Take the offer at 60% of my old salary, or keep looking? Honest input wanted.
Kenji Tanabe@kenjitanabe
Context for anyone who hasn't seen my earlier posts: senior backend engineer, laid off in February after nine years at a large tech company.
- The offer: senior engineer at a mid-size company. Base about 60% of my old base. Equity that rounds to nothing. Hybrid, 3 days a week, 50-minute commute each way.
- Pending: two other final loops, results expected in 2 to 4 weeks. No guarantees.
- Runway: severance runs out in about six weeks. Savings after that, but I'd rather not burn them.
- Family: two kids, a mortgage, my spouse works part-time.
- Also: an indie product idea I keep thinking about, which is probably a distraction.
My questions:
- Does taking a big pay cut now hurt future negotiations?
- Is it reasonable to accept and keep interviewing?
- How have others thought about this trade-off?
I'd appreciate honest answers, including "you're overthinking it".
Accepted answer
Take it, keep interviewing, and don't feel guilty about either.
1) Your next offer will be anchored to your market value, not this number, especially if you frame it as "I took a role to stay current after a layoff". Nobody serious holds that against anyone in this market.
2) Before you sign, ask for a 6-month compensation review in writing. You have more leverage today than you will on day one.
3) Tell the recruiters for both pending loops that you have an offer with a deadline. That often speeds things up.
The worst outcome here is draining savings while the market stays slow, and then making a worse decision under more pressure in October.
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Renee Whitfield@renee_em
Take it, keep interviewing, and don't feel guilty about either.
1) Your next offer will be anchored to your market value, not this number, especially if you frame it as "I took a role to stay current after a layoff". Nobody serious holds that against anyone in this market.
2) Before you sign, ask for a 6-month compensation review in writing. You have more leverage today than you will on day one.
3) Tell the recruiters for both pending loops that you have an offer with a deadline. That often speeds things up.
The worst outcome here is draining savings while the market stays slow, and then making a worse decision under more pressure in October.
Kenji Tanabe@kenjitanabe
This is very clear, thank you. I hadn't thought of using it to speed up the two pending loops.
Jo Brennan@jo_ships
Contrarian-ish: take it AND start the indie thing on weekends with a tiny scope. A salary buys you calm, and calm is when you can actually validate an idea. Don't quit anything for the idea until it has paying users.
Ankit Khurana@faang_or_bust
60% is insulting for 9 yrs of big tech. id hold out. market turns in q4 usually
Danny Cho@danny_cho_la
"Market turns in Q4 usually" is a vibe, not a plan. He has a mortgage and two kids. Take the offer, keep looking.
Vikram Iyer@vikram_on_h1b
One thing worth saying out loud: you're a citizen, so you have options I didn't have during my last scare. People on visas take 60% offers because the alternative is leaving the country. Your flexibility is real. Use it to keep interviewing.
Jordan Pike@jpike
Two of my old teammates took lower offers last year. Both moved within 9 months to roles at or above their old pay. Neither was asked about the dip.
Mo Siddiqui@mo_boston
Run the numbers: about 6 weeks of runway vs maybe 2-4 more months to the next offer. The expected cost of waiting is probably bigger than the salary gap over the first year.
Kenji Tanabe@kenjitanabe
Update: I asked for the 6-month review in writing. They said yes, verbally for now. Still haven't decided. Thank you all, this thread is calmer than my head.