Results for Salary Negotiation Coaching and Fearless Salary Negotiation products

Curious about what it's like to work with me or take one of my courses? Read real-world results and success stories from some of the people who have hired me as their salary negotiation coach or used the strategies and tactics I teach in my book and courses. You can use the buttons to see coaching testimonials from a specific big-tech company.

Coaching Case Studies

Testimonials | Book and Courses

I used the Fearless Salary Negotiation strategy for negotiating an offer and went from $95,000 with a title of Software Engineer 1 to $105,000 with a title of Software Engineer 2. Now I can pay off my student loans and buy a house more quickly.

Aaron Batilo

Software Engineer 2

I bought your salary negotiation bundle and read the entire book on a Saturday. I was able to negotiate ~$30,000—double my sign-on bonus from $10K to $20K, and increase my base by $20K.

Dee

Tech company

The most helpful thing about the Crash Course was having exact word-for-word scripts at each step of the process – they gave me the confidence to ask for way more than I would have otherwise. I used the email templates to successfully negotiate an offer $12,000 higher than my original offer (an increase of about 10%)!

Amy Utley

Field Sales Engineer

Josh’s course helped me practice and get comfortable with salary negotiation and has really changed my life for the better. I needed a push and a process, and this course gave me both. When I started the course, I was earning $75k. I’ve used what I learned in this course again and again over the last four years to negotiate several compensation increases ranging between $15k and $40k/year. It’s been a huge part of reaching where I am today—earning 400% more in total compensation than when I first took the course.

John Li

Senior Android Engineer

Twitter

I am absolutely blown away by Salary Negotiation Mastery! I was able to negotiate a $22,000 increase in total compensation - that’s a $13,000 increase in base salary and a $9,000 sign-on bonus - from Amazon!

Chaz Flood

Lead Recruiter

Amazon

I purchased your Complete Bundle. It was well worth the investment. I negotiated a new job offer up $15,000 from the initial offer.

J. G.

Thanks so much for the email templates! They helped me figure out what my goal was: to not leave money on the table! I used your “Low-Ball Offer” Template to pull their offer up before negotiating. It was fun negotiating up from their original lowball offer and I was thrilled that they improved their initial offer by 25%.

Sarah M.

Web Developer

With the tactics in Fearless Salary Negotiation I negotiated an additional $6,000 on my starting salary at my new job as a Senior Software Engineer. And all of my future salary increases will all be relative to this higher starting salary, so I am likely to receive larger raises from here on out.

Jason Voegele

Senior Software Engineer

Using the excellent techniques in Fearless Salary Negotiation, I was able to push one offer up £18,000, increased my equity and negotiated a better work/life balance as I now work full time from home.

D.O.

CTO in the fintech space

Just wanted to send you a line and thank you for your book. It helped me negotiate an extra $10K into a recent offer. So now I’m making more than ever, moving out of a dead-end job, and continuing to advance my career. The techniques and approaches you provided were incredibly useful.

Frank Bueckert

Senior Software Developer

I have read through the first four chapters of Fearless Salary Negotiation thoroughly. It helped me a lot with understanding the salaries and the game behind it. Utilizing the strategies and email templates, I successfully landed a 10% raise in the total compensation I got!

Jeff Yang

Software Engineer

Testimonials | Salary Negotiation Coaching

I wanted to have the peace of mind that I maximized my potential earnings. When I considered hiring Josh, I was concerned about the cost, particularly the strategy fee.

Everything went great! I was able to almost double my sign-on bonus and equity, resulting in a $100,000 increase over the original offer in year one total compensation and a total increase of $405,000 over five years. If I had taken the original offer, reaching my retirement savings objective would be delayed by seven years! I got the peace of mind I was looking for with Josh’s help negotiating.

I’d recommend working with Josh at a certain comp level. As the numbers get bigger, you need more professional support. I hired a financial advisor when my retirement savings approached $1 million. Same thing here.

Zach

Principal Product Manager

Microsoft

I’ve never negotiated an extra dollar for myself in any job offer or raise, and I had tried a couple times before.

