Negotiating on Salary
Why students often don’t negotiate
A few students don’t even think about negotiating salary for early career positions. This is understandable for the following reasons:
You assume the offered salary is fixed and probably not negotiable
You feel that you don’t have much leverage in the negotiation as a fresh/junior
You really want the job and you are worried negotiating will cause them to rescind the offer
For this reason, a few students never even think to ask if they can negotiate a higher salary once they receive a job offer.
Negotiating salary can be an great idea in certain cases!
Building the skills and mindset to negotiate your salary early will help you feel confident negotiating later in your career as well!
Companies want the best talent at a reasonable price.
Negotiating tech salaries will almost certainly be something you encounter in your career, and so getting some early practice by negotiating your salary is an important lesson.
What is the market salary for software developers?
Generally, junior software developers make between 12,000,000 - 14,000,000 vnd gross a month. Data Science related roles are paid a bit higher (the requirements are more difficult as well), from 12,000,000 - 18,000,000 vnd gross. Developers with IT background and or developer working experience will often be paid significantly higher on average.
However, this range can change over time. One good way to get updated with the market is to research related jobs on recruitment platforms such us Vietnamworks, ITviec, Career Builder,.. to view the salary range. But this number is just for reference, normally companies will set it high to attract talents, the actual salary is only negotiated based on the candidate's ability evaluated in the interview rounds.
How do I know how and when to negotiate?
Follow the following five steps to know how and when to negotiate your offer:
Research Tech Salaries
Outline Your Living Expenses
Consider If you Deserve More? and Decide If You Want to Negotiate
Build and Present a Proposal
Have a Plan if They Say “No”
#4. Build and Present a Proposal
As you likely know, there’s a big difference between asking for a raise and demonstrating that you’ve been undervalued in an offer. Asking for a raise comes from a place of feeling like you deserve more. But demonstrating your value stems from facts—relevant data supports your argument and gives you reasonable negotiating power. Your skills and abilities are valuable tools when negotiating a salary. A greater level of experience means the company can spend less time on training, which will save it money and resources.
In order to present that data in an appropriate way, it’s important to build a solid proposal that clearly highlights your value and aligns it to a reasonable bump to your offer. So what should you include in your proposal? Consider including any (or all) of the following:
Relevant salary data
Relevant cost-of-living data
Reference letters from professors who can attest to the quality of your work
Reference letters from past or current employers who can attest to your work ethic
A portfolio of college projects and extracurricular work
Your proposed offer increase
Once you’ve gathered all that information, it’s time to actually present the proposal to the employer. This may be done by email or telephone or in person. Practice your arguments before the meeting so you can speak with confidence. Present your research data and calmly explain why you think you deserve a specific salary.
Of course, negotiating an increase can be quite nerve-wracking. But if you follow these tips, you’ll come across as reasonable and professional in your request:
Be confident. Understand what you have and what you can contribute to the company.
Practice before presenting.
Anticipate follow-up questions. Unexpected questions will undoubtedly throw you off during your presentation, so spend some time thinking about every possible question your manager may have for you during the proposal so you can prepare responses ahead of time.
Compromise when necessary. Demanding a specific amount of money for two to three months of work will likely work against you. Be flexible and allow the employer to make a counter-offer and settle on a fair amount of compensation.
5. Have a Plan if They Say “No”
The truth is, you may be fully justified in asking for a higher salary, but your hiring manager may still simply say “no.” In which case, you have a tough decision to make: Do I stick it out for the sake of the opportunity? Or do I reject the offer? There’s no right answer here—it’s totally up to you and dependent on your specific circumstances.
However, remember that if they do say no to the increase, they are very unlikely to rescind your offer for asking! This almost never happens if you ask professionally and respectfully! Even if they do decline, there is no issue with still accepting the offer at the original rate. And they may even throw in a small end of summer bonus to cover living expenses!
On Your Professional Leverage
Don’t undersell yourself here. If you are competent in technical areas, you have a lot more leverage than you might think. This increases significantly if you can prove it (strong portfolio, previous work experiences, good interviewing skills, good project work, good GPA, etc).
Most highly talented people are on the job market for a short while. After they are employed, it’s normally their terms they seek employment. So a company looking to hire them wants to get them into their system as early as possible. If you work to make sure you are a desired candidate, you have a lot more leverage than you may give yourself credit for.
Additional Considerations
Here are a few additional considerations and notes:
If you negotiate the right way it will almost never be held against you. In fact a lot of companies will see this as a strength, and so even if they do not have the budget to afford the increase you are asking for they will see you as a more professional and desirable candidate.
Negotiation is best done over the phone. If you have an offer and you’d like to ask for a higher offer, tell the employer you had some follow-up questions you wanted to go over.
Explain your Reasoning. It helps a ton to have another offer to base your request off of. “You offered me X. I really like your role. Another company I am also interested in offered me Y. I’d really like to work for you all as I think it is a better culture fit, is there any way you could also offer me Y?” Expect to either get Y back, something between X and Y or an apology as to why no increase can be made.
Startups are highly like to negotiate. They have very few rules and care tremendously about talent. SMBs are also flexible when negotiating but may be more cash strapped then other companies. Big companies are the most likely to have budget and many will be highly concerned that you might accept a role at a competitor, but some do have internal restrictions on intern salary.
Try to enjoy your negotiation! It is a great skill to have and learn early. Don’t negotiate just for the sake of it, but if you feel like you deserve a higher salary than this is always worth doing.
Additional Resources
If you receive a job offer, many engineers choose not to negotiate their offer. It’s up to every individual but for those comfortable with being upfront the vast majority of companies are more than happy to negotiate with candidates during the offer process. Review these articles for more information:
If you’ve done your research on market salaries and equity and the offer comes up short, negotiations are a great way to ensure you receive a compensation package that you feel is fair.
References
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