Ask HN: How to Deal with Lowballed Offers?

Once I accepted lowball offer without negotiation due to harsh conditions (long out of job, morgtage, bad market). The company somewhat knew about my conditions and leveraged that.

While working there and making ends meet I kept calmly looking for job. In 4 weeks I reciprocated - received much better offer and fired my boss. In addition I didn't have to stay 2 weeks because boss forgot to force me to sign employment agreement. Being nice for their client I stayed for 2 days and then left for good.

So use to to your advantage. Keep looking for job and leverage their FAANG-y name to boost your market value.

First, make sure your expectations are in line with reality. I recently talked with a new college grad that was pissed he wasn't getting $150-200k base offers, he's an idiot. Not saying you are, but make sure your expectations are lined up with reality. If they are, and you were lowballed then either go back with a realistic number showing them you know your value or move on.

Companies will try to take advantage of people who don't value themselves enough because if the person is happy to make 100k even though their peers are making 120k then most companies will try to make that happen. They aren't going to give you 120k just cause others already make it. Usually their range for a position will be broad so they can play these games.

In the end never accept a lowball offer just cause of the name of a company, you'll never get the value out of the name brand if they don't pay you it in compensation.

FAANG or no-FAANG, if they won't offer what you think you are worth, then walk away. I'm assuming you're a seasoned professional and not straight out of college. If the latter, are you sure you know what you're worth?