Matthew Wong
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brian Fink, an independent corporate recruiter in Alpharetta, Georgia, who previously worked in recruiting for tech giants such as Amazon, Apple, Twitter, and McAfee. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve been a corporate recruiter for more than two decades, and I’ve noticed that laid-off people often undersell themselves when talking about pay during the interview process.
For starters, many wrongly assume that being unemployed means they can’t negotiate for a higher salary than what they’ve been offered. If you have that mentality, change it.
Layoffs are business decisions, not personal indictments. What matters is what you bring to the table. Focus on the here and now and what you can do. Lead with your skills and results, not the layoff story, not woes me.
Another common flub is to start off discussing pay from a weak position by making comments such as: “I know that budgets are tight.” Don’t do that. Budgets are tight everywhere.
Instead, arm yourself with data before sitting in the hot seat. Look at sites like Glassdoor and Levels.fyi to get a sense of the average pay for the role you’re seeking in the geographic area where it’s located.
When you’re face-to-face with the interviewer, be the first to bring up compensation. You will be in a stronger position if you’re the one leading the conversation. Ask for the pay range to see if it aligns with the research you did. If it’s lower, say what you believe the correct range is, rather than sell yourself short. It’s possible the interviewer will offer to look into whether the pay can be adjusted.
Don’t just focus on base salary. Ask about the whole megillah — signing bonuses, annual bonuses, and paid time off. It’s about going deep and asking if there’s a professional-development budget. It’s also making sure that you’ve got the right title and scope for the role.
At this point, you should now be ready to negotiate. Speak in numbers, not feelings. There’s confidence in data, and confidence plus data is a cocktail that often is very palatable.
What you want to say is: “Based on what we just discussed and the impact that I bring, I’m targeting a compensation package of X.”
Then stop talking. Let the silence do the work. Filling the gap with nervous chatter will lead you to undercut yourself.
If the recruiter or hiring manager responds with a lower number, don’t immediately fold. Instead, ask: “Can you tell me how you arrived at that number?” You want them to ameliorate the situation by using their own data and their own words.
Keep in mind that hiring managers love speed. They think, ‘oh, somebody’s available! There’s no waiting period.’ That is leverage. Point out in the interview how you would be free to hit the ground running quickly since you don’t have to give a current employer the standard two weeks of notice.
There’s a misperception that recruiters get paid based on how much money they save a company and that they want job candidates to accept the lowest offer possible. In reality, we typically get bonuses if we hire a certain number of people per month. For example, at Amazon, I had to hire at least six people in that timeframe.
I recently interviewed a laid-off candidate for a sales job at a software company who told me she thought she was worth $215,000 in annual base salary. I said shoot for $230,000 when you meet with the hiring manager.
The candidate told me she didn’t think she could do it, so I asked her to stand up, put her hands on her hips, and invoke the Superman pose. I read in a book many years ago that doing this boosts confidence, and I think it works. The hiring manager ended up offering the candidate the $215,000 she was hoping to get, and she accepted the job.
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