Speaker 1: So you just had that big interview and you knew that you crushed it round after round and you knew you'd be the perfect fit. And a few days later you get a call from that recruiter and they deliver you some good news. They say, you've done a great job. The team really is interested in you and we're prepared to put together an offer. And when they actually give you the terms, the offer is significantly lower than what you expected. Oh, it looks like you're the victim of a low ball offer, but don't worry. In this video I'm going to share with you how you should address offers just like that one. Hey everybody, it's Brian from a life after layoff. And today I want to share with you how to address hopefully something that you never have to experience, but it's that low ball offer. Now, as you've made it through the corporate gauntlet of a hiring process, it can be very exhausting and draining and nothing can be more frustrating than being presented with an offer on a position that you're particularly excited about. That is significantly lower than what you were expecting. And you were very clear about what your expectations were throughout the interviewing process. And in particular with the recruiter during that first round interview screen. So it should come as no surprise what it's realistically going to take for the company to get a deal done with you at the end of that interview. So if you watch my other videos, you have a pretty good understanding of what happens behind the scenes. But I think it's important to walk through what that process looks like from a good quality employer's perspective. Now, I've been fortunate in my career to work some pretty high quality employers, who understand the value of talent on the open market. And generally speaking, I have not had to make too many low ball offers in my career. I will be perfectly honest with you. There's no recruiter out there who likes to deliver a low ball offer, especially when we know your expectation is fair and you're in the range for what the market is suggesting that position is worth. So let's talk about the hiring process, specifically about your salary and offers, and then we'll jump into exactly how you should handle the low ball offer. Generally speaking, in your first round interview, a good recruiter is going to cover your salary expectations and actually your total comp expectations. So it goes beyond just even your salary. It's usually your salary, your total compensations of salary plus bonus. And then I even cover what your paid time off expectation is as well, because it's really looking at the entirety of a compensation package and trying to figure out ways to make a fair offer. And one that's going to give us the highest likelihood of you accepting, because if you go through an entire interviewing process and a company is very committed to moving you all the way through, and it usually takes a fair amount of time to get through that process, a rejected offer at the end is pretty catastrophic for the company as well as the candidate. So it's in a company's best interest to present you with an offer that's fair as well. And companies don't want those rejected offers because now they have to start the process all over again. And there's metrics like days to fill and the percentage of offers that are declined that are all factored into performance on the recruitment and staffing team. Now in a lot of cases, the compensation isn't determined by the talent acquisition department. It's actually determined by the business itself. And the talent acquisition group is kind of the messenger. Now a good recruiter is going to advocate for the candidate, especially when they know that the candidate brings a lot of value and that's not an easy position to fill on the open market. So we will submit notes to the hiring team indicating what your compensation expectation is. And when a hiring manager is considering an offer that's just not realistic, generally speaking, I will push back and say, I don't think this is going to get it done. However, we sometimes have to present those offers. And again, I've been very fortunate to work with companies that have valued talent appropriately, but there are some companies out there whose pay philosophy is to lag the market and try to get the cheapest possible labor. I'm not going to deny that it doesn't happen. So that's why it's important for us as the job seeker to make sure that we're armed with the best possible data, know our worth and stand by it. So let's cover how we should address the low ball offer. Should you be unfortunate enough to receive one? So the first thing is, is we really want to know what our worth is. I highly recommend that you check out the other video that I did on the employment curve, because there is only a certain amount of money that industry is willing to pay a certain skillset. And there's a point of diminishing returns. In other words, if you stay in a position for longer than five or seven years or in a job type, generally speaking, the amount that a company is going to pay, especially for an individual contributor is going to decrease over time. So in the beginning of your career, they may value that particular skill higher and you'll see a more steady increase. However, you're going to hit a point of diminishing returns where staying in that role for 15, 20, 25 years, you just don't see the same compensation increases because you hit a certain point in the market where they just won't value additional years of experience like you think that they should. And the more unique and the more in demand a skillset is the higher that you can expect to be paid. So software developers, I'm looking at you. Now it's important to note that you should take in geographic consideration. So somebody that's working in San Francisco is going to be certainly compensated differently than somebody that's working in Iowa. And this is becoming particularly interesting for companies who are moving to a remote first workforce, because now it becomes a question of if you can sit anywhere in the world, how much should you be compensated or how much should it be tied to your geographic location? And I think companies are still trying to figure that out. And the next thing you can do to figure out what you're worth on the open market is look at what other employers are paying similar positions in similar geographic regions. So look at job postings and see if they publish those look at glass door for anybody that self reports, look at comparably, there's some other sites that you can do some research on. Now I'd use glass door with a grain of salt. If you're looking at a smaller company that doesn't have as much self reported data, the information that you're going to find there might not be as accurate as a recruiter knowing what we pay versus what's reported on glass door. There is usually a disconnect. So maybe a position says that they can only go up to a hundred and I know that we've paid people 120 so you have to use a little