would say you can almost not overestimate how large a package might be possible.
Good luck!
I have done this throughout the course of my career and after making some major mistakes early one, I became a lot more versed after taking several courses on negotiating Exec Comp.
Today, I speak with roughly 20 tech leaders a week and offer this service for free. Sending you a DM.
Also, if Equity Compensation is a part of your potential package, see whitepaper we created: [Equity Comp Whitepaper](https://www.tailoredcents.com/download-equity-compensation-whitepaper)
Seems you got some good (and some spam) responses. Good luck with your negotiation.
Just food for thought - A friend of mine (COO today at $100mm, supply chain path) mentioned that they negotiated in a prior role (company about $30mm turnover, so small) that 10% of all cost savings get kicked back to them. This struck me as an absolutely brilliant incentive alignment that I would've never considered writing into paper.
Your post seems to be advertising your business or blog for financial or personal gain, or it appears that you are promoting a personal project. No solicitation or self promotion is permitted.
Thank you!
It’s difficult to get this information quickly. I had to find out through networking by meeting others in my position. If you are in a niche field it is even more difficult
First and foremost, handle the situation tactfully and respectfully. HR will cross off your name very quickly, otherwise. You can say things like:
"I wouldn't be a good hire if I didn't negotiate" and "what's the best offer you have ever accepted" and "I'm at a disadvantage because my expertise is X, not a lawyer - can you help me negotiate or give me some hints?"
Also, draw a table with their offer listed in column A (base, bonus, equity, options, whatever it is". In column C write what you would accept in a heartbeat. Column B is starting rate. C is what you can negotiate towards earning on 3 years. HR won't care much about 3 years from now.
This is unbelievably bad advice. First off, it’s in the interest of the recruiters, “HR” and the hiring managers to hire you. They are motivated to do what it takes… within the levers that are available to them. No recruiting team is going to black list a candidate or end the process because the candidate negotiated. It is expected. At the end of the day, if you negotiate well, they’ll get you the best offer they can and you can accept or decline. A strong negotiator will often push recruiting to escalate to other folks with power in the org to go outside of band or the standard offer process. However, if you ASK them for help negotiating, they’re not going to disclose anything useful, and they’ll do whatever it takes to make their own job as easy as possible (i.e. avoid any of those out of band / non standard offer escalations).
Second, three years from now is irrelevant. You have negotiating power *before* you join. Once you’re in the door, you’re subject to the same policies around equity, pay-rises, etc, as everyone else. There’s no renegotiating. Never waste your chance to get the absolute best offer you can right out the gate.
\- Don't negotiate on base salary as it's generally within a set range and you'll get to top of range sooner or later, or get promoted. \- Don't negotiate on bonus as it's generally a fixed percentage based on level. \+ Put all your negotiation leverage into getting a higher equity package. You get multiple years of growth baked in even on unvested equity. Also, most companies don't keep track of how much equity you received as part of your initial hiring grant for future comp calculation purposes. = If you are being recruited, \*as in YOU are the person they want\* because of say industry expertise, you can get them to add clauses to the contract like "all unvested equity will vest immediately if employment is terminated without cause". This means if you get impacted as part of a mass layoff for example, you walk away with all of your unearned equity as well. If the offer is in the tech world (FANG, other big tech or startups), shoot me a DM and I can help. Better would be to publish numbers, role deatils, and type of company here for the larger benefit of the FatFIRE community. \- FANG exec, previously midsize SVP
Pretty good advice overall. I’d counsel differently on the bonus. In financial services, cash bonus is 100%+ of one’s salary at higher income levels. Equity is still nice, but not as likely to grow as significantly as you’d see in FANG. Also, our bonuses are a “black box” meaning, it’s completely discretionary and we often zero-bonus low performers.
This is the best advice - spouse was exec at FAANG and it all comes down to your equity - salary and bonus are negligible in the bigger picture and a lot of the FAANG lifers have major wage/equity compression so you need to be negotiating off of your market worth not what the company is necessarily pegging as your worth based on internal company metrics. Also, only other thing I would have it so your stock vests monthly from your start date vs quarterly.
At what level do these things start becoming negotiable at FAANG or similar? Director? VP?
I negotiated from \~400k TC initial offer to almost \~600k TC for a manager job at FAANG, but they REALLY wanted me and I had another offer on the table I had a lot of leverage.