Having a third party actually validate my concerns was more helpful than I expected. I couldn’t get that from most of my friends and family because they are either co-workers or people not familiar with the industry.

There’s a lot of anxiety and it can feel like there’s deadlines and urgency to making decisions and communicating back, even if it’s not necessarily the case. With Josh, there was a lot of strategic planning around how to time responses properly and when to take a phone call versus send an email. Both of those things I think worked out to help me get the best outcome.

The fact that Josh helped me get an additional $74,000 was amazing. It wasn’t unexpected to get more money, but it was unexpected to get that much more money. I definitely would not have been able to get the offer I did without Josh’s help.

Justin Garrison

Software Development Advocate

Amazon

I did not want to get to my next job and realize I came in too low or underleveled because I didn’t believe in myself or thought I would prove myself after I was hired rather than entering at my value.

With Josh’s inside knowledge of how leveling works, I was able to hit pause on an L6 offer and inception my way to an L7 over six months. He gave me the best advice on how to put it in the hiring manager’s ear and walked me through being patient, because it was going to take a while.

In the negotiation, we left NOTHING on the table. NOTHING. I negotiated for an additional $80k signing bonus, or $40k a year. I’m not underleveled, underpaid, or underappreciated. Now I can just focus on providing the value that I promise, not worrying about whether or not I got a fair deal. The level raise also changes where I sit in the tech recruiting landscape and opens all kinds of strategic and leadership opportunities.

Josh coached me objectively in a way that friends, family, and colleagues were hesitant to do. Friends always say, ‘Oh, I want what you want.’ That’s kind, but I want to know what is going to make me happy and what’s going to challenge me and take me where I want to go. You need to pay somebody for that information apparently, and it’s worth it because everyone else just wants to be a friend and make you happy, but Josh wants you to win.

Erica

L7

Amazon

I had never successfully negotiated an offer before. When I considered hiring Josh to help me negotiate, I had concerns that the company wouldn’t move from their initial offer. Given the amounts I was looking at for this job transition, I decided the initial fee was worth the risk and I expected I’d learn a lot in the process, so considered it a form of tuition.

Working with Josh was amazing! I really appreciated the thorough feedback, line-by-line analysis, and all the scenario run-throughs. I felt well prepared throughout this whole process. What I liked most were the explanations around why we’re doing the things we’re doing. Josh helped me get better tuned into how the other side is thinking and provided a reference point in terms of what is typical or not.

The initial offer was in the $400k range. We negotiated a first-year improvement of more than $50k, which includes improvements in salary, equity and signing bonus. I learned a lot and I’m very confident I came out ahead. I don’t think I would have asked for what we did on my own.

Anonymous

Senior Software Engineer

L5

I had extremely limited visibility into my market value, so I hired Josh to help me negotiate.

Working with Josh was excellent! Having a professional involved allows me to not overthink and overanalyze the process. I can throw out ideas, have them approved or not, without having to spend hours and hours agonizing over the decision tree.

With Josh’s help, I negotiated $30k more salary, $50k more bonus, and $100k more equity.

I always try to convince folks to hire Josh. The biggest obstacle is that (IMO) people are irrationally cheap or over-value their own negotiation skills. I consider myself above average at negotiation (and some of that was learned from Josh and his book), but I would still much rather have the guidance of a professional to get the max comp offer and peace of mind.

Josh Johnson

Staff Software Engineer

Opendoor

This was my first time applying to / accepting a job in big tech, and I felt like the cards are heavily stacked in their favor during negotiations. I considered just using Josh’s advice online instead of actually hiring him, but decided it would probably be worth it to get more personalized advice.

Working with Josh went great! I thought I could maybe get a 10% improvement on my own. Together we ended up close to a 20% improvement on an offer that was in the mid six-figures. I didn’t think they’d go that high. I was so stoked. In fact, my message to Josh when I got the offer “holy s&#t. [number redacted for privacy reasons] total. I’m accepting.”

Working with Josh, it always felt like we were making a solid decision of when/how to push. Having someone there to talk it through who has the experience was really reassuring to me. I can now start my new job knowing that I’m not being undercompensated! I feel even more motivated to start work than before knowing that I negotiated well.

