42 Minutes of $10m Salary Negotiation Advice (From A Sr. Director In Tech)

The Definitive Tech Salary Negotiation Guide For Experienced Software Engineers, Product Managers, Data Scientists, Designers, Marketers, and other tech professionals. In this video, I'll share with you what's worked for me over the years to negotiate tech job offers ranging from $200k to $2m+ in annual total compensation at everything from startups to large public tech companies. These are tips I learned from VPs and Directors at Meta/Facebook, Google, Startup Executives, Executive Recruiters, and Venture Capitalists.

💵 Comment if you are interested in salary negotiation coaching for experienced tech professional roles.

#salary #negotiation #negotiationskills #techsalaries #faang #softwareengineer #productmanager #designer #marketer

This applies to Software Engineers, Product Managers, Product Designers, Data Scientists, Marketers, and anyone working in tech, primarily in the US.

Negotiating at a startup vs. Google across geos and functions can alter things, so l've gathered some general guidelines and frameworks that built up my judgment over time as well as some practical tips.

If you're looking to get a high-paying tech job, then you need to learn how to negotiate. This video is designed to teach you the skills you need to get the job you want.

From salary negotiations to product pitches, you'll learn everything you need to land that big tech job!

00:00 Start Here
01:32 Why Negotiate?
02:08 Why Negotiations FAIL (Formula)
03:50 Who you REALLY negotiate with
04:52 Preparing Before Interviews
05:50 No Other Offers? Forms of Leverage
08:59 Research for Tech Compensation
10:22 3 Key Numbers
11:19 Offer Components: Total Compensation
12:53 BEYOND Total Comp
14:01 Timeline/Stages of Negotiating
14:49 1st Call / Salary Expectations
16:19 Never Give 1st Number?
17:02 Company's BATNA
17:28 Process
17:47 LEVELS
18:08 How to Answer Salary Expectations Questions
20:13 Levels Matter
21:04 BIGGEST FACTOR: Compensation Philosophy And Bands Vary by Co.
22:55 "Market Rate" Is A MYTH
22:36 Break Their Frame
23:37 Get it in WRITING
24:32 Interviews Are Negotiations
25:38 YOUR VALUE FORMULA
26:45 Tough Pre-Offer Questions
28:55 1st Offer Call
30:43 3-Step Counter Offer
32:01 Best Multiple Offer Strategy
32:51 EMAIL VS PHONE
34:22 LOW BALL OFFER? Do this.
36:18 Unlock EXCEPTIONS
36:36 Don't Miss This Detail
36:58 COUNTER Offer #1 Steps
37:59 Counter Offer #2, 3, etc.
39:01 DON'T Do THIS When Negotiating
39:25 SPECIAL WEAPON for closing
40:36 Watch Out For Recruiter Tactics
42:11 ACCEPTING YOUR OFFER!

[bkaankuguoglu]

It is one of the best resources for tech salary negotiations out there. Your grounded and thought-through insights have helped me see things more clearly. Thanks a lot, Colin!

[mopsca]

This is so awesome. Have to save this for when I negotiate. Totally wouldn’t know most of this!

[sagojez]

I like your approach. 0 bragging, 0 BS. Genuinely insightful and to the point.

[basstradamus]

This guy knows how it works. Ive worked at Google, Microsoft and other corps. I've learned this too late but such knowledge helped me to get decent increases between jobs.

[slonkerton]

For someone who has had very little exposure with negotiating salaries, this was an eye-opening video for me. This is one of those things they do not teach you in any CS program.

[dougchampion]

This is gold dude, probably the best video on YouTube on this topic, really next level!

[Stumptownc]

This is an incredible video.

Huge thank you!

[rjmunt]

I'm unintentionally fantastic at interviewing and not so bad at salary negotiations. This video is full of fabulous advice for anyone trying improve their skills.

[fedormarkov]

Best ever value/time ratio on youtube I found so far. Great job!

[IluvinortheIneffable]

Best negotiation video Ive seen so far. Thank you so much for sharing your insights. I really appreciate your thoughtful and logical approach.

[Wiz]

Some things to consider:
1) Tech job market state is not so great
2) There are performance reviews and mid-reviews, and people with higher level would get worse grades for same work.
3) Some companies will mark a checkbox in your profile like

[henrythegod]

Really good talk, surprised the algorithm hasn’t blessed it even more.

Some of the content is more geared towards later in a career, but definitely walked away with some nuggets of info applicable at all stages

Nice presentation style, too

[FainTMako]

Cant believe this guy has less than 7K subs. This is absolutely solid! This is worth listening to!

[Pekillen]

This is a job very well done. A great video! I am so glad to have found it, and I am hoping that you will continue doing good job sharing your knowledge!

[Leaf]

Man, this video brings up so many strange emotions within me as a 28 yr old who just quit my job, looking to change industries completely starting at the bottom of the IT world, never made more than $60k a year, but also made more than my parents ever have. Just seeing these numbers thrown around feels so weird. It's all together. It's a great video all around. I hope one day it will be helpful for me

[xskinyx]

Welp... watching this was the most productive 45 min of my life!

Your advice that our stretch goal "may not even be high enough" was spot on. I actually exceeded my stretch early by keeping my mouth shut, and being respectful (but slightly apprehensive) whenever they put out a number. That made my counter easy too because I could ask for a smaller (5-10%) increase and show sincere gratitude to get it. Felt very win-win.

I do feel like this advice is more geared toward senior/staff and higher roles, and is sorta predicated on nailing the interview.

[jessvagnar]

I watched this video out of curiosity more than need. Personally I'm highly confident in my interviewing for my niche field and I did well the last time I moved positions even though I made mistakes. This is an easy video I'll flag and share with others instead of trying to coach them how to succeed in interviews. I liked the way you laid out your approach and the pieces at play. Something a lot of people I've talked to struggle with likeability and helping them understand how to politely guide the conversation in terms of salary expectations or starting a negotiation once an offer is provided.

[Eddie]

Thanks for making this Colin. I’ve been a military pilot for 15 years and going into the last round interview for my first civilian job. Whilst there are differences between our industries, you’ve given me some tactics and food for thought. Thanks.
(Too bad aviation compensation is nowhere near tech…)

[cocoarecords]

Man this is top notch content . Not ur typical yt channels with bs regurgitated advice!

[shoooozzzz]

It's pretty annoying when outside folks trivialize the technical interview and say things like "simply crush the technical interview and then you can negotiate". Dude, Meta is currently asking 3 medium Leetcode questions in 45 minutes. That's 1 medium every 15 minutes and you have to be perfect 3 times in arow. Congrats, my guy.. you can help the top 0.01% engineers negotiate a better salary.