Monthly archive for August 2025

Question

I just finished my second year working for an information technology (IT) company. It’s my first job. I have seen my interests change from the tech side of the house to the business side, and have begun pursuing an MBA. I have been looking for another job in order to go ahead and change careers and I am expecting a written offer this week from a major telecommunications corporation. The position looks to have very good potential. The only drawback is that I’ll probably have to take a salary cut.

I don’t feel I have much to bargain with, since I don’t have a related degree yet, and I have no experience in the field. It’s not a big cut, but I’m pretty bummed to be taking one at all. You just don’t expect to take a cut when switching jobs. I’m trying to get my head around this, so I’ve got a couple of questions. First, does it even make sense to take a cut?

Second, I was wondering what kind of advice you could give me on how to try negotiating a bigger package when I have no experience? Any help is much appreciated.

Nick’s Reply

Judging from recent news about tech jobs withering under the bright light of AI, you may be ahead of the curve by shifting out of tech now! I say that partly with tongue-in-cheek because it’ll be a while before we know whether this is an anomaly or a real trend.

“It’s not a big cut, but I’m pretty bummed to be taking one at all. You just don’t expect to take a cut when switching jobs.”

But, you’re not just changing jobs. You’re changing careers. While many career changers report increases in salary, that depends enormously on how big a disparity there is in required skills between these careers. You should of course negotiate the best salary you can, but you’re wise to consider your lack of a relevant degree and experience. Depending on the exact nature of your career shift, you may need to prepare yourself to pay a price at least in the short term.

So let’s tackle your first question: don’t view this as a cost, but as an investment.

Salary Cut: Up and down a tree

There’s an analogy I like. You’re climbing a tree, following a particular branch upward. Then you realize you’re going up the wrong branch. The only way to change direction is to move down so you can start back up the correct branch. That’s the cut in pay, and it will indeed slow your income down. For a while. As you start back up the right branch (the business career) and gain momentum, you should be fine.

Here’s the kicker in this analogy: the farther up the wrong branch you go (and the higher you and your salary rise), the farther back down you’ll have to go (in height and salary) before you can start back up.

A salary cut can be a wise investment

If you believe your value in the new career will require time to catch up as you acquire new skills and come up to speed, you’re smart to make the change now. It’s conceivable that once you reach a certain point in your IT career, your salary may be so high that it’s going to cost you a lot to make the shift.

You’re not losing salary. You’re investing in change. When you invest in a stock, you’re out short-term cash. But if you invest wisely, the returns should more than pay you back. I wouldn’t worry too much about the dip you’re about to take in salary; focus instead on doing so well at your new job that your value becomes quickly reflected in your first and second raises. It’s important to discuss with the new employer how long this might take.

I don’t like to see anyone take a salary cut unless they’re getting something for it. You will have to assess the value of this job to your career and perhaps amortize the cost over time. Be brutally honest with yourself: can this career change pay off in the long run?

Your second question is how to negotiate a deal without a salary cut despite your lack of experience and credentials. I think you’ll find some helpful ideas about that in Can I change careers without a salary cut? For a more extensive discussion on this topic please see How Can I Change Careers? Congratulations on getting to the offer stage!

Have you ever taken a salary cut to get ahead in your career? How did it turn out? How would you advise this reader? What are the risks in taking a cut, and how can you mitigate them?

: :

Question

I interviewed for a position at a manufacturing plant and had an excellent rapport with the CEO who interviewed me. The location of the company is not exactly what I’m looking for. The area is quite depressed but the job is just what I’m looking for. In terms of sales and size of staff, it would be a next step in my career. But I need help with a low salary offer.

The salary is 20% less than my last position. I have been unemployed for two weeks, am in my early 50’s, and did not complete my degree. This has not been a problem for me in previous positions.

The CEO asked me to think about it over the weekend and call him next week if I have any ideas that could bring us closer to an agreement as salary is the only barrier to a job offer. He asked that I don’t accept the position unless I could be happy for the long haul.

I really would appreciate your advice. Forget to mention that I work in finance and the position is for a plant controller.

Nick’s Reply

You’re dealing with a smart CEO. He sounds open to discussing what kind of terms (other than salary) you’re going to be happy with.

First you have to decide whether the location is a deal-breaker for you. Don’t let that come back to plague you as you negotiate other aspects of this deal.

Talk about a low salary offer in person

Regarding the money, I’d open a discussion with him. Don’t play a negotiating game, sea-sawing between his number and yours. Be honest and direct. But here’s what I think is crucial: do it in person, not on the phone. This is important, and you’ll have more bargaining power if you’re sitting with him. Your physical presence will remind him of the commitment he’s already made to you and it will reveal how serious you are about wanting the job if the terms can be worked out.

Let him know the comp is 20% lower than you’ve been making. Also let him know that you respect limits he’s got in his budget, and that otherwise this is a dream job for you.

