Salary negotiation is dependent on supply and demand. If there's a high demand for your niche skill, and few people have that skill, then you can negotiate - you're a price maker. Otherwise, if the demand is low and the supply is high then you don't have much room to negotiate - you're a price taker.
The problem is overgeneralization. Even in a "bad" job market there are always jobs where the demand is high and the supply is low. Those people are in good shape.
Always negotiate.
The only effect the job market has on negotiations is it can lower the upper limit of what you can get out of it. But you should always negotiate, because if you don't, you'll almost always be getting less than you're worth regardless of market conditions.
mooreds' comment is the gist of it, resources below to help.
They also wrote a nice post on batna: https://www.mooreds.com/wordpress/archives/2839
HN Search: salary negotiation - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_alternative_to_a_negotiat...
https://www.pon.harvard.edu/tag/batna/
HN Search: BATNA - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
Depends on your financial situation, if you have a job, and how many offers you have.
Always worth thinking about your alternative to any job offer.
1. Always negotiate
2. Read this book: Never Split the Difference
NOTE: Understand the difference between negotiations and bluffing.
Thanks for the book recommendation! Heard about it a few times now so I'll check it out.
is that the one by the FBI hostage guy?
Always ask. Worst case, they say no. Best case, you compound that extra 5–10% for the rest of your career. You already got the job if you are negotiating salary, they wont take it away.
> You already got the job if you are negotiating salary, they wont take it away.
Exactly this.
In all my decades in the industry, both during up cycles and down cycles, I've never had anyone respond to negotiation by saying "never mind, the deal is off". The worst case is that they'll say "our offer is not subject to negotiations, take it or leave it."
The rest of your career? When I want more money than a cost of living raise, I change jobs. Because of salary compression, you’re almost always going to be better off changing jobs.
Always
I think people who try to negotiate and walk away from a job that doesn’t pay enough is almost always the wrong idea if you don’t have a job.
Every month you don’t bring in income, you have to make 8.3% more just to make up for the month of lost income.
Even though it didn’t come to it when I was looking for a job in late 2023 and again in late 2024, I was willing to take the first job or contract that came along *and keep interviewing*. It is especially easy when I am interviewg and working remotely.
Honestly, most of my career and I’m now 10 jobs in, it’s been a tik tok between changing jobs to up skill and changing jobs for a pay bump or now just to stay remote and half to deal with as little bullshit as possible.
what you negotiate to should change w the market, but not whether you negotiate. employers know what the market is too and they always negotiate.
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