[om3n]

What I did recently was risky, so YMMV.

I asked my boss for a raise last year around performance review time. I explained that I had taken on a lot of responsibility, I cited some projects that I led, and I enumerated how I had impacted our team since I had joined. I really was the top producer on my team at the time. He explained to me that I was already being paid more than any other engineer in my department, and he negotiated a small raise for me that year- 6% instead of the normal ~3%. I was disappointed.

This year, I decided to up my game. I continued to go above and beyond at work, and then around performance review time I interviewed at a couple companies in the area and got two written offers for 20%+ more than I was making. I handed those to my boss and explained that I really enjoyed working for him, and for this company, and that I don't want to leave, but I believed this is what I was worth.

He immediately submitted me for a promotion, and I'm hopeful that the raise will come with it. I should get the results in the next 2 weeks.

[Justen]

I recently went through some interviews and was trying to line up offers at the same time but what ended up happening was one would come in, and I'd still have a week or two process with the other company. Even telling the 2nd company I had an offer or one coming soon to speed things up made it impossible to get two offers at the same time. One offer would sit for a week and that seemed to be as long as they were willing to wait, so my question is how did you line these timetables up so that you can get more than 1 offer without risking 1 expiring?

[bcbrown]

The best way I've found to handle that is while scheduling the final interview. The one that's further along, ask for the in-person to be a week later then they'd proposed. Try to schedule the two in-persons at the two companies within a week of each other.

The other (risky) way to handle it is to say "I understand that you need a timely response because you may have other candidates you need to get back to. If you need a response this week then unfortunately I'll have to withdraw from consideration, as I won't be able to get back to you by then." Of course, you have to really mean it, and you have to be ok with them going ahead and withdrawing the offer.

[om3n]

That part was luck. These two companies both got me through their interview process at the same time, and they both gave me about a week to respond as well.

I'm also in a unique situation- I think I am actually sort of hard to replace, as I live/work in a smaller Midwest city. My manager has no interest in hiring a remote developer, and we've been struggling to hire people for the past year or so.

I don't think I'd try this at every company or in every city.

[virtuexru]

What city if you don't mind me asking? Trying to move outta one of the "Tech hubs" in the US and move somewhere where the rents/lifestyle is more manageable :).

[logfromblammo]

Be prepared to let an exploding offer explode.

As a candidate, there's not much you can do about companies that won't interview additional candidates or extend offers until after the previous top pick refuses their offer. It ultimately comes down to whether the company is hiring the right person to fill a specific position, or whether they are hiring a good candidate and then finding the right position for them to fill. The former is willing to leave runners-up candidates in limbo while their top pick has an offer in hand. Doing that necessarily extends process time for other companies in the same market. And it can produce deadlocks.

On Monday, Candidate A interviews at Company X, and Candidate B interviews at Company Y. On Tuesday, B interviews at X, and A interviews at Y. On Friday, X extends an offer to A and tells B that they are still interested, and Y offers for B, and tells A they are still interested. But both A and B want to compare offers from X and Y. X and Y both want their outstanding offers to be accepted or rejected before making another one. The companies pressure the candidates to decide quickly. The candidates expect that the second offers will be coming in any day now, because the companies keep saying they are "working on it".

Now we have a game-theory problem. Companies play the odd rounds, Candidates play the even rounds. Company moves are "offer X", "reject", or "pass". Candidate moves are "offer X", "withdraw", "pass", and "rejected". When a company enters the game, their first play is all "reject", and for each subsequent round they play, they score -1. When a candidate enters the game, their first play must be all "withdraw" or "pass", and for each subsequent round they play, they score -1.

If a candidate plays a round with no "offer X" moves, they may leave the game, scoring 0. If a company plays a round with no "offer X" moves, they may leave the game, scoring 0. If a company plays a round with an "offer X" AND the candidate has one matching "offer X" and all other moves are "withdraw" or "rejected", the player may exit the game, the company scoring VALUE(COMPANY,CANDIDATE)-X and the candidate scoring X. If the company meets applicable exit criteria after all candidates exit, they may also exit with no penalty. The output of the VALUE() function is not known precisely to the company prior to scoring, but an approximate value somewhere within 0.618 and 1.618 of the actual scoring value is freely available during play.

So if the playfield is populated with companies that only have one "offer X" out at a time, with a lot of "pass" moves, how does one counter that as a candidate?

One that comes to mind is for the candidate to stay in the game when they could otherwise exit, exploiting that fact that companies only score when candidates exit. Accept the expiring offer, and simply don't start work for that company until after other potential offers come in. If a better offer comes in, change the previous one to "withdraw" and exit with a higher score.

As with other games that can be reduced to simple rules, this one can produce complex strategies which may involve alliances, deception, cartelization, and secret signaling. And repeated consecutive games may enable strategies that are not possible in single games.

[salarycommenter]

>He explained to me that I was already being paid more than any other engineer in my department,

Every time a manager has said this to me it was a lie.

[twblalock]

Even if it’s true it’s not a good argument. You deserve to be paid market rate and if other people in the department are willing to settle for less, that’s their problem.

[flyingpenguin]

Just tell your manager you need a moment and want to go see how much your coworkers make. Then go to your co-workers tell them how much you make and that you want a raise and ask them how much they make.

I generally tell people at jobs how much I got hired for within 2 days of joining a company.... there are no down sides.

[blackflame7000]

There are plenty of downsides if your pay is higher than someone with seniority because they aren't gonna like the “new guy” being paid more. Then that will cause animosity between them and their boss for bringing in outside talent instead of feeding the mouths he already has. Then your boss will be annoyed with you for already creating a headache in your first week

[winrid]

As a manager it's astonishing to me that someone would lie about this. People talk about salary.

[salarycommenter]

And yet every manager I have ever had asks me not to discuss salary with other co-workers to prevent them from getting jealous. Usually in the same discussion where they tell me I am the highest paid one.

This is usually a few weeks before I have an offer for 40% more.

I think they lie because they know they are going to lose me anyways so it's a gambit with a low probability of success, but no additional penalty for failure.

[twblalock]

I've been told this and I'm pretty sure it was true, and I was underpaid, and everyone else was underpaid worse.

It's a lame argument even when it's true.

[MuffinFlavored]

I was told this is one of the only ways to get a substantial raise at any sizable corporation. It does however run the risk of running your employer the wrong way.

[chpmrc]

This strategy should be implemented only if you are absolutely willing to leave if they say no.

[sosborn]

The other risk is they say, "Hey, let's appease this guy for now while we find his replacement."

[twblalock]

This strategy works because you proved you can get offers from other companies. If you lose your current job you can just get offers again.

[sosborn]

> If you lose your current job you can just get offers again.

Maybe, maybe not. I'm just saying it is an added risk, especially if one of your goals was to stay at that company, but with additional salary.

[chpmrc]

I don't think there is enough evidence to prove this claim but yeah, it's possible. It really depends on the size and culture of the company.

[villgax]

or even sabotage the next promotion if at all soon.

[crsv]

YMMV of course, but this can and has backfired. If you're going out to the market and getting offers of employment you should be fully emotionally committed to leaving your organization. An individual manager who has a close relationship with you might "get it" in terms of this approach, but from a succession planning and HR perspective unless the business is aware that they're offering substantial below market rate and they are truly supply constrained, this tactic will not end well for you.