salary negotiation help with consulting firm (best)

[Redskins101]

If you want a management position just study for the PMP certification and then you'll be golden.

[z28lt1]

Originally Posted by lioil

I think i will try to sell my mba and location. Since he said he accounted for my clearance i can just say mba save them money and make myself norr valuable. Also i can bring say me being local can save them monry too? my friend also brought up a good point - they made an offer to me the day after the interview so maybe they really want me? If thats the case maybe i have leverage but they are lowballing me hoping i fold?

Every company is different, so no one (outside of the recruiter and hiring team) can say for sure, but in my experience, most companies don't lowball by $30k. They risk turning off the candidate or have them take another job without giving them an opportunity to negotiate. If I offer someone $100k, one of two things happened - I wanted to pay them a little less but came up to meet their requirements because they were worth the extra, or I want to pay them $100, have a max probably 5-10% higher and will negotiate a little. For consultants, I put much more weight on experience than an MBA but that may just be me.

[lioil]

Yeah i do agree experience is important in consulting but from what i heard the work ia around my alley so it's not like i am not bringing experience. One person told me that senior consultant salaries vary greatly because of experience etc. His friend with 10 years exp in it and MBA from booth top 5 business school got 130 so it really varies.

The problem with how i felt is their justification is because the salary bump % for me is so high that it doesn't sit well with accounting which doesnt make much sense to me. and the 10% inflated numbers excuse on glassdoor just sounds like a lame excuse..

Here's my gameplan:
1. call them tomorrow afternoon and first ask for extension to see if they give it- i hear sometimes they just throw money at it to solve whatever problems i do have.
2. If 1 fails i will say that although i understand that their starting number is 90ish and they bumped by justifying clearance but i bring in more value of being local so i can work all the projects available and it saves government money for travel expenses, my MBA also save them money since they do pay people 10 k or so a year if they want to get an MBA. If they still dont budge i think i will say i need to seriously consider this again.
3. If comes friday i dont hear a peep from them i probably just gonna accept it anyways because i feel theres too much growth opportunities i am giving up for my future. I mean heck if three years down i apply for another position senior consultant looks much better than senior engineer x you know?

Any tweaks i need on my gameplan?
Btw i hear the recruiters absolutely hate people coming back with company matches because that shows you are not serious about the firm..

[JfromReston]

I hope you are using better capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure in your correspondence with your current and future employers.

[lioil]

Ok so I sent an email for extension and coincidentally (or not) the recruiter who first set me up with interviews etc. contacted me to ask how I am doing in the process. I basically told her the discussion of the offer from Monday and how I came to my salary expectations. I told her the 110Kish + sign on was my starting point because that was my glassdoor reference. She reiterated about the bonus & growth potential and how Glassdoor might not be as accurate since the "Senior Consultant" role has salary difference among Federal, S&O and Tech - S&O gets more because of the travels and more hours per week (I am aware of that).

She then tried to gauge my interest in the company asking whether money is the only thing that mattered to me and if my current were to match what I would do. I told her that if salary is matched I will still accept the offer. I know beforehand the company absolutely despises people trying to use the interview/offer process to get a current salary bump and not leave. In the end she said she can try to negotiate for more BUT that hinges on me accepting the offer if the negotiation is successful and I agreed to it. She also agree that I am probably lowballed on my current position so it could justify the additional bump of ~10k more. So yeah I am going to take the job and honestly I would've taken it if they were adamant about the existing figures too because I feel there's so much growth opportunity there to pass up..

[HB2HSV]

Good for you.

The recruiter would hate to lost her commission (~$40K for her!!) if you won't take the job.

Now that you've given her your "best & final". Let's see if she delivers

[lioil]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

Good for you.

The recruiter would hate to lost her commission (~$40K for her!!) if you won't take the job.

Now that you've given her your "best & final". Let's see if she delivers

What really? 40k???? Is that the difference of what I could've got or standard bonus? I do know a simple referral for TS cleared is like 6K(?) or so, and that is just passing someone's resume. I think she will deliver because she told me (could be a lie but w/e) she needs me to sign it if it happens. She also mentioned how they usually have wiggle room when they make initial offer which sounds like(as expected) they could move up considering not every negotiation will go smoothly. But the key was saying I would sign it if the re-negotiation is successful. I hear from some employees from the firm if they sense you are trying to use the offer as leverage for current position they could rescind the offer and you have pretty much burned your chances with the firm forever...

[FCNova]

I think the other poster was assuming you're using a 3rd party recruiter(headhunter). Instead of an internal recruiter at the consulting company. They typically will get a fee somewhere in the 20-25% range to place people, paid by the company who hires you. I doubt they're getting 40k for placing you, that would be a higher placement fee than I've ever seen. Probably more like 20k. But big firms like Deloitte typically don't use outside recruiters.

[Ben 'n Jen]

PM'd you on a local opportunity.

[lioil]

So I got the re-negotiated letter and everything seems in place. Thanks to all the folks here for the help! It is now time for a new direction in my career and it will be a lifestyle changer for sure but I feel coming out of this will bring a ton of opportunities in the future.