Anonymous

My concern about hiring Josh was whether he was “for real”. Because I found him on Google, I thought that it might be kind of a scam.

Working with Josh was a game changer and life-changing. He helped me negotiate $600k in total compensation, which was beyond my wildest dreams and $20k more than Amazon offered for the position. The money will completely transform my financial security and ability to invest/retire. Personally, Josh helped me realize my worth in a way that I never thought possible. I also have a better foundation for negotiating any offers in the future (although I’ll be using Josh going forward for every single job).

Along with his expertise, positive energy, and attentiveness to my specific needs, Josh brought a special talent and nuance to the process all the while making me feel like he was in my corner throughout the entire process. He gave me constant and timely feedback, even though it was a holiday weekend. He knew exactly what he was doing and always had a plan. It felt like he was always in control of the situation, always prepared and one step ahead of the process, and intuitively knew what we should ask for in terms of salary.

Amy

Senior Manager, Technical Program Management

L7

Amazon

I found myself in a surprise situation with the company saying “we don’t negotiate offers” after I already hired Josh. It had me afraid that I wasted the $5k fee. Josh helped me navigate a “non-negotiation” to communicate my desired outcome and achieve something workable without endangering the interaction by making it sound too much like a negotiation.

I received $30k (>10%) more salary, $50k more equity, and a $42k signing bonus. I completed the process with high confidence that I had the best possible outcome. I can start a new job that I wanted without having to take the pay cut I was afraid I’d have to take.

I really appreciated Josh’s openness about discussing and explaining the tactics we would use, rather than just giving me a script. This helped me feel better equipped to navigate complex situations. Having additional context on how the process plays out gave me higher confidence that each step we took in the process was optimal and that we were prepared for most contingencies. Josh’s general experience (e.g. “normally, this much of an extra equity ask is not perceived as excessive”) made me more comfortable asking for amounts higher than I would have thought possible on my own. Also, his feedback on my reports of each conversation was encouraging. Since my biggest fear was screwing up on the call, hearing “you did this exactly right” went a long way toward building my confidence.

I would absolutely recommend working with Josh. It was a pleasure working with him and I am happy with the outcome.

Anonymous

Staff Software Engineer

L4

I was worried about going head-to-head with recruiters who do this for a living and wanted to have someone in my corner.

Working with Josh went great! Even though my offer did not improve through negotiating, I got a fantastic initial offer and landed the role. It represents a big step up for me in terms of compensation and it’ll allow me to sleep easy knowing that my family is well-provided for.

What I liked most was the specificity of Josh’s coaching — the email templates, the “one of 3 things might happen now” scenario, all of that stuff. It made it really easy to navigate the offer process. I feel like I learned a ton about salary negotiation and I’ve gotten more confident in talking with recruiters and pushing back against their tactics (e.g. pressuring you to give them numbers first).

I’d absolutely recommend working with Josh. He’s great at what he does and it was a pleasure working with him.

Anonymous

Principal Software Engineer

ICT5

Apple

Negotiating job offers at Facebook, Amazon, GitHub and Stripe

I was unsure about negotiation strategy and how aggressive to be. I was also experiencing a lot of angst about which opportunity was right for me — which one was a good values fit, which one I would actually be happiest in, what they would actually be willing to pay me and how much that even mattered.

You have a lot of time to overthink things during the negotiation process. Josh helped keep my nervousness to a minimum and helped me feel confident about the tone that I was setting in my interactions with different companies.

I negotiated increases in the offers with three of the four companies. GitHub was the lowest offer, but they came up quite a lot with a $25k signing bonus, a $15k increase in salary, and a $32k annual increase in equity.

The offers got close enough to each other that I could decide based on other more intangible factors. I think without Josh’s help, I wouldn’t have been able to narrow that gap and be able to even think about the ultimately more important factors of where I actually want to work, what I want to devote my efforts to, what I want the next chapter of my career to be oriented around. I was able to choose the opportunity that was the most compelling for me personally.

