It doesn’t matter if you are in the interviewing process or hoping to land a job interview invite, you must comprehend the fundamentals of salary negotiation. The aim of this article is to help you land a job at Amazon or any of the top FAANG companies by helping you navigate through the Amazon star interview method.
There are 3 mistakes you have to avoid when trying to negotiate your Amazon career:
Mistake #1: Not Negotiating
The first mistake you could ever make when negotiating your career is being too quick or accepting the offer quickly. You might do this because you are scared such an opportunity like Amazon will never happen again. You could also have been laid off as a result of the pandemic and looking to earn a paycheck again.
Lastly, you could also be scared of having the offer rescinded. This is typically down to you lacking the confidence required to negotiate and this causes you not to truly think about your bottom line and how an opportune offer with any top tier employer can be gotten. Negotiating is a must, especially when the business is in the tech industry. If you aren’t quite sure how to negotiate, you can read up on the negotiating skills required and what form of compensation you need to focus on here.
These tips come from someone in the recruiting space, having worked across three major departments within Amazon in six-plus years. What you should know is that Amazon or any employer for that matter will make an exception for the right individual. What this means is that, if you excel in the entire interview process, then the recruiter is impressed because you meet the fundamentals of the position that you’re applying to.
If you pass the technical phone interview, assuming that you’re a tech professional, you can make it to the full loop where everyone involved is inclined to hire you. One thing you should bear in mind is that the recruiter will never give you the highest offer right off the bat. Negotiating is also a sign that lets recruiters know that you are looking to stick around long-term. So, there’s nothing wrong with negotiating and you gain the respect of the recruiter.
Now, the recruiters want to close the deal simply because they get evaluated on being able to recruit you. However, the hiring managers actually want to ensure you are there for more than just the compensation. They want you to be there long term and that means you have the opportunity to get the very best offer you can for yourself.
Amazon’s total compensation, with total compensation meaning your base salary, your sign-on bonuses, as well as equity can be a great way to make money. If you were to compare Amazon to Google, Facebook and others in the world, you could take a look at those companies within a full year and realise that equity in Amazon is quite enough for you to become rich off. This is assuming you stick around for four years, because of how quickly and crazy equity is growing.
Mistake #2: Greed
During the years I spent at Amazon, I realised that a lot of senior to executive candidates always seemed to ask for a 50% increase on their previous wage, simply believing they deserve more because they know that Amazon is the largest innovative company in the world. That’s the insane thing to do especially when it is done without any backing from market research.
A recruiting professional with years of experience will look at what industry you come from, the number of years you have been working and other factors. This means they already have an idea of how much you make. Your remuneration is based on your worth, your years of experience and what you were able to deliver in your previous position.
Your personal reasons as to why you want more money is not relevant to Amazon or any employer. If you pay attention, you would notice that Amazon is very generous with sign-on bonuses as with total compensation. You just need to know how and when to negotiate. You also have to make sense. Do you sound intelligent with your market research data? Is the recruiter convinced that you are worth the amount?
Mistake #3: Loss of trust
Changing your mind after the recruiter and your future hiring manager have worked so hard to put your offer together can be an annoying aspect of the process for a recruiter. After putting together an offer that both the company and candidate can be comfortable with only for something else to happen. This is particularly true for exceptional offers.
What is an exceptional offer by Amazon standard? This means VP level, SVP level approve your offer, working with the compensation team, hiring managers to validate why you are a fit and why you should be making more than probably 50% of what others in the position make. So, this is why once the offer is finalized and you have already tried to negotiate with the recruiter and hiring manager, assuming that the recruiter will go to your future boss, you don’t want to go back on those numbers. It can be a massive red flag.
Another thing you should avoid is trying to level up. For instance, if you happen to be interviewing for a level 6 position and the offer given is a level 5, your compensation is likely to be lower. You shouldn’t at this point ask your prospective employer if you can level up. Asking this is tantamount to asking for a promotion when you haven’t even begun to work there. There is no employer, no matter how generous, that would commit to you without knowing if you are able to deliver, how productive you are if you require supervision and any other factors that might affect your job performance for the better or worse.