I was negotiating my salary “against” an old friend and I was worried I wouldn’t advocate strongly enough for my own interests. I wanted to avoid future regrets about having left money on the table.

I perceived the upfront cost of a strategy session with Josh as really high, especially due to the US dollar to Canadian dollar exchange rate. I was also worried the advice would be too generic, too geared to large companies, not informed about startup equity packages, and not relevant for Canadian companies and cultural norms.

I found the session very much exceeded my expectations. The advice I received was comprehensive and very precisely tuned to my situation. Josh listened carefully to all the relevant details and was able to answer all sorts of questions I had about the process. I received excellent strategic and tactical negotiation tips, all of which gave me a major infusion of confidence going into the final stretch.

I negotiated $5,000 more salary and came away with the confidence that I wasn’t leaving money on the table. I’m going to be able to increase support for some causes I really care about and finally upgrade some furniture and other things in my apartment.

I wasn’t expecting such insightful guidance on how to evaluate whether opportunity made good career sense, which I was concerned about. Josh’s suggested way of looking at it made the decision much easier and removed a lot of mental friction from the negotiation process.

Compared with other coaches I have worked with in the past, I found Josh to be extremely quick and sharp. My mind moves pretty fast, so I’m used to having to explain things a lot and slow down. I did not feel like I had to do that during our session, which was super refreshing. It also meant we were able to cover tons more ground than I was expecting. I felt like I got three hours of value out of that one-hour call.

I think for most regular job-hoppers, the idea of working with any kind of salary coach is a new concept. It’s definitely something I would recommend after my experience. As Josh mentions in his book, there’s just such a huge knowledge and power imbalance in this particular negotiation situation. Most of us don’t realize how the other side is operating which puts us at a tremendous disadvantage. I would strongly recommend working with Josh specifically for salary negotiation coaching.