Any recovery from a lowball offer

[Anonymous]

Just received an offer tonight. I am a reluctant fed and this would have been a way to get back to private enterprise.

Sadly, it was only a few thousand over what I make now and substantially below what the industry is paying. Other than politely expressing my disappointment and turning it down is there any way I can salvage this?

The new position offers substantial travel, only so-so benefits. I think the potential employer and industry practices are too far off. I'd be happy to return to industry but only if I am offered fair compensation in line with the industry. For what it is worth, the only place one can get expertise in this field is by coming from a federal position.

[Anonymous]

Counter with what you are comfortable accepting. If they say no, you say thank you and move on. Don't start low. It's too hard to climb out of that hole.

[Anonymous]

NP here. Were they aware of your current salary? I find that's the tricky thing.

I think you should counter back. Do a little math and see if you can kind of put a dollar figure on the benefits you will be giving up (pension, health insurance in retirement). Tell them that you are interested in the position, but you want the compensation to be fair. Hammer out a few key things you bring to the job (years of experience, industry exposure).

But you have to be ready to walk if they say no (or don't at least come back with something higher than their initial offer).

[Anonymous]

are you familiar with the term BATNA? google it. do some soul searching and figure out what salary you will walk away from this job opportunity at. then negotiate with that in the back of your head.
on paper, quantify all the benefits that come with your federal job, so you can do an apples to apples comparison for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just received an offer tonight. I am a reluctant fed and this would have been a way to get back to private enterprise.

Sadly, it was only a few thousand over what I make now and substantially below what the industry is paying. Other than politely expressing my disappointment and turning it down is there any way I can salvage this?

The new position offers substantial travel, only so-so benefits. I think the potential employer and industry practices are too far off. I'd be happy to return to industry but only if I am offered fair compensation in line with the industry. For what it is worth, the only place one can get expertise in this field is by coming from a federal position.

Is this a plus? Most people don't consider substantial travel to be a job perk (unless they are young/child free/grown children). Not to sidetrack, but a job that wanted substantial travel from me at this stage would need to compensate for it. Just another factor to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. Were they aware of your current salary? I find that's the tricky thing.

I think you should counter back. Do a little math and see if you can kind of put a dollar figure on the benefits you will be giving up (pension, health insurance in retirement). Tell them that you are interested in the position, but you want the compensation to be fair. Hammer out a few key things you bring to the job (years of experience, industry exposure).

But you have to be ready to walk if they say no (or don't at least come back with something higher than their initial offer).

Considering for most public Fed employees, the salary is public information available on the web, they probably know. Especially if they routinely hire Feds b/c the positions require certain experience.

But current salary is immaterial to your worth to them; I went from Fed to private industry and got a 50% pay raise (though albeit I was a GS-13 so this was not bad money or anything).

[Anonymous]

Counter - then if it's still low - move on. This happened to me once. Was told by the recruiter it was one salary. Got an offer for $10k less than what I was making ($25k less than recruiter said). I countered with "recruiter quoted xx in writing. I can't accept for less than xx. I wouldn't have gone through the process if the range was what was offered.@ They came back with an offer still less than xx - so I turned it down.

I got another job offer from another company within range. My experience is all private corporate - not Fed.

I think companies undercut once you are "hooked" looking for a deal. I worked at a company that did that - they had under a 50% acceptance rate and high turnover. Low balling was like a game for senior management - even when hiring managers requested xx, HR would always go in at x minus 10%.

It's been a few years since I left and I'm still behind in salary for my skill set/equivalent jobs. Don't take it if it is way below market -- not even for a little bit - It can take years to recover.