Jamie

Senior Software Engineer

GitHub

I wanted increased confidence in knowing what and how much to ask for. I also wanted help navigating the negotiation process, since I had never done it before. The initial cost of coaching was one of my biggest concerns. However, once I reached that tipping point, it was helpful to have had paid the initial fee as I felt I could ask Josh for any help that I needed.

Josh provided the insight and guidance I needed to be confident throughout the negotiation process. I know that I asked for more that I would have on my own because I had Josh’s help. I negotiated $20,000 more for salary and a substantial increase in equity.

Josh also put my own desires ahead of his own; there was a part of the negotiation process where he could have tried to influence me in a direction that would result in a larger fee for himself. Instead he discussed the options with me, provided me with enough information, and encouraged me to make the decision that was best for me.

I would highly recommend working with Josh as a salary negotiation coach. The most beneficial part was being prepared for each step of the negotiation process. Having an idea of what was next allowed me to be prepared for each conversation and provided me the confidence during the conversations. A very close second is the email drafts. They were short, respectable, and to the point. This was a huge help as I did not need to worry about offending the recruiter; I would have worried about this if writing them on my own.

I learned what the process is like and a few of the variations that can take place during a negotiation. I also learned that it’s okay to take time when responding to recruiters. Had I been doing this on my own I would have felt pressure to respond immediately to the recruiter. Now I know this is not required, moreover, it’s expected that the decision process takes time and is respected by recruiters. Having learned firsthand what the negotiation process is like, I feel confident I could do it on my own next time around. Although, I may still want to make use of Josh’s expertise during my next large negotiation.

Wayne B.

Staff Software Engineer

L6

I reached out to Josh because I was concerned about managing the timeline of multiple offers. Because Patrick McKenzie endorsed him, I wasn’t worried about his value proposition, but I did have concerns about my cash flow to pay for the coaching.

The process was significantly less stressful than it would have been by myself. Having someone who knows how these companies operate and what normal looks like in a hiring process was one of the most valuable things to me. Having someone to push me to negotiate even when it felt uncomfortable was also really valuable.

We negotiated $30,000 additional total comp. In year 1 that was almost all cash, year two a split of stock and RSU, and years three and four entirely RSUs. My comp when I started working with Josh was $165k annually. My new comp is 2.5x that amount. I don’t know what to do with the extra money. I guess I’m going to invest it and maybe donate some to non profits I’m affiliated with.

Working with Josh was amazing and I have already recommended him to several other engineers.

Anonymous

Software Engineer

L5

Amazon AWS

I didn’t have a good sense of how much to ask for and when to negotiate vs raise questions. I had no hesitation about hiring Josh. He came recommended by a friend and this was my first negotiation of this kind so I felt I could learn things.

I had multiple offers arriving a week apart and Josh helped me navigate them without burning any bridges. He helped me write a strong counter offer. He also helped me deal with my nerves throughout the process, which made the whole process less stressful.

I negotiated $14,000 more in salary and $90,000 more in equity vesting over a four-year period.

I’d recommend working with Josh. He was professional, fun to work with, very responsive, and always gave me his honest opinion. Crucially, I felt he put my interests first.

Anonymous

L4

Google

Josh helped me negotiate with Alphabet to get an additional $160k in annual compensation.

Alphabet is obviously one of the biggest in the world, the division I’d be working with is dealing with a lot of very novel technology, and I also happen to have a very unique skillset in the industry. So all of that was creating a lot of angst on my part about what am I really worth in this situation? I can’t really compare it to a lot of things.

It’s like professional sports — if you don’t have film on your opponent and you go into a game without any scouting report, you’re in big trouble. Josh has ‘the film’ on Alphabet and other tech companies. He knows who you’re dealing with and that’s a huge advantage. Even when Alphabet came up with some surprises, Josh was still able to pretty well predict what they were doing and why. It takes a lot of the anxiety out of the process.

Bringing Josh on made a huge difference for me — no way I would have ended up with that number without his help. Whether you’re a mid-level engineer or an executive — to me it’s a no brainer to work with Josh.

Taylor

Executive

Alphabet

I have next to zero experience negotiating. In general, I had very little hesitation in hiring Josh. His online presence (Twitter, website, podcasts he was a guest on) made me pretty sure he knows what he’s doing.

