tl;dr – Existing company is hemmoraging, applied for new position and after blood, sweat, tears, months etc. I got the offer last night. It's quite substaintially below my existing salary. I politely asked to take the offer back to CEO seeing as I had quoted him my existing salary. Any chance they will budge?
Hi, so longer version. 16+ years Senior/Lead/interim-CTO DevSecOps Engineer and long Software Engi background, 3 master degrees and multiple certifications. Have been currently working with 100% responsibility for CI/CD/Backend systems in a Japanese firm. 36 days of flexible vacation. 100% remote work. Great base salary but no other benefits whatsoever.
I applied for a new role at an internationally recognised Swiss company with their HQ and entire development team in Japan. I was referred by a friend and existing employee who has 16+ years exp solely in this company.
Met with:
- Hiring Manager
- Did coding exam/challenge (way more difficult than necessary)
- The Head of DevOps/former Head of Engineering, and the Head of Product
- The CTO
- Finally CEO (he asked salary, I told him my existing salary)
- Hiring Manager (again) to discuss salary and emplmt. conditions.
Their offer:
- 'DevSecOps Engineer' (title) no Senior, no Lead etc.
- Between -26% and -32% less than I am making now. Depending on whether or not I go to the office 5 days a week.
- Expected to move to Toyko, go to office 5 days a week for the 6 months probation
- Not paid overtime
- 10 days vacation + 1 per year of tenure
- No paid sick-leave
- 1-2 months max paid apartment in Tokyo before I find permanent accomodation
- New laptop (unspecified what type)
- Potential for remote work after probation (still lose 100% of the office incentive)
- HARD MAYBE on performance bonus (they refused to say when/how much and what even is the KPIs)
That was basically it. It's what I consider the bare minimum Japanese-style salary package. Nothing to sweeten it at all (unless I am blind?) There may be a little more that we didn't get time to discuss (eg. commute compensation etc) but that's what we discussed.
Specifically I wanted to try and negotiate the base salary. Even just by 10-15%. Hiring manager told me after some back-and-forth that CEO set the amount and she'd have to talk to him.
Here's the kicker, I'm expected to take 80%+ of the workload from existing Head of DevOps asap so he can move back to be Head of Engineering as the company doesn't have one now. Company has 50 employees, about 60% are foreign (European) plus 50+ EU/US contractors purely on product support. Company outlook is extremely good, culture reported to be very good. I am also expected to help them get ISO/security certified to start partnerships between USA. Like they set the bar for me REALLY high based on my existing accomplishments. So I was basically told I'd be expected Sr. to Lead responsibility asap. But I wasn't even given the title or matching salary offer. Actually I feel like the offer was almost all stick and no carrot, really not what I was expecting.
I tried to keep my negotiation as professional and neutral as possible. HRM pushed back by saying "Normally we hire Japanese (ethnic) people etc. who speak native Japanese (I don't)" and "This is based on our internal salary bands" etc. and "Are you sure you want me to take this offer back to the CEO?" and finally "You seem very confident about your skills…" which I felt was a little emotionally manipulative. I get that Japanese are proud people <3 but I have an extremely good profile as mentioned. I did my best to negotiate humbly but firmly based on the fact that I know they specifically want a European DevOps Specialist to move mountains in the company because the existing people they have are so cautious. Plus given that we have come so far together + got good feedback + my profile etc. Ultimately HRM tried to offer me "Senior" title instead of in 4 years, but said salary would be the same regardless, tbh that felt a little like offering me more responsibility for nothing.
I think that's enough info. Don't want to bore readers more with the specifics. So how are my chances and what/if anything should I expect to hear back after HRM speaks to the CEO?
Also interested in other feedback. Was my negotiation out-of-line? Did I maybe lose face etc?
Thank you so much.
by Difficult-Throwaway2