On the hiring side, they have a bunch of people involved who

Josh’s coaching is not cheap. I felt confident that Josh could help, and the negotiated improvement would at least cover my investment, but it’s still a payment NOW for money that will come OVER TIME/LATER.

What I liked most was getting another outside perspective. Salary negotiation is a pretty “lonely” activity. On the hiring side, they have a bunch of people involved who can have discussions — recruiter, HR, comp, hiring manager, etc. — and discuss options and strategize… but as a candidate you don’t have a team like that. So the most beneficial thing to me was having someone (besides my spouse!) who I could talk to about the offer, the strategy, the options, and provide some objective and seasoned advice. He also saved me the time/stress of having to write emails myself.

I negotiated $10,000 more salary and additional vacation time. It’s not as much as I would have liked, but I don’t think that was a function of anything Josh did (or didn’t do), just the fact that I got a good offer to start, and there probably wasn’t as much flexibility with my new employer as with other companies Josh has negotiated offers for. I have “anchored” myself with my new employer for hopefully a higher salary in the future (with merit increases and/or a future promotion).

I think the biggest benefit is that I won’t have “buyer’s remorse.” If I didn’t have Josh, and I tried to do this on my own, and I asked for $10k more salary and got it, I would have always been wondering “could I have gotten more?” I definitely don’t have buyer’s remorse and I felt confident that I was not leaving money on the table with Josh’s help.

I would recommend working with Josh for the outside perspective because he’s done WAY more salary negotiation than a candidate has.