Hey, what's up, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got this question about negotiating with 2 companies.
I’ve talked about the idea of negotiating a few times trying to think if I’ve done
videos.
I’m sure that I’ve done some on negotiating your salary and I definitely have a blogpost
you can check out, probably my most popular blogpost on negotiating that you can check
out here on negotiating your salary.
But I haven’t really talked about the topic of negotiating between 2 companies, at least
not that I recall here.
Anyway, I got this email and it says, “Hi John, big fan.
One topic of my interest would be how to negotiate with 2 companies at the same time.
For example, my contract is ending in 2 months and I’ve started to look for new opportunities,
but depending on the recruiting policy, one company might come with an offer faster than
the other, but I’d like to be able to compare both offers and pick the best, obviously.
By the way, a faster answer than a chapter in a new book would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.”
Well, you know, let’s see.
When did you send this?
September of 2015.
I’m probably giving you about the same speed as if I would have written this in a book.
Anyway, at least I’m answering it.
It’s probably too late for you, but maybe it will help someone else.
Here’s the thing.
There’s a couple of things that you could do here and what I would advise is first of
all, if you’re planning this ahead of time then plan your schedule like you’ve got
to set this up—if you want to entertain multiple offers and do that whole thing you’ve
got to make it so that your schedule is set up that way.
Set up your job search and your interviews so that you have the offers, the interviews
and the offers coming in at the same time as much as you can.
But beyond that—one thing that you can usually do is—a big mistake, I think, rookie mistake
that a lot of people make is they get an offer and then they’re like, “Oh crap, I got
to get back to them right away.”
Have you ever noticed how companies don’t do that?
You go for an interview and they don’t tell you the results of the interview for weeks.
I’ve had companies where they got back to me a month and a half later and I’m like,
“Dude, do you really think that I don’t have a—that I’m just without a job for
a month and a half while I’m waiting for you to get back to me?”
But my point is like you’re not getting extended that same courtesy, so don’t assume
that you’ve got to like flip back an offer super quick.
That’s not true.
Instead, what you can do is you can basically, when your first offer comes in, then you can
sit on the offer and you can—as long as you give people information you say, “Hey
look, I have this other offer that’s coming in and I want to have my options so I want
to wait for it.
I think you have a great company.
I’d love to work for you, but I’m an intelligent person and I like to know what my options
are before making a decision.
I’m sure that you made a careful decision when you chose to give me an offer so I would
appreciate if you would give me the same courtesy of making the best choice for me as well.”
As long as you word it right then most of the time a company—a company is not going
to go from wanting to hire you to saying, “Oh well, well then.
If you don’t want to take our offer immediately then we’re just going to take it off the
table.”
The other thing that you can do to buy time is of course what you should be doing anyway
which is you never should take the first offer.
If someone gives you an offer you should be counter offering with a higher number.
Almost every single time even if it’s better than what you expected to get, counter.
That’s going to buy you time.
It’s going to take them time to come back with a counter and you can counter again in
that time.
Most of the time—I never heard of a job that didn’t survive 2 counters.
Now 3 could be pushing it, they might say, “Screw you, we’re done.
We’re not going to play this game with you.”
You can always get 2.
If you buy you time, if you wait a couple of days before you give the counter and it
takes them a couple of days, that can let the other offers come in.
Just don’t jump.
Don’t be like, “Oh, I got an offer so I better go jump on it and respond to it right
away.”
Space out the time and be upfront if you need to, just say, “Look, I’m waiting an offer
from this company” pointblank.
That might even help your negotiation.
Don’t make it up.
Don’t lie, but at the same time you can get that information out and that’s going
to be helpful to you.
Yeah, I think that probably suffices to answer that question there.
It’s a tricky situation.
Don’t get caught also playing companies against each other.
You have to always be willing to walk away.
One of the things that can happen to you and that often happens to people who try to play
people against each other or companies, I’m not judging, I’m not saying that that’s
wrong.
I totally have done it and I would do it and I don’t think there’s anything morally
wrong with trying to get the best offer that you can is that you could lose both.
It happens.
It happens with relationships, it happens with companies, you’ve just got to be willing
to accept that, but you should have that attitude.
You should be willing to walk away from any situation that does not suit you.
If you have that attitude you’re going to go a lot further than you will being cautious
and scared all the time.
Anyway, hope that helps you.
If you have a question for me email me at john@simpleprogrammer.com.
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I'll talk to you next time.
Take care.