Something to readCompensation
Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued
An essay that explains how employers think about offers, and how to negotiate yours
Why it’s worth your time
You negotiate your pay only a handful of times in a career, and those few conversations can matter more than a year of extra effort. McKenzie's essay explains how hiring looks from the company's side, which tends to take the fear out: by the time you're negotiating, they've already decided they want you. It was written for software engineers in 2012, and most of it travels.
How to negotiate a job offer salary
The essay · 31 min · Free
How to get it
Opens their site. We don’t copy it here; we’d rather they get the read.
- Read the essay.
It's long, so take it in two sittings if you like. Watch for when he says the negotiation really begins, and how he describes what you cost the company.
- Write your number before anyone asks.
Look up the range for the role, decide where you belong in it and why, and list two things besides base pay you'd trade for. Having it written down is what makes the conversation calmer.
Good moments for this: before a recruiter callwhen an offer arrivesbefore your next job search
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Making it work for you
Every workplace is different. Here’s what to think about before you start, and what might get in the way.
Things to think about
An offer reflects budgets, bands and what they think it takes to hire you, not a verdict on your worth. Seeing it that way makes it easier to ask without taking the answer personally.
What might make this harder
Use the range: say where in it you belong and why. If pay truly can't move, put your effort into the other terms.
Questions people ask
What is Patrick McKenzie's salary negotiation advice?
In short: negotiate once the company has decided it wants you, avoid naming a number first, don't share your salary history, and negotiate on more than base pay. He argues that doing this well tends to make you look more valuable, not less.
Is Patrick McKenzie's salary negotiation essay still relevant?
Mostly. The core idea, that negotiating is expected and the company has more room than it seems, holds up. Some tactics predate pay-transparency laws and salary-history bans, so check what applies where you live.
Should I name a salary number first?
It depends. McKenzie says no. Some negotiation research argues that a well-researched first number can anchor the conversation in your favor. If you know the market well, going first can work; if you don't, asking for their range is safer.
Can negotiating a job offer get it taken back?
It can happen, but a polite, reasoned request is a normal part of hiring in many fields. Keep the tone warm, explain your reasoning, and avoid ultimatums you don't mean.
What it says, and how it holds up
Patrick McKenzie wrote this in 2012 as an engineer who had run small software businesses, for software developers, and he says much of it applies to anyone. The core move is a change of seat. He walks through how hiring looks from the company's side: what an employee really costs, how much it takes to fill a role, and why the difference you're asking for is small next to all of that. Once you see their math, asking stops feeling like begging.
The advice itself is practical. Wait to talk money until they've decided they want you. Don't be the first to put a number on the table, and don't let your old salary set the new one. Treat the offer as a bundle with many parts, so you can trade one for another. Prefer writing to live calls where you can, because it gives you time to think. Underneath it all is a claim worth sitting with: negotiating well tends to raise how the company sees you rather than lower it.
Fourteen years on, some of it reads differently. Many places now require employers to post pay ranges, and some bar them from asking about your salary history, which handles part of what he was fighting. Negotiation researchers also push back on his firmest rule: some studies find that a well-researched first number anchors the talk in your favor, so going first can help when you know the market. The principle has aged better than some of the tactics.
Reach for something else when the setting isn't a new offer. Asking for a raise where you already work is a different conversation, one that starts with how pay decisions get made at your company and what your manager would need to make the case. And in jobs where pay follows published scales, as in much government and union work, your room is in the level you're placed at and the other terms, not the number itself.
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Picked by Truest and described in our own words. The original belongs to its creator. Last updated October 9, 2026. We sell a career membership; where that’s relevant above, we say so.