Can you compensate for low salary?

This is where you need to start a dialogue about the terms. Find out how he might make up part of the 20% salary difference with a starting bonus, performance bonus, profit-sharing, stock, extra PTO and vacation time, flex hours or remote work, commuter benefits, gym memberships, and other perks.

Also discuss how long down the road you might be able to get back up to par, assuming you weren’t “overpaid” at your last job.

Justify higher pay

If you want to try to boost the salary, don’t just ask for more! Justify what you’re asking for.

Base your discussion of compensation over the long term on how you think you can contribute to the company’s profitability. (He’ll love your concern for his success.) Show the CEO how you’re going to pay for your own raise though your productivity. Talk dollars — and talk about the measurable differences you can make to the business.

This will take some figuring on your part, but I’ll bet if you can help analyze the bottom-line improvement you’ll be able to make over, say, a year or two, he might be willing to build some performance incentives or guaranteed salary increases into your comp package.

Don’t take a stand; discuss options

Don’t “make a counter-offer.” Have a back-and-forth. For example, “What are some performance milestones for the job? How do you view bonuses based on meeting targets?” and “Would you consider an accelerated performance review schedule?” Make it clear you’re hoping to fashion a custom deal that will pay off for both you and the company.

One caution: there’s a difference between getting a higher salary and getting incentives. One affects your base and one doesn’t. Salary affects other things, like life insurance benefits, pension contributions, etc. If you work out a “future increase” deal, make sure the criteria are simple, clear, easy to measure objectively, and in writing.

Get past a low salary offer and get to a win-win

I think you have someone here who’s willing to play ball, if you do the work to come up with some options that are honestly good for both of you. You may even get him to a higher salary! But realize that he really may face limits on what he can spend and that you probably won’t be able to get much more salary. But his indication that your long-term happiness is important suggests he sees you there for the long term. So think and plan for the long term, and help him do so, too.

Negotiating a low salary offer doesn’t have to be done across an adversarial table. You can sit down and hash through a deal like partners, with the objective a win for both of you. “We’re going to be married, essentially, if I take this job. So let’s sit down like a married couple and work out a budget — my salary and your profitability — that we’re both going to be happy with years down the road.” That might sound overly candid, but I don’t think there’s enough friendly candor in the world of business. If you can turn the “negotiation” into a discussion, you’ll change the interview into a working meeting.

Use your best judgment, but work with the CEO on this. Learn what he needs and help him to work with you by justifying the compensation package you’re discussing. I wish you the best!

See also Can’t negotiate a higher salary? Ask for more money.

Can this job opportunity be salvaged? How have you dealt with a low job offer? Is there a difference between “negotiating” salary and candidly discussing options? What would you do in this situation?

: :

Question

I am 20 years old and going into my senior year of college shortly. I’ll be facing a tough job market. I am looking to work in the finance and investments industry next year and am trying to get as prepared as I can for one of the biggest decisions in my life.

All of the major financial services companies that I am looking at possibly working for have these large recruitment fairs, and almost none of them are coming to my school. (I go to a small private liberal arts college.) What am I to do?

It seems like all of the new hires out of college go through the same process of getting hired through Human Resources. (I am almost finished reading your book and I understand why you suggest avoiding HR and going instead to hiring managers.) It almost seems like I can’t escape the traditional hiring process as a new kid on the block. Any advice? Thanks.

P.S. I have had a couple of internships with local financial planners who have contacts deep within the big investment firms, and they have written me recommendations, but where do I go with this?

Nick’s Reply

It’s good to have letters of recommendation from the financial planners (FPs) you interned for, but what you really need are introductions. Ask those FPs to make a few calls to get you in the door. Alternately, ask them to get you some so-called “informational interviews” where you can ask some questions and meet the people you might be working for next. (For more about this, see How to Say It: Informational (gag!) Interviews.) Personal referrals like this are the coin of the realm.

In a tough job market, get in the right door

Another way to do this is to check your college’s alumni rolls for help getting in the door without first passing through HR. Find out which alumni work in finance and investments, call them up, and ask for advice and insight about the company they work for. Do not ask for job leads; that may turn them off. People love to give advice, especially to students at their alma maters, but they hate being burdened with requests to “submit my resume for me.”

So, talk shop with them. Explain that you have not started your job search yet and that you want to educate yourself about companies before you make job applications. Ask what they like and don’t like about their work, and how they advise you to prepare yourself in a tough job market. Most important, ask them if they’d be so kind as to refer you to a manager or two at their company, so you can “continue learning about the business.”

Get mentored past the HR department

I find that alumni tend to have a soft spot for students at their former schools. These are the people who can get you in the door ahead of the job fair recruits — and past the HR department. Just as important, when you finally get interviews, these same mentors can coach you on how to handle those meetings.