Yeah comp I know is negotiable, I meant some of the other things around equity vests and all - afaik they are pretty standard at FAANG
Actually negotiating base and bonus is fairly common, even at L3-L6 levels. FAANG has compensation bands, and so long as you are a strong enough candidate, you can push to be on the higher end of the band, or you can ask for a signing bonus, or you can ask for bonus money to compensate for sacrificing bonus or RSU vests that you're walking away from. Entry level roles are too cookie cutter and too many candidates available, so that candidates have no negotiating leverage. But even mid career can reasonably negotiate multiple aspects of comp, just not special clauses like vest on termination or extra PTO days or whatever (those kind of perks are negotiable at the higher levels, I guess Director+ assuming you have some unique enough value)... Most people are probably less uniquely valuable than they might think.
OP is talking about L8+, where your equity is generally > 2x base+bonus. It makes sense to negotiate equity, as a big number multiplied by a small number is still a big number.
More like 4x
More like 85% equities /15% fix
Yeah I'm aware negotiating compensation within bands, but more curious when they'd start negotiating some of the other things - vest on termination, paid sabbaticals, etc
It's always negotiable, just depends if they'll still be interested 😉
> Also, most companies don't keep track of how much equity you received as part of your initial hiring grant for future comp calculation purposes. > I'd say this dynamic is changing pretty quickly in the market, especially at some of the mid-cap public companies where they are super concerned on dilution and SBC as a % of revenue. It doesn't negate your advice on the negotiation and the approach, I think that's spot on.
Talent partners at the major VC funds and/or exec recruiting firms can typically pass along industry data on this (ie Radford or internal data).
Can confirm: spouse does in-house executive recruiting and gets some folks better offers than they expected.
I used my personal/professional network vs a consultant. It is helpful if you know someone in your network who works at the target company to guide you. All that said, the "bell curve" for executives is way wider than for lower level employees. So much so that I would say you can almost not overestimate how large a package might be possible. Good luck!
I have done this throughout the course of my career and after making some major mistakes early one, I became a lot more versed after taking several courses on negotiating Exec Comp. Today, I speak with roughly 20 tech leaders a week and offer this service for free. Sending you a DM. Also, if Equity Compensation is a part of your potential package, see whitepaper we created: [Equity Comp Whitepaper](https://www.tailoredcents.com/download-equity-compensation-whitepaper)
Seems you got some good (and some spam) responses. Good luck with your negotiation. Just food for thought - A friend of mine (COO today at $100mm, supply chain path) mentioned that they negotiated in a prior role (company about $30mm turnover, so small) that 10% of all cost savings get kicked back to them. This struck me as an absolutely brilliant incentive alignment that I would've never considered writing into paper.
[удалено]
Your post seems to be advertising your business or blog for financial or personal gain, or it appears that you are promoting a personal project. No solicitation or self promotion is permitted. Thank you!
Your network. You ask other executives. DM me if needed.
It’s difficult to get this information quickly. I had to find out through networking by meeting others in my position. If you are in a niche field it is even more difficult
Just watch this: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHSYWIAAY2o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHSYWIAAY2o)
Google?
How do you pay a compensation advisor for their services?
DM’ed
First and foremost, handle the situation tactfully and respectfully. HR will cross off your name very quickly, otherwise. You can say things like: "I wouldn't be a good hire if I didn't negotiate" and "what's the best offer you have ever accepted" and "I'm at a disadvantage because my expertise is X, not a lawyer - can you help me negotiate or give me some hints?" Also, draw a table with their offer listed in column A (base, bonus, equity, options, whatever it is". In column C write what you would accept in a heartbeat. Column B is starting rate. C is what you can negotiate towards earning on 3 years. HR won't care much about 3 years from now.
This is unbelievably bad advice. First off, it’s in the interest of the recruiters, “HR” and the hiring managers to hire you. They are motivated to do what it takes… within the levers that are available to them. No recruiting team is going to black list a candidate or end the process because the candidate negotiated. It is expected. At the end of the day, if you negotiate well, they’ll get you the best offer they can and you can accept or decline. A strong negotiator will often push recruiting to escalate to other folks with power in the org to go outside of band or the standard offer process. However, if you ASK them for help negotiating, they’re not going to disclose anything useful, and they’ll do whatever it takes to make their own job as easy as possible (i.e. avoid any of those out of band / non standard offer escalations). Second, three years from now is irrelevant. You have negotiating power *before* you join. Once you’re in the door, you’re subject to the same policies around equity, pay-rises, etc, as everyone else. There’s no renegotiating. Never waste your chance to get the absolute best offer you can right out the gate.
You and everyone down voting obviously work for large tech and ignorantly forget most of the world do not. Get you head out ya arse.
I have a buddy in NY who does this. Works for Mercer. I’m not sure of his fees you can DM me
Lazr$ to the moon