
[Storytime] Know your worth
I was hiring for a web designer in last role. We had an internal referral, and I checked her portfolio before reaching out. She had multiple projects, worked with many customers across countries, the designs were fresh and inviting, no clutter.
She was the one (for the role)! Exactly what we were looking for.
I had a budget of 25-30LPA, had quoted 19-24 LPA (because well) Her expectations were 30-33 LPA
Cut to, she was the only one till final round and they were processing her offer letter at 31LPA
Find your star and make it shine bright!
Talking product sense with Ridhi
9 min AI interview5 questions

So you low balled because well.....interesting

"Know your worth: A story of how someone I lowballed got the compensation they truly deserved!"

Bhai read it properly
She got more than our budget and in her expectation range. Do you understand what lowballing even means?

Why even leave the room for negotiation, tell her your budget and dont budge, if the first talked about compensation was what they had in mind then theyre happy to join a company that recognised their worth in one go
I hate these petty corporate games of back and forth

Company expects employees to be professional in everything.
Reality: Company make employees to beg for salary that he/she is capable for. Just to make sure, employee should feel overwhelmed about his salary and work like slave for the company.
Culprits here are not the HRs but the people who built such HRs.

Why are you guys reacting as if you didn't know all this?

These things come from first hand experience. These are not the thing which is learned from college or something. Since one got experience in this then only a person can play a game. But until then desired salary won't be coming.
What if it's his first job and you are playing a game like this. What if he/she have loan to clear. What if he/she have dreamt of getting some good thing which is only possible with +1 or +2 lakhs in salary.
You play the game according to your masters. The person who is working will also work according to the salary. There is absolutely no wrong in not being truthful to a company who play games like this. Do interviews as soon as you get in and getter a better salary and move the fk out of the company.

nhi yaar enthu, not cool

Kya nahi cool, budget se jyada expected range me diya

underquoting, not cool. this story is rosy where candidate gets the bigger stick, but not all are so lucky. someone desperate for job would’ve agreed for 20, without ever knowing that budget was 25-30.
also i don’t understand why people on the hiring end do this. if it’s your company, it still makes sense. but corporate ka paisa bachake, what do you wanna achieve?

Can't imagine the confidence of UI designers asking this type of price quote and companies even actually agreeing to give that for screen designing!!
Either I am crazy or the entire world is. Nothing in between!

That's really mean! She is very good at what she does

I am not doubting that.
Its not just about being good, it's also about being good in which domain. One can be very good at software development and another can be really good at shoe repairing. That doesn't mean the shoe repairer gets as much money as the software engineer. I hope one understands that this analogy is not to degrade any job role but only to express the importance or value of a domain as a whole.
Something like UI designing is no way a high level job or anything, it never was, more so with today's many free AI options.
Money is and should always be directly proportional to the level of difficulty, hardness and effort required to be skillful in something. UI designing, content and all these other related stuff can never qualify as something hard or difficult or high barrier skill like software development or product management or data analyst or investment bankers etc.
Hence, for me, to me, it will never make sense if any designer is getting anything more than 25 lpa (for the most senior folks - 10-15+ YoE). For the starters, it should be capped within 5 lpa at max (if i were the decider)

Yoe?

About 4 years

Damm That's great

What do HR people do when some candidate asks slightly above/close to max range? Do they skip to the next Candidate or try to discuss this I believe this depends on person to person but what is the general scenario? Do they shortlist multiple candidates at once for a single role or stop the process in between if someone reaches the final phase?

Not an HR, Had to support hiring for a short while
Also, didn't reject outright unless they were asking 60-70LPA for 30LPA role. We had multiple parameters, and someone who got close, made it to next round and then next.

HR here. I’ve had people join whose current was almost our max budget. We hired her at 5L above budget. And then we had someone else who was at 12L current for our 25-30L budget, and ended up shelving our offer of 29L and ultimately joined somewhere at 35L (Nykaa). This game is all about leverage you create and use for yourself. Every recruiter shortlists multiple candidates till final round but we can offer only one (because we’re not the ones paying) until dropouts happen. You keep the other person clearing final round warm for couple weeks in case the other person drops.
More, mooore! More stories please.


Yoe?

But skills >> YOE

Yeah ,data scientist over here with 6 month of experience, recently got an offer of 16.35 base all fixed from 7.44 base(12ctc including bonuses vested for 1.5yrs) I asked for 17-20,they told they have budget but later told we can't offer that much for this 6months of experience,I tried negotiating but since it was my first time ,I accepted it I feel I could have pushed to 17 but it's anyways a decent offer, although it's a startup so Ill have to work unless my current mnc company which is chill af