Working with Josh went splendidly. I negotiated €9.600 more base compensation, €10.000 signing bonus and €11.600 more equity. The best part was definitely getting a pre-written counter offer. I would not have known how to formulate and focus on the value I am bringing to AWS half as well as Josh did.

It was very good for my nerves to have a voice of reason telling me that it was most likely a good thing when it took a bit longer to get a response and to not worry about the time a reaction takes. Knowing that Josh has never seen an offer being pulled for negotiating also made me much more comfortable with asking for more.

It was great working with Josh and I will definitely recommend him and/or hire him again. Most Software Engineers I know are not negotiating people. Starting a new job and negotiating significant sums is high stakes and a good place to spend money on professional help. I would not go to court over 100K without a lawyer so I feel pretty confident about paying a coach for negotiating salary at that range.

Oliver Steenbuck

Solution Architect

L5

Amazon AWS

I reached out to Josh for coaching because I was unsure of what the potential ceiling was, and was concerned I had low balled myself when the recruiter initially asked about my salary expectations. My concern about hiring him was potentially being too aggressive and having the offer rescinded.

The outcome was fantastic! I felt Josh had my best interest in mind throughout the entire process, and he got me almost back to the initial counter. I had no idea we could get the bump that we did. I negotiated $14k more in base salary, $32k in year 1 bonus, $50k in year 2 bonus, and 500 more RSUs.

Working with Josh was great. He is very professional and timely. He did not hesitate to make himself available and he did a nice job of outlining the potential next steps.

I would recommend anyone to work with Josh when negotiating salary. It is extremely helpful to have someone familiar with the process who knows how to maneuver.

Eric

Technical Program Manager

L6

Amazon AWS

I didn’t want to get too emotionally involved in the negotiation — not too confident, not too timid.

I wanted an objective third party who could act as a check on what I was seeing and suggest strategies that made sense for my situation.

For the price and the potential upside, it seemed like a no-brainer to me to hire Josh.

Having an experienced coach by my side was an important check on my emotional involvement in the deal. I learned a lot about negotiation strategy from Josh. Most of the time, my strategy was pretty close to what Josh suggested, but it was really informative to see him in action and understand the moves he’d make in the negotiation.

I negotiated for an additional $24,000 and large upside potential in bonuses, giving me a lot more certainty for our growing family.

I’d recommend working with Josh. He helps you get not only the best deal, but also the fairest one for all parties.

William

Chief Revenue Officer

In the end, the most impactful thing Josh did was a line in a two-paragraph email that essentially said, “Instead of $211k per year, I want $250k.” That doesn’t seem like I paid for much!

However, there’s a lot of things that went into that email. Where do we want to pressure them? Which dimensions do we want to go on? It was knowing the correct things to ask for (cash or equity), knowing the correct amount to ask for, and knowing how to come up with a narrative around why they should try to reach my number. That email wasn’t just a number, it was a story.

I’ve set myself up for compounding increases in incoming cash by starting my Google salary and equity higher than I would have otherwise. I feel like I got the best deal that was available to me and I didn’t leave anything on the table. If I hadn’t hired Josh, I probably would be sitting here today still wondering, “Man, could I have easily bumped this by a bunch of more money?”

Ben

Software Engineer L4

Google

I felt I was on the high end of my bracket already with Google, and I wanted to make sure I could get at least as much in my negotiation with Apple.

Apple came in low with their original offer, so Josh helped me bring the offer up to a level that I could accept. We ended up negotiating $35,000 more in base salary, $300,000 more total equity (vesting over four years), and $25,000 more sign on bonus.

My past negotiations have honestly been terrible where I never felt like I had the upper hand. Josh’s coaching gave me confidence in the negotiation process. Because I knew Josh had gone through this before, I knew I wasn’t asking anything too crazy / offensive of Apple. I got to see first-hand how much I could press and I feel I did get the best offer I could from Apple.

Working with Josh was a fantastic experience. I appreciated his attentiveness, thoughtfulness, as well as his reassurances along the way. I felt it was a collaborative experience where he really was coaching. I got to see what Josh was thinking and why approaches were taken. It wasn’t a complete “black box”.

