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I've had an unprecedented number of salary negotiations over the past two months.

I had multiple offers to choose from and they were all pretty good on the surface. Having "I can walk away if I need to" in the back of my mind made the entire experience more relaxing (on my end).

I stated with "I'm looking at X, Y, and Z companies" in the first interaction with each of the three interviews.

Company X gave me an offer of $AMOUNT in an email (before a formal discussion about salary). $AMOUNT was a really nice bump from my current salary already.

When it came time to talk "how much do you expect" for Y company I told them I had X offer for $AMOUNT and would be interested to know what they could offer.

Y company came back with $AMOUNT + 10%.

I used was up front with company Z about the previous two offers. They offered me $AMOUNT + 17%. Note: company Z was slightly worse compared to X and Y.

I had a meeting with company X and told them about the above. They agreed to $AMOUNT + 17%.

I took company X in the end.




If company X moved 17% how much % do you think you potentially left on the table?


Hard to say. Probably some amount.

I was already making a stupid amount for the workload at my original employer. I'm happy with the end result for the moment.

I had another offer that I didn't mention here for 30% more after I accepted the +17% offer. It required a being on call Tuesday to Sunday... Money isn't the only factor.


If you've already gotten bumps from their original offer, odds are that you are not leaving much on the table at all.




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