An Elite Engineer Offered Up a Modest Salary Requirement - He was Rewarded Very Nicely for It

I've been speaking to the dynamic of "resetting" in your job search lately and here is a nice story of a brilliant software engineer who reset himself to a level that few engineers in the market would do right now. At face value, it sounds like too much of a compromise but he won in the end with a great offer that emerged at the perfect time. Let's start at the peak of the Covid tech boom and move forward from there.?

Brilliant backend developer well versed in Java, Python and Go. He's been an engineer for over 15 years and has functioned at the Staff/Principal level since 2015. I would classify him as an industry elite engineer and like a great lot of great developers, he found himself out of work in 2023 and on an urgent job search that had him applying to a lot of companies here in Austin. Here are some words he shared with me when we started working together,?

I'm open to pretty much any package right now. My high water mark was in Fall of 2021 when I was at a startup here in Austin. The salary they were paying me was 300k plus equity and work 100% from home. For a Series A startup, I'm willing to go all the way down to 165k base and I'll come back into the office regardless of their location. After five weeks of getting no responses, I am finally talking with a couple of companies right now and the interviews are going well.?

But again, I'm confirming that at this stage in my job search, I am ready to go down to 165k on the base and forgo working remotely. I just wanted to make this clear.?

I could not believe his words when he told me this and after our call, I just kept telling myself that this was the most extreme "reset" that I've experienced with a principal engineer so far in these roiling markets. What's interesting is that, at the time, I had secured him an interview with an impressive Series A startup who needed a backend developer and as you can imagine, he crushed the process and we got to an offer. After a little negotiating, we came to an agreement on the following numbers and terms,?

1. 175k base salary.?
2. Despite a 37 mile commute one way to the company location, this developer agreed to four days a week in office. But yes, 74 miles round trip for four days a week :-(
3. Series A equity and the offering was pretty nice.?
4. The title of?Principal Backend Engineer was offered as well.?

Two days later, we lost him because an established technology company offered him a guaranteed annual cash package of 250k plus the option of working 100% from home. I thanked him for working with me and I made it clear that there were no hard feelings at all. If anything, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to work with him because we both realized the fact that the very modest bottom he had set in his job search (165k base and willing to come into the office five days per week) was not realized.

And one month later, I look back with such respect for how this engineer reset himself and completely disconnected from the 300k salary he was making in 2021. I won't dwell on this topic too much because one thing I am not is a Psychologist but in terms of the impressions you give in your interview, can you completely separate yourself from the compensation packages and the nature of your work schedule you had in 2021??Like this elite engineer did, can you fully reset from that period in your life??Did this engineer, in adopting the mindset of accepting and even celebrating my client's 175k base offer and driving 37 miles one way to work four days a week, create the kind of desired candidacy that resulted in him receiving this other, much larger offer??Just like we can feel attitudes and emotions in another person, companies can feel the very same thing in the candidates they interview. And this top 1% developer was giving off a very good vibe about himself and in the end, he was nicely rewarded for it.?

On the other hand, two weeks ago, we worked with a full stack software engineer who had been going on five months of unemployment.?When I spoke with him on the phone, he made it clear his job search was was now urgent and he gave me the following requirements,?

1. Open to 150-160k base. His previous base was 170k.?
2. Willing to come into the office five days a week
3. Not hung up on title at all so long as the function was at the Mid/Senior level. His previous title was Staff Software Engineer.?

We secured him an interview with a solid technology firm here in Austin and he passed all of the technical screens and got to the final round with the company's Head of Talent. I did a prep call with this engineer simply to make sure his performance on this final step was successful and shockingly, this is what he told me,?

So Mark, I've thought about this a bit more and 160k is low. I might consider it but that number is low. Also, I would like to come into the office no more than two days a week and I would like Staff Software Engineer as a title. And if the company is mostly cubicles, I would like to inquire into having my own office. I still find this company interesting but I plan to drill down with them on making their absolute best offer before I give my formal acceptance.?

In this engineer's defense, he was merely putting on his negotiating cap since he was now very close to the offer stage. But that said, the strategy backfired terribly. I immediately called our client's Head of Talent and let him know that I was a bit concerned about this engineer's pivot in his sentiment from when we first submitted his resume. After the meeting, the company followed up with me saying that they would not be making an offer. In fact, the Head of Talent called the conversation one of the more excruciating virtual meetings he's ever had in his career. This engineer, for all of his talents, has not fully reset and I feel that is primary reason why he lost out on this opportunity.?He's now going on six months of unemployment.?

Feel free to disagree with me on these words but whether it be our jobs, personal relationships or any experience we might be having right now, most of the time, we do not fall as far and hard as we fear we will. And that is precisely what happened with this elite engineer. You really have to respect how modest of a bar he set for himself in terms of salary and work schedule. His job search had been active for roughly two months but at the time he accepted our client's offer, at the 11th hour, an amazing remote opportunity came in. Make no mistake, it was his technical brilliance that was the driving factor in receiving these offers but companies also felt the sincerity in his words and his willingness to work 100% on their conditions. His technical skills were incredibly strong but along with this was the realization that he had fully reset.?

The labor markets have picked up a little bit the past month but make no mistake, the current landscape is still very challenging. If you are late stage in your interviews with any companies right now, please stay 100% consistent with your original words about the opportunity. Your full commitment to their work schedule as well as the kind of compensation you are seeking has not changed one bit. And express the exact same interest in the company and its mission that you originally did when you submitted your application.?

The company will consider everything you have brought to the table, realize that in addition to your technical strengths, the consistency in your messaging will make abundantly clear to them that you have completely reset and are ready to get your career going again. And this might just be what is needed to push them over the finish line and approve the written offer. And again, even if the salary and working schedule aren't 100% entirely what you set out to secure in your job search, in this current labor market, you will still be the winner.

Thanks,?

Mark Cunningham

Technical Recruiter

512-699-5719

[email protected]

https://thebiddingnetwork.com

https://markcunningham91.blogspot.com

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/markhc