Should you take a new job or re-negotiate your current salary?
Hi there,
It’s Laura and this week I want to discuss the situation many of us find ourselves in over the course of our careers: you applied for a new job, you got a higher salary but you also kind of like your current job. It’s not so bad afterall! So what should you do? Take the new job or try to stay and re-negotiate your salary.
Before we get into the different aspects you should consider while making your decision, I do want to state that the best decision for your career is known only to you. These are just some suggestions about what to keep in mind when deciding what the new step is.
Analyze what are your reasons for wanting a new job
It’s a lot easier to make the decision to stay or leave if you know what made you reach out and appy to a different company. in the first place.
While salary is often an important factor as to why people change jobs, this doesn’t always have to be the case. I really want you to sit down and analyze what is driving your want to change.
Are you looking for more responsibility? Are you trying to ditch a toxic environment? Did you simply reach a ceiling in your current company and while they won’t kick you out, there’s nowhere up to go towards?
This might be a funny bit of advice, but you should actually write down all the reasons why you want to leave because when you are faced with the offers - both to stay and to leave - you can cross check these offers and compare to how they address your reasons to leave.
This will make the decision process a lot easier overall and it will also make sure that you don’t get swept up in an offer that might seem good at first glance but actually isn’t that great when you really look into the details.
For example, if you want to grow in your career and that’s why you’re looking to switch jobs but the role that is offered to you is an exact copy of what you’re doing now, it might not be the best fit even if they’re offering more money. I’m not saying necessarily that you need to stay in this job forever, but simply that in this case you might want to continue your search for new jobs.
Compare the full benefit packages
Salary might be one thing but you should also compare the benefit packages at both companies before making a decision to go.
For example, are you gaining more cash but sacrificing vacation days or pension benefits. Ultimately, if you have to make up for these lost benefits from the new salary, are you ending up in a net positive? Make sure that you don’t only compare the sticker price, as they say, but also take into account how the change will impact your life, from insurance, sick leave, commuting time and so on.
Of course, going into a new job also gets you the opportunity to negotiate more things that perhaps aren’t available for you when you stay. I wrote more about this here. If you are wondering what the options are, give that a read to get inspired before you go to the negotiation table!
Estimate future revenue predictions
I think I mentioned this before, but one of my mentors told me a while back
After 2 years working for the same company, you’re most likely underpaid compared to market conditions. The more you stay, the worse the discrepancy is going to get.
Obviously, if you went out and got a better offer, this indicates that ,compared to current market conditions, you’re underpaid and the percentage increase compared to your current compensation will determine just how much your current employer took advantage of you.
Before you simply jump at the new offer I do want to point out the next natural question: which company will give you better revenue growth in the future? For example, if your current company only gave you 1-2% increases and they make no written commitments for better future increases, this means staying will eventually get you to the same spot - of being underpaid - in a few years. Do you have a better chance of annual increases - either in salary, stocks, bonuses - in your new company? Do you think the stock price of your new company will outperform your current employer’s? Does your new company offer stocks or not?
While you can’t be sure that your new company will guarantee better pay, you CAN be sure that your current company has no problem underpaying you unless you try to blackmail them with leaving. Try to see if you can get any more information about the salary ranges in the new company - either from blind or levels.fyi.
Be Fearless
This is going to seem a bit cheesy but I feel like I need to include it here: don’t let fear be a factor in your decision making. I know that being comfortable in your job can keep you in a place longer than it actually serves you. So let me be the one to break it to you:
If you change your job, it will be uncomfortable in the beginning.
You won’t know what everyone is talking about, you won’t know the right people and everything will seem overwhelming. But after a couple of months, all this discomfort will go away, this is simply the natural process of changing your job. Remember why you wanted to leave in the first place and don’t let fear hold you back.
The benefit of change
After working for the same company for a long time you will basically get used to how things are done there, what limitations exist in that company and you will inevitably build unconscious biases that will shape your work and the way you work.
I can speak about this from personal experience: working for Amazon was my first real corporate experience, almost straight out of college, and I just thought that’s how things work everywhere. I didn’t have any terms of comparison. So when I came to Booking I could see what things were done differently and where there were opportunities for me to both learn and teach.
This will be true for you as well! While change is uncomfortable and its tough, the only way to grow and learn is to have something change. I really do think that changing jobs gives you the opportunity to hold a mirror at your way of working and understand things you do well, things you did because that’s what everyone was doing and things that you didn’t do as well but got by because, again, everyone was doing it.
The point of no return
One more thing to consider in the process of deciding whether you want to take a new job or to re-negotiate your current situation is that there is a point of no return. The minute you go to your manager and state that you have another offer from a different company the cat is out of the proverbial bag.
There is no going back from that: your manager, from that point onwards, knows that you are interviewing and they know you might want to leave. Of course, if you are a highly valued employee they might be open to negotiating to keep you there but you should also know that if there is any chance of layoffs, your name is on the chopping block. They might also try to keep you until they can replace you with someone else and maybe even have you train your replacement. So if you’re made an offer to stay and you’re suddenly asked to train someone else on what you do… maybe start applying to new jobs again. Just saying.
What are some of the things you consider when faced with this decision? Let me know in the comments down below!
That’s it for today, folks.
Until next time, this is Laura signing off.