That’s how to bypass HR and get an insider’s edge on a job.

(Don’t make the mistake of relying on LinkedIn profiles to search for people that went to your school and work in a relevant company. As a rule attempts to use LinkedIn to get help are ignored by LinkedIn members.)

The problem with colleges and careers

Unfortunately, most colleges do a very poor job at helping students and grads with their careers. “Career offices” offer a rote system that’s not much better than handing you job listings and telling you to apply. The “resume help” and “interview advice” they provide is available at virtually any library.

College career offices should be creating a career component to every single course you take during your four years. While I have no beef with the idea that the purpose of college is to educate you broadly — not to deliver vocational training — I think it’s disingenuous of colleges to suggest that they bear little or no responsibility for getting you started on a good career. For the $50,000-$175,000-plus that you and your parents are investing in a degree, your school should be working much harder to ensure you graduate with a job. (See Colleges fail ‘How’.)

The alumni key to getting new grads in the door

The unemployment rate for recent college grads is between 5.8%-6.6%, the worst in a decade. Every school should ensure that every graduate leaves with a job by actively engaging alumni help to get those grads in the door. If the grads can’t get a job, the school and its alumni network have failed.

Alumni are key to the success of the newest alumni. The best donation alumni can make to their alma mater is career mentoring for the newest grads who will in turn become the newest donors! (I’m a big fan of “education for its own sake,” but I’m a bigger fan of return on education investment.)  We’d see a quick shift in the relationship between colleges and the business world — but that’s another discussion.

Invest your time in developing personal contacts, and leverage your college to do it through alumni who can help you. I wish you the best.

How could you help a new college grad get their first job in a tough job market? Are there ways around the cattle-call “job fairs” and “recruiting days” where employers do little more than tell students to “apply online”? What more could colleges do to launch their graduates?

: :

Question

I recently hired the best employee I’ve ever had. Was catching up with an old friend and he told me about someone he ran into at a conference, said she should be on my team. I contacted her but she wasn’t looking and declined a job interview. But I kept at it as politely as I could. Finally she agreed to meet with me and one of my key staffers who is an expert in the field. Frankly, I don’t think she would have done the meeting without him. I learned something: there really are unicorns out there! But they’re not looking for us. The so-called passive job hunter will never see your job posting. So I’ve been reading about how to find these unicorns. It’s all silly tricks. Here are a few from SHRM: do a blog about professional topics, ask around (!), or start an employee referral program. And this genius advice: Make your job application form easy to fill out! (How’d you even get them to look at it?) Who writes this stuff? Is there a method or did I just get lucky?

Nick’s Reply

The holy grail of the employment industry is the passive job hunter. That’s the rare candidate everyone wants to hire.

Attracting the passive job hunter

You know: the top-of-the-class expert who is so successful she doesn’t need to look for a job. She’s happy doing the one she’s got and stays happily hidden.

The challenge, the employment industry tells us, is to attract that person to your website and get her to fill out a form so she can be notified when a great job comes along. Yah, right. Why would she fill out a form if she doesn’t need or want your help finding a job?

The answer to your question is in what you already said. See if you can figure out what I’m referring to.

Passive job hunter or passive employer?

I’ve got an epiphany for you about “passive”. Who’s passive is the employer, not the job hunter. Most employers are lousy recruiters because they’re entirely passive about the way they try to hire good people – whether the people they want are actively job hunting or “hiding.”

Employers sit on their duffs, waiting for “the websites” to deliver. They’re as passive as lottery players, waiting for their numbers to come up. And SHRM? The association of HR managers? They fully support the ATS lottery system: buy more numbers and one might be a winner!

Now I’ve got some news for you: passive job hunters don’t need you. They can get an interview or a job almost anywhere they want, any time they want. If anyone needs to get active, it’s you — the manager. Congrats on hiring your best worker, but if you want to do it again, get out there and meet the best people in your business. Go to them. Do it in person. Talk to them. Get to know them.

Activities of passive job hunters

You’ll find them at professional conferences. No, not filling out applications at the career booths. The best people are up at the podium, either delivering presentations and showing off their talents or talking shop with the speakers.

You’ll find them in training classes beefing up their highly desirable skills. You’ll find them online leading active discussions on Reddit or Stack Overflow, talking shop with one another. And guess what? They don’t want to talk about hot job postings. They want to talk about their work.

So, get off your duff and get out of your office. The answer isn’t passive job hunters; it’s active managers. The answer is what your buddy does: goes out and “runs into” the best in the field!

(Oops. Forgot. Managers are too busy running important businesses to go find and interact with the best workers out there. Never mind…)

If you’re a hiring manager or an HR manager, how do you find your best candidates? Do you wait for them to come along in the ATS or do you hit the road and search in-person? If you’re a passive job hunter, how do you pick your jobs? How do you avoid being bothered by solicitations you don’t want or need?

: :