Josh’s personal attention, collaborative nature, and coaching style is very approachable for anyone. Folks will learn a lot from working with him.

Anonymous

Software Engineering Manager

Apple

I was switching industries and was worried about dealing with a totally different comp package at Amazon.

I weighed the cost/benefit of hiring Josh. There are other far less expensive options and I believe I could have done pretty well negotiating myself, but you tend to “get what you pay for”. In our preliminary calls, Josh added a lot of value and insight at no cost, which showed who he was as a person and ultimately made me want to work with him.

It went great! The process was enjoyable, Josh was quick to help, and the results were strong. I ended up with a $50k+ increase in compensation year one and I have a good four-year outlook that I’m happy with.

I’d recommend hiring Josh to help with salary negotiation because of his knowledge, approach, and depth of experience with Amazon.

Leonardo

Senior Manager

Amazon

I had no experience with negotiating. I felt that Google had the upper hand since they have more data and I need the job more than they need me. I didn’t know what to expect from the negotiation and was unsure how I would respond to my recruiter’s questions.

The $3000 upfront fee was my biggest concern about hiring Josh. I was worried that maybe Google would be unwilling to negotiate or perhaps even rescind the offer and I would end up with nothing. I understand that this is extremely unlikely, but it was still a fear that I had.

Working with Josh went well! I ended up negotiating more equity (and it more than covered the coaching fee). Although Google was unable to budge as much as I expected, I know that I got the best possible offer. It was the first time I was able to increase my total compensation, so that’s a big stepping stone as I know I have a long career ahead and will need to do this again at some point. I learned about negotiation strategy and how to handle this situation in the future. I also found that I learned more about the value I will bring to the company and what I’m valued within the market.

I liked that Josh viewed things from Google’s perspective when deciding how to negotiate and what to ask for. I also liked that he was strategizing all along and was prepared for whatever scenarios could come up. I would definitely recommend Josh to other software engineers that have offers from tech companies.

Julian Diaz

Software Engineer

Google

I wanted to maximize offer value and come off as a professional when asking for more money. I wasn’t sure if I’d get an ROI from hiring Josh, given the high cost; probably wouldn’t have done it if not for Patrick McKenzie (patio11) recommending Josh’s service.

I’m glad I did. Josh gave me great email drafts and talking points. I negotiated $75k more in salary and a $25k bonus. It’s good to know I’m valued at the company and helps with my motivation.

I’d recommend Josh’s service. I think it has a good EV (expected value) for high earners.

K. S.

Software Engineering Manager

Before hiring Josh, I wasn’t sure if paying $3,000 was worth the money or not. Now, I am convinced beyond doubt.

The results were phenomenal. I negotiated a $45,000 increase in signing bonus and vesting equity. I’m very excited and grateful for the outcome. It means salary, etc. is out of my mind now and I can just walk into the job with single-minded focus on getting the job done.

I learned two important lessons. First, always negotiate. You never know what’s possible. Second, know your worth. Collect as much data and present a very strong case making it hard for the recruiter / hiring team to ignore your request.

I only have good things to say about the experience. I thoroughly enjoyed how professional Josh was. His strength is the conviction in his voice. For anybody who is not very experienced in salary negotiation, I think they need a coach like Josh.

Anonymous

Senior Technical Program Manager

L6

Amazon AWS

My lack of experience negotiating and being too biased by my own emotions led me to Josh.

I was negotiating more than one offer and I was overwhelmed when one of the recruiters used high-pressure tactics. In that moment, you can’t believe how happy I was that Josh was there to back me up. He also helped me learn how to be concise and direct, which helped me negotiate better.

I negotiated an offer with Facebook with an additional $225,000 in equity, meaning I can save more money.

Working with Josh went super well! People like Josh are the ones that leave a trace on this world and he certainly left a trace in my life. I hope our paths cross again.

