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Salary negotiation
Build your leverage to get the compensation you deserve
The last topic we'll cover in our guide is salary negotiation or, to be more precise, contract terms negotiation, as salary is only one part of it.

There is a magnitude of excellent guides on negotiation in top tech companies out there. Instead of repeating all the information, we'll cover the key concepts to understand, the core principles we used, and finish it with the references to the most valuable resources we found.
Build your leverage
To get the best offer, you have to have leverage in negotiations. And the best leverage is the competing offer(s).

Being in the interview process with other companies already makes you a more valuable candidate. Every other company in your pipeline decreases the chances you're going to accept the current offer.

Ultimately, you want to get into the position where you have offers from 2+ companies you're ready to work for. This is a situation with no bad outcomes. It will also make you comfortable asking for a better offer and not being afraid to be rejected, as you have backup options.

To build this leverage, you have to plan. Our entire Work for FANG guide will help you to prepare and run the interview process with multiple companies in parallel.
Salary is not the only thing to negotiate
In the world of tech, your total compensation is much more than the salary. Usually, it is a combination of base salary, annual bonus, equity, one-time payouts like sign-up or relocation bonus, and tons of perks like insurance, gyms, etc.
When you reach the offer stage, you can negotiate on all parts of the compensation package. The key here is to know where you have the most room to improve the offer.

For a detailed explanation of the compensation package, read the Understand tech compensation article from Candor.
Calibrate your expectations
Your offer heavily depends on the location, your level, company size, and lots of other factors. You have to calibrate your expectation to understand how good is the offer.

There are multiple websites to help with salary data research. Two things to keep in mind (1) they can be extremely in-accurate for less popular roles and locations, (2) often they don't account for the whole compensation package, e.g., ignoring an annual bonus. We've used those tools to get a ballpark estimation but always had a grain of salt. To name a few:
  • Levels.fyi - ok-ish for popular roles and locations, has nice level comparison grids between companies, covers locations outside the US.
  • Blind - ok-ish, but for the US only.
  • Angel List - provides data on startups.
A more accurate source of data is HR professionals. You can try to reach out to them on LinkedIn or find services online.
Be strategic and confident in communications
It is possible to write a separate guide on communication only. The principles listed below are the essentials; they are a great starting point to set yourself up for a successful negotiation:
  • Don't be arrogant. Show confidence and respect in the communication.
  • Let the recruiter know that you're interviewing with other companies. You have to be clear that your goal is to get all offers at the same time to be able to compare them and be confident that you made the best choice. It is absolutely reasonable from your side.
  • Push salary discussion till after you complete all interviews. Show your value first. Communicate that you'll review all reasonable offers.
  • Never give an exact number of your current compensation or your expectations. Give a range instead. Say something like, "I expect total compensation in the range of 90K-130K depending on other offer details". The range can be fairly wild. The recruiters will most likely try to make an offer in the upper half of the range if they can.

To give an end-to-end example on the communication and the negotiation strategy, we highly recommend checking:
Action items

1. Calibrate your expectations—research the total compensations for each role/location in your Interviews Pipeline.

2. Read the resources linked in this article to build your communication strategy with recruiters.
Congrats! You've finished our Work for FANG guide.
The last bonus we have for you is a list of resources and tools mentioned in the guide.