How to negotiate your compensation
How do you negotiate higher pay? How do you avoid equity risks? What about bonuses and benefits? Untangling the complexities of tech compensation in an easy to understand and actionable guide.
Hi and welcome to the Corporate Waters weekly newsletter 🙌
I’m Mikhail and I'm excited to share my learnings to help you navigate the complex waters of product management, leadership, and corporate dynamics. Subscribe to unlock the full value.
In today’s paid newsletter:
Tech compensation structure in detail;
How to negotiate a higher pay, bonuses, and avoid the key equity comp pitfalls;
A comparison framework to evaluate the wealth generation difference between two job offers.
Did you know that the difference between the top and the lowest-compensated managers can be up to ~40%? Moreover, the discrepancy in total pay between hubs can be as high as ~80% (e.g., Seattle vs. Berlin)? Yes, for doing the same job at the same seniority level. It all boils down to negotiation and knowing the rules of the game.
So you’ve received an offer. How do you determine whether the compensation is competitive or if you’re undervalued? How do you negotiate for higher pay? How can you avoid risks related to equity compensation? What about securing bonuses? Sign-ons? Benefits? We’re going to unpack all these and provide you with an actionable framework to compare total compensation between two offers from different countries.
By the end of this article, you’ll understand the ins and outs of compensation in tech and will be able to negotiate the highest pay the company can objectively offer. Let’s dive in.
💰 Compensation Structure
It all starts with a fate-defining question from a recruiter about your compensation expectations. What should you say? Share your existing numbers? Should you haggle a bit and give a higher one? You don't want to come off as someone who prioritizes compensation over the value of working with a great product and a strong team. By the end of this article, you'll be able to confidently answer that question.
Let's start by breaking the compensation structure into its constituent components.