Anonymous

Research Scientist

Facebook

I had no idea how to negotiate an offer or how much more I could ask for. I was wondering whether Josh’s experience would be relevant to my specific job, but it seemed close enough. I also wasn’t sure if I would be comfortable with the cost given I am in between jobs and coming from a less well paid (academic) career, but given the large amounts involved it seemed to make sense to hire him anyway!

It went great! We negotiated $11,000 more salary and $55,000 more in equity, plus a front-loaded vesting schedule (33%, 33%, 22%, 12% as opposed to 4 x 25%). The compensation already seemed very generous before we negotiated, but a total increase of $99k over 4 years will make a huge difference in my life. I feel like I assertively stated my value, which feels like a good start to this new work relationship.

I really liked Josh’s responsiveness and how he explained his reasoning and approach (as well as what was probably going on in the background while we waited) in detail along the way. I now actually feel more confident about potentially negotiating another offer myself in the future.

Anonymous

Quantitative User Experience Researcher

Google

I was feeling uncertain about establishing a fair market price for my fairly senior and specialized skill set. The market seems pretty strong but just how strong is hard to tell. My other concern was whether I should make the significant investment of time and energy to bring multiple prospects to the point of making an offer or instead concentrate first on my preferred choice.

I’d heard that my most preferred option made strong but fairly inflexible offers, and so I thought there may not be enough room to negotiate to make up for the up-front coaching fee. And, where the company tended to move, it seemed to be primarily through a signing bonus, which would make Josh’s performance fee relatively more expensive compared to, for example, an improvement in ongoing salary. I had also previously read Josh’s book and it was good but most of the advice was not new to me, although I found the formula for counteroffers was novel and very good.

A $100k improvement

Despite these hesitations, I decided to work with Josh and got a great outcome. The company we negotiated with made a strong initial offer: over the next 4 years it may be worth $1M+ more than my current job. With Josh’s help, we added an additional $100k in bonuses — a $50k signing bonus and a $50k second-year bonus.

I think given their strong need for someone with my skill set and information that I previously had about how they structured their offers, I might have got the second-round offer (+$80k) out of them without Josh’s assistance. But I don’t think I would have had the confidence to stick in for the third round, which gave an additional $20k improvement. So one way to look at it is that I paid Josh $8k to get a $20k improvement beyond the likely alternative case, which is still very positive.

I appreciated a lot of things about Josh’s coaching, including:

  • His insights into the likely mindset or position of our counterparty and additional information about other offers he had seen from the company.
  • Getting assurance that my current employer was a reasonable BATNA and therefore it was not necessary to do the more complicated work of trying to get multiple simultaneous offers.
  • Josh’s positive, reassuring, competent manner.
  • The prompt to restate my qualifications for the job when asking for an improved offer, which probably worked well but definitely felt uncomfortably immodest to me.
  • The structure of suggested emails that I could rewrite into my own voice.

Now that it’s all settled, I think this will be a very good, energizing and refreshing step in my career. I had some hesitation about walking away from my current job, but knowing that I got a good deal and having additional compensation for RSUs I’m walking away from helped me decide to make the change.

I would recommend Josh to a friend, for all the reasons I mentioned. In higher pay ranges, the fee is moderate compared to the amounts at stake.

Martin

Staff Software Engineer

a fintech unicorn

The biggest risk is not taking any risk. Most of my friends were reluctant for me to work with a salary negotiation coach. Josh’s initial fee of $3,000 was high and there was no guarantee that I could get the good result. I saw the value, but when I asked my friends about it, they thought I was crazy because I had to pay a lot in fees for the service.

However, I took a risk and guess what? I received more money from the company than I expected. For my first year, I am receiving $35,000 more for my sign-on bonus and a few thousand more in equity. Since Josh has a lot of negotiation experiences with FAANG, he knew where I am in the level and how we can approach the negotiation. With him, I could have the courage to ask the company to give me more money. I liked how quickly Josh responds and the email he wrote for me about how I can answer the recruiter.

Thank you, Josh. I would not have done it by myself. I will work with you if I get a job offer at a FAANG company or other big tech company like Microsoft in the future.

Jane

Sr. Product Manager – Technical

Amazon

I hired Josh because I didn’t want to leave money on the table. Through working with him, I learned about salary ranges and levels and how to write a salary negotiation email.