bit of a grain of salt, but it's one of the better ways to find out what other companies are compensating in that local geographic region. Maybe you have some friends in the industry as well who can give you a little bit of insight and you really need to be honest with your skillset. Are you truly a market leader in your skills? So let's use software developers as an example. Is your coding truly up to speed? Can you go on to hacker rank or another website like that and continually score in the green on those expert level questions because you can self assess pretty easily and know how your skillset stacks up against the best competition. And if you're very solid at what you do and you're in a high demand career path, then you're going to be able to expect more compensation as a result. And then finally, are you presenting yourself as an expert? In other words, can you sell yourself and can you convince the interview teams that you truly are the expert that you say you are? So all of those things are going to determine your value on the open market. Now once we know what our value is and we've been realistic, the next thing that we want to figure out is what is our bottom line salary that we're willing to accept. Now let's take all things into consideration of what's the condition of the labor market. Is it a buyer's market or a seller's market? What's the labor market in your geographic region? How badly do you need the job or how desperate are you to get back to employment if you're somebody that's unemployed and what's the going rate for the position that you want to work? So what you want to do is come up with that number that you would comfortably live with and realistically not be looking for a new job immediately should you accept it because that's going to be your bottom line. So the next thing that you want to do is inform the company once you're presented with that low offer that it's not what you expected. So what that's going to tell the recruiter is that they didn't make a serious enough attempt to get you on board and they should immediately know that they're not going to get a deal done with the current numbers. So a good recruiter is going to go back to the hiring manager and the HR team and say, Hey, listen, this is not going to cut it. And then they can start working on a counter if that's what they desire to do. Now, when I present an offer, I usually try to get a gauge for a person's interest level right then and there. I'll present all the details and all the information on the benefits package. And then I'll ask, how does this sound? Does it align with what you were thinking? Do you have any initial reactions for me? And the reason why I ask you that is then I can go back and run interference. Should we need to do something different in the offer? So the next thing that you want to do is as you're armed with that good data and you know what your true value is and what skillset you bring, present your value case to the company, explain why it is that you're the best fit for the role and why you think your salary expectation is very reasonable based on the level of service that you'll provide them. And a good company that really wants you as part of their team is already going to understand this, but it's worth reiterating it so that that's put on the table. And then as you're considering the offer, think about the other perks that might be associated with the position and would they move the needle enough for you? Whether it's maybe they've got a great vacation policy or paid time off policy. Maybe they have a variable bonus pay or equity in the company that could potentially help get them across the finish line. Maybe it's remote work or they've got a really strong benefits package that might make up for the lower salary. But I would suggest that you assign a dollar value to each one of those and define exactly what they're worth to you. So we've got a baseline number that we're working off of and a value for the perks that they're offering. And that's how we can really determine whether or not it's a position that you're going to pursue and then wait to hear back from them on a counteroffer. And if they ask what you're expecting, give your number and be firm and we have to be prepared to walk away from the opportunity. And if there's such a disconnect between what you're expecting and what they're offering, chances are they're probably not going to come back with a revised offer that's going to make sense for you anyway, because low quality employers tend to be low quality for a reason. So hopefully you're not in a position where you absolutely need the job and we'll take any position that comes your way because when you do and you accept that lowball offer, immediately what happens is you keep your resume updated and you keep on applying to jobs and I start weakening your resume and you start getting off course. And not to mention it might also be an indicator of the corporate culture that you're walking into and struggling to get your number just walking in the door. Just imagine what it's going to be like at raise time or any other opportunities where maybe you earn a promotion, you're probably always going to be underwhelmed. So think long and hard about your options, know what your worth is and stand firm. All right, so there you have it. That's how I would handle that lowball offer. Hey, if you're getting to the offer process, you're doing something right. So just a few little tweaks, let's try to narrow down better quality opportunities for you and we'll get you across that finish line. But if you think you need more help, that's actually something that I specialize in. I've got a website called a life after layoff.com. It's loaded with tips and tricks all from an insider's perspective. So I encourage you to check that out. I've also got some training courses that represent my deepest and most intimate knowledge. The first one is called resume rocket fuel. It is designed to teach you how to write that resume. That's going to give you the best chance of getting noticed by that recruiter for the first round interview. So if you're not somebody that's even getting the interviews to get the lowball offer, you might want to check it out because it's almost always a resume issue. And once you get that first round interview, it's up to you to sell yourself throughout the rest of the process to ultimately land that high quality offer. And that's where the ultimate job seeker bootcamp comes in. It teaches you all the techniques that you need in order to ace each step of that interviewing process and ultimately land a high quality offer with a high quality employer. So if you're struggling, highly encourage you to check it out. Hey, if you found value in this video, sure would appreciate that thumbs up button because it really does help me continue to bring you great quality content and all those insider tips. I sincerely appreciate you watching. I appreciate all those comments and feedback and we will see you on the next one.