4 Big Tech Product Managers and an Engineer Share Negotiation Tips That Landed Them Thousands of Dollars in Better Compensation

A photo collage of several bubbles superimposed on a $100 bill — Anna Kim/Getty, Tyler Le/BI

Tech workers share their salary negotiation tips that have helped increase their pay by tens of thousands of dollars.
Their negotiation strategies include practicing pitches, using data, and leveraging multiple offers.
Research and transparency are key to negotiating better pay in tech roles, they said.

Sarra Bounouh worked at consulting giant Accenture and three major technology companies.

But she still takes care of imposter syndrome, especially when talk about compensation.

“Starting a negotiation is always, at least for me, a very uncomfortable discussion,” Bounouh told Business Insider. “I just want to go all the way and ask for what I deserve.”

She and four other tech employees from Meta, Google, and Cisco shared their tips for negotiating salary before joining a company or when trying to get a promotion. They have used these strategies to add tens of thousands of dollars to their initial offers in recent years.

Sarra Bounouh joined Meta in 2024.Sarra Bounouh

Avoid offering the first number. If you must, back it up with research, said Bounouh, a product manager who joined Meta earlier this year.

She suggested using resources like Levels.for info or Glassdoor and selecting your role and location to view recent offers and compensation it makes sense for this work.

“Personally, I don’t like to have a detailed conversations about level and compensation from that first call with the recruiter because I want to meet the team, I want to meet the hiring manager, I want to be excited about the role,” she said.

Bounouh prefers to negotiate his level and remuneration once an offer is on the table.

She said she is often asked about salary expectations early in the process because recruiters say they want to save both parties time.

She politely refuses to share a number, telling the recruiter: “I don’t have a number for your right away. I’ll have to do some research before getting back to you. At this point in the process, I’m more focused on meeting with the hiring manager and the team. »

Repetition is key for conversations about promotions or raises, she said.

Bounouh said she practiced her pitch for every job after Accenture and increased the initial salary offers for all three jobs: Microsoft by 32%, Snap by 19% and Meta by 37%.

Ketaki Vaidya in an office building — Ketaki Vaidya joined Oracle in 2017 and has since grown his career within the company.Ketaki Vaidya

Internal transfers between teams or offices are also an opportunity to negotiate your overall compensation.

Ketaki Vaidya, who moved from Oracle’s India office to California in 2022, said she approached her trading with an “everything under the sun is negotiable” mindset.

First, Vaidya looked at Glassdoor and spoke to people who had made the decision to collect salary data. She wanted to make sure she would get a fair deal for the cost of living in the United States.

“I was made this offer because of the credibility I had built within the organization. I felt like I had the upper hand in negotiations,” she said. “I had a lot more confidence in myself to ask for the things I deserved – so it was a smooth transition.”

After negotiating her base salary up to $80,000, she discussed other compensation elements, including the timing of her next review, hiring bonuses, relocation expenses, paid time off and working at distance. She negotiated a $15,000 sign-on bonus and a $15,000 relocation fee, which were not part of the initial offer.

Today, his compensation is about $130,000 per year, including stock and bonuses.

Varun Kulkarni standing in front of a background with Cisco logos — Varun Kulkarni moved to technology after a career in consulting.Varun Kulkarni

When Varun Kulkarni moved from consulting to technology to work on more artificial intelligence projects, he was careful not to be so aggressive in his salary negotiations.

Once he had offers from Cisco and others in 2022, he was transparent with recruiters and mentioned other offers, without introducing his own window number.

He asked the recruiters how far they could go and what they thought of other offers.

“You can’t be too pushy,” he said.

His offer from Cisco already matched the market rate and that of several competitors, but he managed to negotiate it down to 5%, bringing his total compensation to $180,000.

Yung-Yu Lin posing with character Mario at a Super Mario Bros. event. — Yung-Yu Lin has worked at Yahoo, Meta, Visa, PayPal and Google.Yung Yu Lin

During its 2022 recruitment process at Google, Yung-Yu Lin used his then-employer, PayPal, to get better deals from both companies.

He interviewed and landed jobs at several places, but their pay didn’t compare to Google’s offer.

Lin decided to negotiate a retention package. PayPal responded with a 10% pay increase. He then renegotiated with Google.

Google offered a 20% increase on his starting compensation at PayPal, bringing his offer to between $350,000 and $400,000 as senior product manager, including stock-based compensation.

Hemant Pandey in the Meta offices — Hemant Pandey joined Meta in 2021 after experiences in other technology companies.Hémant Pandey

Hemant Pandey, a senior software engineer at Meta, used other postings and searches in his latest job search.

After two years at Salesforce, he applied in 2021 to Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn and two other companies. He used offers from these companies to negotiate his compensation at Meta.

“Be very transparent that you have other offers. Even if you have ongoing interviews, mention them., because it’s also a lever,” he said. This signals to the recruiter that they need to act quickly and work within your parameters.

Meta recruiters matched base salary and restricted stock units among the highest offers.

In addition to being transparent, Pandey said it’s important to be proactive and research how compensation works at different companies. For example, candidates should compare how inventory is refreshed, he said. A recall is when the stock option portion of an employee’s compensation is updated.

“I also negotiated my sign-on bonus and said, ‘Hey, at Salesforce, I’ll leave my $30,000 to $40,000 annual bonus if I join you.’ Can you help me manage this? »

Pandey was offered $520,000 in annual salary, including stock options, in this 2021 move.

“The biggest thing happened in my career when I left Salesforce for Meta, which resulted in a salary increase of almost 80-90%,” Pandey said.

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Read the original article on Business Insider