I've noticed the accepted wisdom on blind is to never accept a counter offer from your current company under any circumstances. I highly disagree. Accepting a counter can be awesome. Being on both sides of the situation several times as a manager and ic, here are my thoughts on how it actually works. Disclaimer is that I'm speaking from the perspective of engineering orgs, and ones that are highly competitive for talent and can afford to be picky. - If you receive a counter, you are valued. This may be because you have an important role or are clearly talented. - Accepting a counter is awesome. It's great to get paid substantially more for the same exact job you were doing the day before. - Counters are rare. If you don't receive a counter, it may just be because your company has a policy against them, or it's really hard to get one done. - Your manager and company are not offended by you saying you have an outside offer. If you're valued, they'll often wonder what they did wrong for you to seek offers elsewhere. It's often a wake-up call for them to try harder to keep their best people happy. - If you accept a counter, your manager is not looking for the first opportunity to replace you. A lot goes into a counter. If it's a decently sized organization, your manager has to use social capital to escalate. It's very hard to get all the gears turning at once out of cycle. Management chain, finance, comp team, execs...a combination of these often need to get involved just to approve a counter. Your manager doesn't want to go through all this if they don't value you. And they definitely don't want to replace you first chance they get if they expended all that energy in vouching for you up the chain. - Definitely don't sign the outside offer before telling your manager about the numbers. They'll see this as a very low chance of keeping you, so are less likely to bother trying. - Getting a counter offer often helps your perceived value. Getting a counter requires a lot of pitching and selling by others on your worth up the management chain. You will have an aura about you if you stay as someone who's important enough to warrant all that effort. People will remember the good things said about you. - It's not awkward to stay. If you keep the situation private from your teammates, only your manager and above are aware of what happened. Even if it is awkward, managers come and go all the time, you will transfer to different teams or get re-orged, and you'll get a clean slate with your new comp. Execs and senior leadership do this all the time. It's a common tactic for them in getting more comp. So they're not philosophically opposed to counter offers. Having all this knowledge is a way to level the playing field for ICs. Obviously there's a lot of nuance in doing this right. You want to make sure your manager doesn't think you have one foot out the door, or they'll let you walk and assume it's a lost cause. Trashing the company, your teammates, or any institutional issues will not get you a counter. Saying how appealing the compensation and project of the new offer is a better way to get your manager to try to fix things and keep you. Stay positive, optimistic, and conflicted throughout the process, and you'll be surprised what happens.
Major point missing - you have to live with the regret of not moving on. If the itch was there, it will come back. 🍆
I agree with the op
Can I use the counter to negotiate better outside offer?
Studies have shown that 2/3 of people who accept a counter-offer subsequently leave within a year.
Is there a proof for that study
I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to not offer a counter. How many people leave their new job under a year?
I accepted a counter, got a better internal post as a result. That elevated my public position which attracted new offers that were way better than the first. I took a new offer after a year and it al turned out great.
Nice
I did an identical move 2 jobs ago. Leveraged an outside offer into a 30% raise at then current job. Because I was fundamentally dissatisfied with the job, then used my new base salary from accepted counter offer to negotiate a great offer from tech company and haven’t looked back since. In span of 4 years I have multiplied my base salary by a factor of 3.5x. All good in this hood.
I think OP is a recruiter preventing people from Uber jumping the ship
A counter offer shows you are needed but not necessarily valued. There was a reason you interviewed elsewhere and a reason you weren’t already paid more before the counter offer. Accepting an counter only results in you missing the new opportunity and staying in a place where you’ll have to wonder if they will harbor ill feelings. You forced them against the wall to pay you more than they were willing. Your future employer was willing to pay you higher without any leverage applied so what does that tell you about who values you more really?
BS. In some cases you have to accept a low paid job - if you are laid off. Why not renegotiate via another job offer?? If they truly value your work there; they have to counter offer. If not you move on. Win win situation for you
Once your project is done and you lose your leverage, you are going at the top of the layoffs list.
All the conventional wisdom around counter offers stems from recruiters and their propaganda
this
This guy fucks
Quick question: do you share the offer with your employer, or just tell them the number?
Try not to forward your manager the actual letter. But let your manager know the numbers: base, bonus, sign-on, stock, etc. The comp structures won't always be apples to apples, so give your manager enough info to come back with something compelling.
I suppose that the letter could make its way back to the issuing company. Besides, the letter contains other confidential information about the other company.
I am not sure, I should have accept LinkedIn's counter offer
What are you saying?
@Uber I thought you enjoyed working on Voldemort tho