I appreciated Josh’s turnaround time, his clarity of explanations and justification for what we asked for in the negotiation, and the honesty of his services.

I negotiated a $10k sign-on bonus and $7k more in base salary. I feel it adds more credibility to my own worth — and I know I shouldn’t use a number to justify my self-worth, but it helps :)

I’d recommend Josh’s salary negotiation coaching because it’s effective and he delivers results in an honest way. It was a pleasure working with him and I hope to do so again!

Anonymous

Engineer

Facebook

I’m very nervous about negotiating. I felt that working with a professional would help take some of the pressure off.

Working with Josh made the whole process a lot less stressful. He was very responsive and I think I got a substantially better offer than I could have on my own. I went from a vague offer of ~$200k first year total compensation to $258k. At a rough guess, I think I could have gotten to ~$220k on my own? So that’s a big win and a good cost/benefit. I also learned more about the process for next time.

Anonymous

Software Engineer

Google

I wanted to get the most value out of my offer, but had already given a lower range in early conversations. The overall cost of Josh’s service was a bit of a concern for me, but I quickly saw it was a drop in the bucket compared to the overall gains.

Working with Josh was awesome! Following his process and suggestions got me more money than I would have asked for myself. I negotiated an additional $65,000 cash bonus over two years and an additional 13 shares. I’m thrilled with the result and I am confident that I was able to negotiate the best deal possible for this role because of Josh’s help and process.

I truly appreciated having Josh walking me through the process and what to expect as well as the script/words he provided to help me in every conversation. It was spot on. I had more confidence in my asks and value because of those scripts and knowing I was relying on Josh’s data and experiences.

Josh is patient and understanding and really great to work with. I am very grateful for the time he took to answer all my questions and dive into the details with me.

Anonymous

Partner Development Specialist

L6

Amazon AWS

I was worried about not having experience in negotiating with Amazon, given the financial opportunity I had before me.

My primary concerns about hiring Josh were around the upfront payment versus expected return and if I would be better off working with a negotiation company that had a team of people who could help me.

I felt like I was in very good hands with Josh. His experience was very useful starting with our initial call. I appreciated the excellent communication and zero pressures about the process. He gave me clear steps on how to best proceed and we put together a strong case to anchor high from the onset.

We ended up at the highest end of Amazon’s range, which is something that I don’t think I could have done on my own, as I’m not sure I would’ve had the confidence to anchor as high as we did in the counter offer.

I feel confident going into my new role that I did my best at the negotiation table and won’t ruminate on this decision going forward. I have also acquired some useful skills to help me with future negotiations or help other family members with their future negotiations.

Anonymous

Senior Marketing Manager

L6

Amazon

I reached out to Josh because I wanted to negotiate without the risk of getting an offer rescinded. There was some implicit “stranger danger” in hiring a random person on the internet with a website that could say anything in terms of reviews from others.

I gained meaningful experience in seeing how negotiations work across different companies (provided they’re willing) as well as a review-able history to perform the same actions again. I am now less worried of negotiating for future opportunities.

In the end, I had successful negotiations with two companies (one of which was Google) to raise the offers past what was originally offered – $2000 more in salary at one and a $10,000 signing bonus at the other. I ended up happily accepting Google’s offer. 

Having Josh as a coach gave me reassurance after every engagement with a company that everything was going alright despite my own perceptions.

Having someone else there who’s as dedicated to the result as you are of this uncommon occurrence of negotiating (especially someone who’s seen many varied situations) is essential just so you aren’t left to your own thoughts and methods.

K. K.

Software Engineer

Google

I had an opportunity to move to Europe as a Google Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) and I knew I should negotiate, but wasn’t sure exactly how to do it.

Josh prepared me for every call and every email during my salary negotiation. His help repositioning and rephrasing emails not only helped with this negotiation, but helped me see how rephrasing an email can paint it in a much different light.

I’m glad I worked with Josh. Now I have greater confidence to negotiate other job offers in the future, and I found that it’s possible to ask for more and go further than I’m used to.

S. L.

Site Reliability Engineer

Google