Should you take the first job offer that lands in your inbox? The verdict is a firm "no," even though most people do. According to surveys conducted by Fidelity and Engine Insights, 58% of job-seekers will accept the first offer without pushback, even though 85% of folks who counter do so successfully. Surprised? Let's unpack all this, starting with the moment you see your first offer land.
Getting to an offer is no easy feat
Whether you're a first-time job seeker, returning to the workforce, or being poached from an existing role, getting to that first offer is a journey unto itself. The networking, the finely tuned resume, the gauntlet of interviews where you donned multiple hats (subject matter expert, supplicant, product cheerleader), the meticulously crafted follow-up emails, the "will they or won't they?" waiting — we've all been there.
It's grueling, and by the end of that journey, seeing that offer materialize feels like magic. Just DocuSign and wrap it up, right?
Wrong. That may feel like the easier, frictionless path, but here, friction works in your favor.
Why should you push back on an initial offer?
If you accept the first offer you get, you're likely penalizing yourself by being on the wrong side of compounding interest. If that extra $1,000 translates to $500,000 over the course of your career, imagine what you're missing out on if countering bagged you an extra $2,000? $5,000? $10,000?
Put yourself in the hiring manager's shoes and consider the following:
- As long as the company exercised a modicum of basic budgeting, they earmarked a range of dollars for your role
- HR teams are prepared for candidates to negotiate — and because of this, they're not going to pitch you with the high end of the budget. More likely low- to mid-range. Starting with the high end would be foolhardy because they'd anchor your expectations too high and quickly deplete their runway
- Assuming your new boss isn't looking for a yes-woman or a yes-man, then they should expect you to advocate for yourself. Put differently: if you can't push back here, at the very beginning of this business relationship, how are you going to defend future decisions you make on the team?
So why does it feel so scary to push back?
We've heard many reasons in the Hive about why your fellow worker bees find countering so daunting. Maybe you've mentally anchored yourself to what you were making at your last role and have already self-discounted a bit. Maybe you're conflict-averse and pushing back on that first offer feels wildly impolite. Maybe you're worried they'll renege on the offer if you push back.
And sure, there will always be edge cases — but you've probably seen the odd horror story or two in your LinkedIn feed where even first offers are reneged with zero countering involved. By reaching the offer stage, it means the hiring team invested time in meeting and vetting you. HR, your hiring manager, and the peers on your new team spent hours with you, then collectively decided they wanted you to join.
You have little to lose and meaningful upside to gain. It's also crucial to free yourself from your previous pay, along with any notion that pay is tied to effort (more on that in a future post).
Each new role — and the negotiation tied to it — is a clean slate, a chance for you to remake your fortunes and keep what you kill. How the company reacts to your counter, too, will also give you a taste of what pushing for merit or promotional pay increases will be like at your new org.
How should you frame this situation instead?
As your friendly Beekeeper, let me tell you a story from the larval days of my career. I had wrapped my interviews and reached the offer stage, when I posed a choice to one of the co-founders.
We could open door #1 and commence with the usual back-and-forth: I'd pitch high, they'd pitch low, and we'd go round and round before landing on some middle ground. Or we could open door #2, where I'd tell him exactly what salary I'd need to make the move. He picked door #2.
I told him the number, after which we proceeded with the back-and-forth anyway. Laying out this fork in the road likely isn't something you want to try with a larger HR team, nor do you have to! The moral here is hiring managers are hard-wired to go through the negotiation dance steps, so you should respond in kind. Countering isn't being brash or rude — it's a normal, expected step of the process.
Ready to counter? Need some help?
Bottom line: should you push back on the initial offer? Yes, and the stats are on your side. The worst-case scenario is you walk away with the same offer, but having planted the seeds for future salary negotiations.
We wanted to answer the "should you?" behind countering in this post, but check out the Buzz for more insights — including how the countering process typically plays out — or jump into the Hive to discuss with your fellow bees. We're rooting for you!